Analysis of customer satisfaction on employee professionalism : a comparison between Islamic and conventional banks

Abstract

Customer satisfaction on employee professionalism is a significant factor that can contribute to the success of a company or an industry. However, in the banking sector, the previous literatures merely focused on the definition of professionalism, and there are lacks of empirical studies regarding this area, especially in the Islamic banking industry. There is a need to compare the level of customer satisfaction on employee professionalism between Islamic and conventional banks as Islamic banking industry is still in the infant stage compared to the conventional banking industry, which has been established much earlier and has gained more trust and confidence from the customers. Therefore, this study aims to explore the comparison on the level of customer satisfaction on employee professionalism between Islamic and conventional banks. It also intends to determine whether the dimensions of employee professionalism are significant to their customer satisfactions. Moreover, this study also aims to examine how banks can strategize in order to improve customer satisfactions in the aspect of the employee professionalism. In methodology, this study uses a quantitative approach. Five hypotheses are built in this study, where questionnaires are distributed to a total of 312 respondents, which consists of 167 respondents of Islamic banks and 145 respondents of conventional banks. The results show that customers are more satisfied with conventional banks’ employee professionalism in terms of their reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, while in terms of tangible, customers are more satisfied with Islamic banks’ employees. In terms of significance of each dimension to customer satisfaction, the results are given in the perspectives of gender, age, race, religion, education level, occupation, income and respondents’ period of being a customer to the bank. Another result shows that creating a positive work environment as well as improving customer service skills and not bringing personal problems during working hours are amongst the most important strategies and suggestions to improve customer satisfaction in the aspect of employee professionalism. Furthermore, it is also shown that customer service and Shari’ah compliant are the two most important factors to customers in attracting them to the banks.