Determinants of customers’ satisfaction in financial services: a comparison between banks and grocery retailers

The paper presents the results of empirical research aimed at exploring at the competitiveness of grocery retailers compared to conventional banks in retailing Financial Services (FS) to customers. This goal is achieved by identifying the determinants of customers’ satisfaction/dissatisfaction with FS through the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) as the methodology of research. Analysis of the data allowed the identification of specific categories of positive and negative incidents, which are described and examined. Major results give proof that grocers satisfy customers mainly with regard to the core service, while banks are perceived as the institutional providers of the relationship attributes of service. The findings are discussed, as well as the managerial and competitive implications.