Balanga City - Philippines - Case Study

Chapter 1

The Problem and Its Background

Introduction

The world experienced the effect of recession in 2009, when the United States' economy faced recession during the same year. Global inflation remained low. Financial institutions were downgrading growth forecast.

The Philippines was also affected by the said recession. But through the help of Filipino overseas workers, the country was saved from the precipice of recession. In fact, the Philippines is one of the few countries in Asia, and in the world, whose economy is still growing.

Banks are instruments to the development of the economy. The banking sector has been able to intermediate credit effectively because it remains fundamentally sound.

Balanga City is fast becoming a highly competitive are for banking. The city was a haven for 10 commercial banks, namely; Banco de Oro (BDO), Metrobank (MBTC), Landbank, Bank of the Philippine Island (BPI), Philippine National Bank (PNB), Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), Chinabank, PSBank and United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB); 3 development banks namely: LBC Bank, Bataan Development Bank and Plantersbank; and 3 rural banks, namely: Rural Bank of Pilar, Rural Bank of Bagac and Rural Bank of Limay. These banks cater the needs of the banking public of the province of Bataan.

There is a tight competition in terms of marketing each bank's products and services. As of today, there is information that more banks are to be established within the vicinity of Balanga, that will add up to the tightness of the competition.

Depositors have their own criteria of choosing the banks they will deal with. One of the criteria is being accessible. Most of the banks are situated at the heart of the city, making them very accessible to the public. Another criterion would be the quality of service being delivered.

Quality service is the feature or characteristic of a product or service to satisfy the demands of the customers. The bank management sets quality specification based on their customer expectations.

Banks distinguish themselves by the quality of service they offer. These banks position their key marketing strategies on quality.

The quest for quality is a never ending endeavor. Banks find ways to improve the quality of service they can offer.

Statement of the Problem

The general problem of the study is: How do the customer's perceived quality attributes, the products and services of the bank, and the environmental factors influence the quality of service delivered by the banks?

Specifically, the study aims to answer the following questions:

1. What are the profile of the bank clients in terms of:

a. age;

b. sex;

c. educational background;

d. civil status;

e. years that they have been a bank depositor?

2. What are the qualities perceived by the clients as to the delivery of bank services in terms of:

a. Effectiveness;

b. Financial strength;

c. Reliability and responsiveness;

d. Competence and credibility;

e. Courtesy and empathy;

f. Convenience, and

g. Appearance of the employees?

3. What are the services offered by the banks in terms of:

a. Deposit and related services;

b. Loans and Credit Facilities;

c. International Services, and

d. Credit Card Facilities?

4. What are the environmental factors that will influence the rendering of services to bank customers in terms of:

4.1 Internal Factors

a. Organizational politics

b. Advertising and Promotion

c. Communication and Feedback

4.2 External Factors

a. Resistance to change

b. Competition?

Significance of the Study

The study hopes to contribute benefits to the different sector in the society.

Banking industry. The study will give insights and help improve the quality of their services.

Bank employees. The result of the study will serve as a feedback from the bank clients to help them improve delivering good quality service.

Banking public. The study will aid the banking public to be aware of the services offered by their depository banks, to avail of such services and to expect the best from these banks.

The government. The study will assist the government to monitor the delivery of services of the banks within the local vicinity.

The academe. The study will help the academe to provide information to the students that will conduct related studies.

The researcher. The researcher, being a bank teller, will benefit from this study to develop skills and knowledge on how to render quality service. This will serve as a training and advancement that will benefit the banking institution where she belongs.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The scope of the study will be the selected top three commercial banks in Balanga City . The respondents will be the branch managers, and the bank's existing clients.

The focus of the study will be on the different services offered by the bank, the customer's perceived quality of the services delivered, and the relationship of these perceived attribute and services.

Though the autonomy in policy formulation and the decisions are centralized, the implementation of the policies on quality services differ per bank and per branch.