The impact of financial services quality and fairness on customer satisfaction

Purpose Customer satisfaction in the banking industry has long been measured as a function of service quality by using a variation of the SERVQUAL instrument. The purpose of this paper is to build a broader understanding of the determinants of customer satisfaction throughout the financial services industry by incorporating the perceptions of fairness in service delivery (FAIRSERV) and outlining why and how FAIRSERV is important to customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, including samples of 420 customers from the financial services industry in Taiwan. PLS-Graph is used to evaluate the measures of reliability as well as validities, and to test the hypotheses. Findings The results show that fair service not only has a significant impact on customer satisfaction, but also plays a role equivalent to service quality in determining customers' trust and perceived value, which in turn lead to customer satisfaction. Research limitations/implications The impact of FAIRSERV on customer satisfaction should be emphasized. Future studies examining the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction should incorporate the concept or instruments of fair service as a major contributor. Practical implications The results imply that financial institutions must carefully implement policies and practices to ensure that perceptions of fairness are propagated throughout the organization. Originality/value The paper proposes a complementary component to service quality in determining the perceived value and satisfaction. The paper emphasizes the significance of fairness on service, and provides additional insights into the impacts of FAIRSERV on customer satisfaction.