Measuring Customer Experience in Select Rural Banks Through SERVQUAL

Improvement of every financial institution is based on the quality of service they provide. In the Philippines, most bank’s clients prefer financial institutions that render quality service. With resurgence of interest and need for effective delivery of service, this study aimed to determine the effectiveness of service provided by selected rural banks in terms of tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, empathy and assurance. It utilized descriptive method and selected two hundred client-respondents through quota sampling. The results showed significant differences in empathy, reliability, responsiveness and assurance when grouped according to sex, kind of service availed and monthly income. However, no significant difference was found when the five dimensions are grouped according to age and civil status. The results further revealed that the company is highly effective in providing quality service in terms of assurance and reliability, and effective in terms of tangibility, responsiveness, and empathy. From the assessments of customer experience, the banks need to provide more modernized facilities for better services, furnish more pamphlets and promotional tools to educate clients on the bank regulations, new products or services catered, and improve facilities by providing additional seats and reading materials while clients are waiting for their transactions.


Introduction
In today's society, an effective banking system performs a crucial and active role in the growth of the country. A well-developed financial system ensures both economic and social development. Banks play important roles in socioeconomic development by encouraging people to save, making trade and commerce functions easier, creating job opportunities, promoting agricultural development, implementing monetary policy, and balancing development. The Philippine banking system is composed of universal and commercial banks, development banks, thrift banks, rural and cooperative banks. With the introduction of universal banks as a result of the relaxation of Philippine regulatory rules; the merger of one commercial bank with another; and, for rural banks, the implementation of international banking standards, the competition to remain relevant has become a daily battle. Banks are key players in financial market operations (Khan & Fasih, 2014), and they play a critical role in keeping a country's economy running smoothly.
In today's highly competitive corporate environment, service quality is critical to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Thus, service quality and customer satisfaction are more important than ever for banks to understand in order to remain competitive and, inevitably, grow.
It is vital to understand how to measure the consumer's perspective in order to better understand and satisfy their needs. Service quality is highly valued because it leads to increased customer satisfaction (Chingang & Lukong, 2010). In order to have key outcome, banks must consider various antecedents of service quality such as tangible things, dependability, guarantees, and compassion (Sharp & Sharp, 1997) as well as to improve their performance and profitability (Hackl et al., 2000;Anderson et al., 1994;Lewis, 1993). Initially, service quality was assessed using the following criteria: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding the customer, and tangibles to assess the gap between customer expectations and experience.
Given the premise of measuring service quality, this study considered empirical evidence on the particular need to assess service quality and customer satisfaction in rural banks, as well as using the SERVQUAL model to better measure customer satisfaction. Several studies pointed out the need to clearly state the measurable organizational goals and targets through visible activities that would entail quality products and services. These serve as the organizational roadmap to achieving higher market share, customer satisfaction and loyalty. In addition, studies showed that providing quality services gives any business with a long-term competitive advantage. It enables them to meet not only their customers' current needs, but also to anticipate their future needs. This ability to anticipate future customer needs enables them to consistently delight their customers by providing high-quality services. As a result, it increases customer satisfaction and loyalty (Wisniewski, 2001;Naik et al., 2010;Zeithaml, 1988). Furthermore, the study sought to address the importance of improving service quality in the banking industry, particularly in selected branches of a rural bank, to identify customer attitudes toward current customer service quality, to assist the bank in determining the influential factors that define the quality of customer service based on customer research, to assess clients ¶ VDWLVIDFWLRQ ZLWK WKH services and to compare service quality dimensions.
Kossman (2017) indicated that the single most important factor in successfully running customer service operations is service quality. Meanwhile, Ayikwei Quarshie et al. (2018) described that rural banking sectorV ¶ service quality is still a critical component of the customer experience. Clients are satisfied when rural banks provide quality service that meets their aspirations (Swar & Sahoo, 2012). As a result, most rural banks consistently evaluate their services to promote customer satisfaction, with the end goal of increasing consumer loyalty in mind. In particular, this study assessed the service quality of selected rural banks through a survey of the service quality in terms of tangibility, empathy, reliability, responsiveness and assurance. It also sought to determine the significant difference on the assessment of service quality on selected rural bank when grouped according to customer profile.

Figure 1
The gap model by Parasuraman et al. (1985) The five dimensions of SERVQUAL known by its acronym RATER are: Reliability. It LV WKH ILUP ¶V Dbility to perform the promise service accurately and dependably.
Assurance. It is knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence

Methodology
The descriptive method of research was utilized in this study. The data were gathered from the responses of two hundred (200) clients of the selected rural banks in the Philippines.
Quota sampling was used since survey was only administered to clients who were willing and interested in answering the questionnaire. The researcher-made survey questionnaire was the primary data collection tool in this study. It was divided into two sections: the first focused on the respondents' profile on age, sex, civil status, monthly income, and services used, while the second contained items to assess the service quality. It was validated by the panel, which included a grammarian, an industry expert, and a statistician. Furthermore, to test the instrument's reliability, the researcher performed a dry run and obtained a reliability of 0.745 using Cronbach's alpha.
The researcher distributed hardcopy questionnaires to clients of selected rural bank. At the onset, the objectives of the study were explained and the respondents were asked whether they have availed any services from any rural bank within the vicinity. Only respondents who had transaction with the rural bank, whether offline or online, were considered to the survey. The study followed data privacy procedures such as personal data of the respondents are secured and confidential. Furthermore, the information gathered was securely kept after the distribution of questionnaires and the data gathered was used only for the purpose of the study.
Upon the administration of the survey questionnaire, the gathered data were tallied and subjected to the following statistical tools: Frequency and Percentage. This was used to analyze the profile of the respondents in terms of age, gender, civil status, monthly income, and kind of service availed.
Weighted mean. It was used to determine the assessment of the respondents on the effectiveness of service quality in terms of tangibility, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance.
T-test. This was used to determine the significant difference on the assessment of the respondents on the service quality when grouped according to sex.
F-test (ANOVA): This was utilized to determine the significant difference on the assessment of the respondents on service quality when grouped according to age, civil status, monthly income, and kinds of service availed.

Results and Discussion
The SERVQUAL MODEL as used in this study consists of five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, empathy, responsiveness, and assurance. The assessment of the services consists of: Tangibility -the physical facilities, equipment, and personnel appearance Responsiveness -willingness to assist customers and provide prompt service Reliability -provide the promised service consistently and accurately

Assurance -dependability and reputation
Empathy -personalized attention given (Lau et al., 2013)  The assessment of service quality was analyzed in two ways. The survey results on the five dimensions were tested for its manifestation of the level of satisfaction received and perceived by customers. Similarly, the test of significant difference reflects the market segmentation. This allows the rural banks to provide focused and customized services to different market segments.
Based on the tangibility dimension, rural banks have a pleasant atmosphere, a good ambiance, and adequate physical facilities. The majority of clients were pleased with the bank's services; they felt at ease when entering the building. It was also revealed that the bank had a nice reception desk. Furthermore, the bank's equipment is adequate and visible for client use.
However, the bank has effective promotional tools, such as pamphlets, which result in the lowest mean. Overall, the bank meets the client's satisfaction in terms of tangibility, and the result indicates that the rural bank's service quality was effective. According to Bateson and Hoffman In terms of reliability, the respondents' assessment showed highly effective services provided with a composite mean of 3.59. The highest weighted mean of 3.65 indicates that the bank is truthful, while the lowest weighted mean of 3.57 indicates that the bank's references are always available. Overall, the bank meets the expectations of its customers by providing highquality services that are dependable. According to Goble (2010), reliability as a measure of success, serves as a likelihood that a device will be successful: that is, that it will perform its intended function satisfactorily when required to do so. According to service quality researchers, as indicated in the study of Johnson and Nilsson (2003), because of the nature of service production instead of goods production, reliability is relatively more important for services.
In terms of responsiveness dimension, the rating was highly effective with a composite mean of 3.53. The highest weighted mean of 3.60 indicates that bank employees are eager to assist their customers, while the lowest weighted mean of 3.47 indicates that bank employees complete the service on time. Overall, the bank meets client expectations by providing quality service in a timely manner. According to Verma ( LW LV FOLHQW ¶V FRQFHUQ ZKHWKHU HPSOR\HHV of the company would be willing and ready to provide service promptly. Moreover, Robert and Wowor (2011) argue that tangibles and responsiveness can lead to customer satisfaction and repeat transactions. Customers who are treated well by employees in the organization will have a long-term positive impact on the organization's long-term survival.
In terms of bank's assurance of client safety, the respondents rated them highly effective.
Furthermore, the clients confirmed that they feel secure when transacting with the bank. The highest mean of 3.69 is obtained by respondents who are satisfied that the bank ensures their safety while serving them. Employees who deal with clients confidently, on the other hand, obtain the lowest mean of 3.61. Overall, the bank meets the clients' expectations in terms of assurance. The result indicates that assurance is highly effective when it comes to the bank's service quality. According to Wu (2013), the ultimate fate of the enterprise in the market is governed by quality assurance. Quality assurance provides employee teams with systems, resources, and discretion tailored to their unique contribution to the organization to keep them up to date on the progress of quality management improvements. Table 3 shows that there is no significant difference in respondents' assessments of the Rural Banks ¶ service quality in terms of tangibility, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance when grouped by age. This implies that despite a large age difference among the clients, they have the same assessment of the bank's service quality dimensions. As such, there is no implied need for customized banking services by age group. Although rural banks offer banking services for children and teens, the majority of the customers transacting for them are the legal guardians. As such, rural banks provide same services across all age groups. The study of Lee et al. (2012) found that satisfaction level of senior citizens and younger customers differ.
While there is statistical difference in level of satisfaction, there was no significant relationship between the customer level of satisfaction and perceived service quality. Similarly, Titko et al.
(2021) found generation as an independent and significant predictor of service satisfaction.  (2006) found that males tend to rate the fairness of service encounters higher than females.
Furthermore, there is no significant difference in respondents' assessments of the Rural Bank's service quality in terms of tangibility, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance when grouped by civil status. As civil status does not correspond to an economic position, but rather to a social position (Rotman, 2009), this implies that civil status is not regarded when providing customized banking services. However, when respondents are grouped by monthly income, there is a significant difference in their assessment of the Rural Bank's service quality in terms of tangibility, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance. This implies that social status of a person affects the perception on customer satisfaction. For this, Lawes et al. (2022) found that life satisfaction and income satisfaction significantly decreased for individuals affected by unemployment. Similarly, customers with lower income tend to rate their satisfaction much lower than those with higher income.
There is also a significant difference in respondents' assessments of the Rural Bank's service quality in terms of tangibility, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance when categorize by type of service availed. This clearly explains that the different services of the banks required different levels of personalized services. While other types of services required less customer interaction such as deposit and withdrawal, majority of the services need personalized approach such as opening an account, loan, complaints and corporate services. Hence, it becomes vital for service providers to meet or exceed their target customers' satisfaction with the quality of services they expect (Singh & Arora, 2011).

Conclusion
This study assessed the services of select rural banks by the 200 clients through SERVQUAL dimensions such as tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, empathy, and assurance.
The descriptive method via a researcher-designed questionnaire gathered data treated with frequency count, weighted mean, T-Test, and F-Test (ANOVA).
The results showed the quality of service in terms of empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and assurance as highly effective. Furthermore, there is significant difference in view of quality