A STUDY ON RELATIONSHIP AMOUNG SERVICE QUALITY, BRAND IMAGE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY A SPECIAL REFERNECE TO BANK CUSTOMER GALLE DISTRICT

Abstract

Currently, competition in the banking is growing. Thifrequires each bank to retain existing customers and add new customers. Of course, customer satisfaction is the main factor that can keep customers aflozJ and not move to another bank. Customer satisfaction is one of the main goals for every bank. Because it will add value for the bank itself if the consumer is satisfied with the brand image of the bank. To maintain customer satisfaction & Customer loyalty one way that needs to be addressed is to improve the quality both in terms of service and completeness of the facilities that must be adjusted to the needs of the customer. The objective of the research is to identify the relationship among Service Quality, Brand Image, and Customer Satisfaction & Customer Loyalty of b"ank customers in Galle district. Structured questionnaire was used as the method of data collection and selected 300 licensed commercial banks' customers (Bank of Ceylon, People's Bank, Commercial Bank and Sampath Bank) in Galle area as the sample of this study. Convenience sampling method used to make the sampling frame and quantitative research approach used for this study. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. The questionnaire consisted with fivepoint Likert scaling questions to analyze the relationship between the variables. Here, the researcher adopts correlation analysis and Mediating analysis to test the research questions. The results indicated that there has a positive relationship among Service Quality,Brand Image,Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty. This implies that when customers feel satisfied then certainly they will also have a loyalty to the banking services. This study proposes that banking managers should strive to keep and maintain the positive service quality and brand image of banks in order to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, a comprehensive discussion on the results referring to literature, managerial implications of the study findings, and further research areas have been discussed in the latter part ofthis paper.