| dc.description.abstract | Service quality has become indispensable to organizations, marketers and academic
researchers over a long period of time. This is due to its impact on improving
competitiveness of a firm and maintenance of customer loyalty to organizations. Banking
services are homogenous in nature, thus the dimensions of service quality at banks' third
party outlets extremely vital to facilitate coherence in operations. The objectives of the
study were to determine how service quality dimension are applied by commercial banks
at the agency banking outlets and the challenges that Commercial Banks in Kenya face in
effecting Service quality incentives at agency banking outlets. Descriptive survey
research design was used with the target population comprising of all banks with agent
bank outlets in Kenya. A self administered questionnaire was used to collect primary
data. The study results indicated that banks take service quality dimensions in agency banking to be of great importance. The banks have put in place numerous mechanisms
that aid in facilitating service quality at agent banking outlets and this was attained
through the analysis of various elements of the dimensions discussed. The banks have a
need to improve on these incentives as the indication of great competition emerging for
the same kind of services. The challenges cited included system problems, rejection of
the agency model by customers, location problems and poor training of agents in new and
current developments such as Anti-Money-Laundering. The study recommends banks to
put in place strategies for service quality at agent banking outlets. Research and
development .should be given importance in unearthing underlying issues that affect
service quality to enable improvements on strategies and activities. Benchmarking with
other industry players enables evaluation of self performance and pin points out areas for
improvement and strong areas. Banks also need to improve on security matters at the
agent bank outlets and carry out continuous training of staff on new developments in the
industry. | en_US |
