Enhancing service quality of islamic banks in Bangladesh : an application of quality function deployment (QFD)

Abstract

Globalization has resulted a highly competitive business environment and organizations are looking for providing progressively better service quality to drive their organizations to compete successfully in the marketplace. The prospect and growth potentials of Islamic banks in Bangladesh is perceived to be huge as there is a high demand for interest-free banking services from the people of Bangladesh who have a strong propensity to abide by the rules and principles of Sharia’h. However, apart from the external pressure by the conventional banks, the Islamic banks are also facing enormous problems internally. It is the views of many scholars that presently the level of service quality of Islamic banks in Bangladesh is not as much as it is supposed to be. Further, according to the feelings of general public, there is a potential room for further improvement of service quality of Bangladesh Islamic banks. Obviously, if the Islamic banks can enhance their overall service quality, they will be able to stay competitive in the forefront of today’s marketplace in the banking and financial sector. It is noted that the Islamic banks are striving to improve service quality, but they are still struggling to reap the desired benefits. The main purpose of this study is to identify the customers’ requirements, the corresponding technical requirements and aligning both of these requirements by using a well-known service quality improvement tool, namely, Quality Function Deployment (QFD). In this study, questionnaires survey and interviews were conducted for data collection. Data were collected from customers, employees and executive officers (altogether 347 in number of respondents) from seven Islamic banks on personal contact basis. From the data analysis in the first stage, this research revealed that customers’ perceived expectations are higher than the services delivered. Later on, the researcher compiled altogether 45 customers’ requirements and 47 technical requirements for further enhancement of service quality of Islamic banks in Bangladesh. Finally, the QFD exercise was carried out to prioritize the technical requirements (‘hows’), which will eventually guide implementation of the necessary measures to improve the overall quality of the Islamic banks. This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge in field of academics and findings are expected to provide guidelines for enhancing satisfaction level of customers of the Islamic banks in Bangladesh.