Grocery retailers retailing financial services: a critical incident technique analysis

The paper presents the results of empirical research aimed at exploring the sources of customers’ satisfaction/dissatisfaction in financial services provided by grocery retailers. These are identified through the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) as the methodology of research. Personal interviews to retailers’ customers gathered positive and negative incidents. Nine categories were then identified: Value for Money, Personnel, Trust, Information, Promotion, Discrimination, Credit, Process and Recovery. The key findings show that grocers satisfy customers on the core service (“Credit” and “Value for Money”), but dissatisfy them as concerns the technical conditions’ effectiveness in the financial services’ provision system (“Process”) and the recovery operations (“Recovery”). Results are discussed as well as managerial implications.