SATISFACTION AND LOYALTY OF BANKING CUSTOMERS: A GENDER APPROACH

Bank customer satisfaction is a hot topic of current scientific research for many reasons. In response to the negative impact of the recent financial crisis of 2008, the public has become very sensitive to all aspects of commercial bank activity. Banks are looking for ways to increase their financial performance. Researchers are trying to find the main determinants of bank customer satisfaction and examine these issues from different perspectives. The aim of our research was to investigate the relationship between gender and the major attributes of satisfaction and loyalty of the banking clients. In this context, we investigated at the same time whether there were statistically significant differences between the genders depending on age and education. Bank customer satisfaction research was conducted through a questionnaire survey on a sample of 459 respondents in the Czech Republic in 2014, of which 44% were men and 56% were women. We found that women relative to men prefer the following satisfaction factors: quality of banking products and services and convenient and friendly service in a branch. More women than men believe that the bank staff has a genuine interest in understanding their financial needs. In our research, women have more often reported that their bank's staff would explain to them the advantages and disadvantages of the bank products that were of interest to them. In addition, it was found that women are more loyal to their banks than men.