An evaluation of the Zimbabwe Banking Corporation’s service quality (2002-2005): A customer perspective

This paper sought to establish the quality of service delivered by the Zimbabwe Banking Corporation (ZIMBANK), a subsidiary of Financial Holdings Limited, a Zimbabwean company listed on the country’s stock exchange, from the perspective of its customers. The study was motivated by the earlier researches and publications on the challenges of services marketing based on the peculiar characteristics services possess that distinguish them from physical products, thus making them more difficult to market and evaluate than tangible products. A significant number of key literary sources on services marketing in general and financial services marketing in particular, were consulted which formed the theoretical underpinnings of the study. ZIMBANK was adopted as a case study (hence case study design) for in-depth study and the research methodology was quantitative. A probabilistic sampling procedure was used to select respondents and data was collected through the questionnaire and presented in the form of frequency tables, figures, and narratives. The results of the study revealed that ZIMBANK customers had a negative perception of the quality of service they were receiving from the bank implying that its services marketing strategy was weak. Based on customer responses, ZIMBABK performed poorly on critical service quality determinants such as speed of service, cleanliness of premises, and responsiveness, and also poor performance on physical evidence, promotion, pricing, and process as elements of service marketing strategy.