The Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction among SERVQ and Loyalty in the Banking Sector

Abstract

This study aims to measure the effectiveness of service quality in Islamic banks compared to conventional banks with the objective of improving the performance of those banks, taking into consideration the customer's point of view in this regard, and hoping to offer an effective contribution to creating an Islamic alternative to conventional banks. The researchers have adopted in their perception of this study on the KSA’s market as a sample for the analysis of the status of Islamic banks in terms of the services provided to customers. Thus, the research is based on investigation and we used a sample of 1050 clients from Saudi Bank sector. Therefore, the analysis of our sample used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) presented a multitude of structural relations path that gave rise to different results. In case of CB, the results shown that exist a direct effect between customer satisfaction, empathy, assurance and tangibles. The loyalty has an indirect effect within empathy, assurance, tangibles and a direct effect within customer satisfaction variable. However, in case of IB, the results indicated that exist a direct effect between customer satisfaction, responsiveness and reliability. The loyalty has an indirect effect within responsiveness, reliability, and direct effect within customer satisfaction. The role of customer satisfaction as a mediator between service quality and loyalty is major in both cases. Findings revealed that each type of banks presented its specificity in service quality.