Service Management and Customer Orientation in Russian Banking Industry

Though the service sector is growing rapidly in the emerging markets, including Russia, the quality of services is still low in comparison with the developed countries. Thus, organizations should implement strategic services management and create a customer-oriented culture. To analyze the role of customer orientation in the service sector in Russia, banking industry is considered. Based on the data collection of 50 largest banks it is determined that only 30 % of the sample declares customer orientation as a corporate value. The calculation of corporate value index demonstrated that banks pay less attention to customer focus and more frequently mention effectiveness, trust, teamwork, and openness as the main values. An analysis of required skills and competencies of employees also demonstrated that customer orientation is not one of the main requirements to personnel in Russia.