Research Report: Quality Service Impact on Barclays Bank Customers

This report investigates the impact of providing quality services on customer satisfaction, focusing on Barclays Bank. It begins with an introduction outlining the aim, objectives, research questions, and success criteria, followed by a detailed explanation of the research methodology, including philosophy, approach, strategy, data collection methods, analysis methods, ethical considerations, sampling method, and limitations. The report then presents a comprehensive literature review, examining relevant scholarly sources. Data collection methods, including questionnaires, are discussed, alongside data analysis techniques. The report concludes with findings, conclusions, and recommendations for improving service quality and customer satisfaction at Barclays Bank, supported by references and a Gantt chart outlining the research timeline. The research utilizes both primary and secondary data, with thematic analysis employed to interpret the findings.

RESEARCH FOR SENIOR
MANAGERS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
BACKGROUND.............................................................................................................................1
OBJECTIVES..................................................................................................................................2
RESEARCH QUESTIONS.............................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................2
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................3
Research approach.......................................................................................................................3
Research strategy.........................................................................................................................3
Data collection methods..............................................................................................................4
Data sources.................................................................................................................................4
Analysis methods.........................................................................................................................4
Ethical considerations..................................................................................................................4
Sampling method.........................................................................................................................5
Reliability and validity................................................................................................................5
Limitations of research................................................................................................................5
Timeline/Gantt chart....................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................6
RECORDING AND COLLECTING DATA..................................................................................8
Questionnaire...............................................................................................................................8
Data analysis..............................................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................17
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS..........................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19

LO 1
1.1 Suitable area of research
In the present scenario, it is important for every organization to offer the best customer
service in order to increase the level of customer’s satisfaction and thus, the overall profits and
revenue. Therefore, it is crucial for the firms to provide effective services so that firm will be
able to sustain in the long run with having satisfied customer base. There are various
motivational techniques by which employees can be encouraged to offer quality services to the
target customers of organization. In the present report, an investigation has been made in order to
study the impact of providing quality services on customer satisfaction. For this purpose, the
firm, Barclays Bank of UK has been selected in relation to which importance of offering services
with superior quality to customers has been discussed. It is a multinational banking and financial
services company that is having its headquartering in London with operating over 50 nations
(Barclays, 2016). With the help of this report, various ways through which employees of this
bank can be motivated are highlighted through which bank can gain higher profits as well as the
increased brand value.
Along with that, it can be said that for the firms dealing in service industry, it is essential
to make a proper system by which services can be delivered to customers on time with
effectiveness. For increasing the customer satisfaction, Barclays Bank need keep its workforce
well trained so that they would provide efficient services to the customers willingly. This would
lead to attain higher growth for the firm as through satisfied customers, company will earn
profits in the long run as well as would gain a competitive edge over others. In order to assess
whether the customers of Barclays Bank are satisfied with the offered services or not, employees
of the organization can take timely reviews and feedback from them. This will help the
management of bank to identify the issues which customers are facing and thus, it can provide
them effectual solutions so as to resolve them as soon as possible. It will ultimately lead to
higher level of satisfaction for the customers associated with this association.
1.2 Aim and objectives
Aim – To study the impact of providing quality services on customer satisfaction – A case study
on Barclays Bank
Objectives:
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Objectives behind studying the impact of providing quality services on customer
satisfaction with respect to Barclays Bank of UK are as follows:
 To assess the impact of providing effective services on the customers of Barclays Bank of
UK.
 To recommend different ways through which service quality of Barclays Bank can be
improved.
1.3 Success criteria for the research
Success of research will be evaluated by gaining the ways through which quality of
services offered by Barclays Bank can be improved. Thus, the basic criteria through which it will
be assessed that the major objective has been achieved is that the researcher will have the
understanding of different methods which he will suggest to Barclays Bank to implement in its
system so that quality of services can be made superior.
1.4 Research question
Main research question of the present study is “What are the ways through which service
quality of Barclays Bank can be improved?” Researcher will make a detailed study on assessing
the ways by which this organization will be able to improve the quality of services which it is
offering to the ultimate target market in order to stay in the competition in the long run. This
question will prove to be helpful for the scholar to make the bank understand the methods
through which it can increase its goodwill as well as the existing customer base.
1.5 Choice of the research question
Major purpose of this research is to study the impact of providing quality services on
customers in relation to their satisfaction level in Barclays Bank. Main reason behind selection of
this topic is that bank is facing the issue of decreasing customer base and thus, it is needed to
suggest the ways through which bank can put efforts in order to retain the customers in longer
duration. For this, it is important for the bank to assess the needs of customers and to fulfill them
in a way that they would get highly satisfied. Organization is needed to take initiatives like
providing healthy working environment to employees so that they would perform their task in an
effective way (Khan, 2014). Along with that, providing training to the employees will also prove
to be very helpful in making employees efficient enough to offer high quality services to the
customers. There are many other ways by which customer service can be improved by Barclays
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Bank that will be covered in the present research. With the help of collection of information on
the selected topic of study, data will be gathered and analyzed so that the best results can be
interpreted.
LO 2
2.1 & 2.2 Research methodology
Research methodology can be termed an analysis made in a systematic way which
includes different methods and techniques by which the areas of investigation are evaluated so as
to gain the final results. In the present research, research methodology provides a detailed
explanation of the selected topic so that purpose of doing this study can be fulfilled and the best
results can be gained (Research methods, 2013). Thus, in order to reach at the final and
satisfactory conclusion, research methodology involves research approach, philosophies, data
collection method and validity and reliability of information along with some ethical
considerations and limitations that researcher has to keep in mind while performing the study.
Research philosophy
Research philosophy plays a significant role in providing the information regarding the
selected topic of study as it refers to the way in which the data can be gathered, analyze and
used. There are three kinds of research philosophies that are interpretivism, positivism and
realism. In the present research, interpretivism philosophy will be used as it helps in gaining a
better insight about the impact of quality services on customer satisfaction with respect to
Barclays Bank (The Interpretevist Paradigm, 2008).
Research approach
Research approach helps in having a clear idea about the subject of study as it assists the
scholar to carry out an effective research with making proper justifications. Research approaches
are of two types that are inductive and deductive (Research approach, 2016). In the present
study that is based on assessing the impact of quality services on the satisfaction of customers of
Barclays Bank, inductive approach will be used as it provides details in a deeper manner and
generally used for qualitative type of data.
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Research strategy
In the present study, qualitative research strategy will be used which would help the
researcher in gathering sufficient information regarding the impact of high quality services on
the satisfaction level of customers in Barclays Bank (Massingham, Massingham and Diment,
2012). Using this strategy will help the researcher in identifying the behavior and attitude of
customers towards the services of Barclays Bank. Thus, with this strategy, investigator would
gain plenty of information and will analyze it to reach at the end conclusion.
Data collection methods
In the present research which is performed to study the impact of quality services on
customer satisfaction with respect to Barclays Bank, both; primary as well as secondary data will
be used. Through these methods, sufficient data has been collected by which making
interpretation of the results of analyzed data and reaching at final conclusion becomes very easy
(Brace, 2006). Through primary data collection method, information is collected for the first time
that is further used by other scholars and by the secondary data collection method, information is
assessed which was earlier collected by some other researchers on the same topic.
Data sources
Primary data is collected through the way of taking interviews and feedback from
customers. On the other hand, secondary data will be collected through sources like books,
journals, online articles, magazines, government reports and publications, etc. From these
sources, sufficient information can be gathered by which final results can be made easily.
Analysis methods
Under data analysis, method of thematic analysis will be used in which various themes
will be prepared to justify the impact that quality services have on the satisfaction level of
customers of Barclays Bank of UK (Nykiel, 2007). According to the themes prepared, graphs are
made which shows the responses gathered through selected sample.
Ethical considerations
Any researcher has to consider the ethical norms and standards while carrying out an
investigation as if these norms are taken with due care and if ignored, it may lead the scholar to
face serious consequences. For this purpose, he has to collect data from authentic sources so that
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reliability and validity of information can be maintained. Apart from that, references that
researcher will use in the study must be reliable as it would show the authentic of information
being used in the report (Goddard and Melville, 2004). Last but not the least; data used from
secondary sources must only be studied and used in the words of scholar only which means it
should not be copied or pasted from the sources.
Sampling method
In the present research, method of random sampling will be used by the researcher in
which respondents will be selected on random basis. These respondents will be 30 customers of
Barclays Bank that would be interviewed about their satisfaction level with the services provided
by bank to them (Singh and Bajpai, 2008).
Reliability and validity
While carrying out investigation, maintaining the validity and reliability of study is
essential as only then, the study would prove to be effective as if information collected and
analyzed is not reliable and valid then performed investigation is of no use (Gitlow, 2000). Thus,
it is required for the investigator to gather the information from authentic sources so as to reach
at accurate conclusion (Kuada, 2012).
Limitations of research
While doing research, scholar may face various limitations like sometimes, at the time of
collecting data from online articles, some sites are not accessible. It is because; to access them,
particular amount of payment is needed. Thus, researcher is required to pay for accessing the site
if some important information is there on the site that is essential to be included in the research
(Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007). Apart from that, sometimes, research is not completed
within stipulated time period and takes a very long time to get finished with accurate results.
Timeline/Gantt chart
Gantt chart is prepared for the purpose of showing time limit of each activity that has to
be completed within decided timeframe so as to achieve at the final outcome. It can be referred
as the summary of research that shows the start and finish time of each activity.
Activity/Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
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Preparing research proposal
Setting aim and objectives
Review of literature
Research methodology
Collection of data
Analyzing the collected information
Making conclusion
Giving recommendations
Submission of the report
2.3 Detailed research proposal
Covered in the above points
LO 3
3.1 & 3.2 Literature review
Literature review is the current knowledge of researcher which involves substantive
findings along with the theoretical and methodological contribution of to the selected topic of
investigation. It can be referred as secondary sources which cannot be reported as an original
experiment work. Literature review in any investigation serves as the basis on which complete
research is based. With the help of literature review, researcher gains in-depth knowledge of the
subject on which study has to be carried out and attain the results based on this collected
information. In the present research, literature review is done by taking the review of many
researchers with the help of which impact of quality services on the satisfaction of level of
customers of Barclays Bank of UK can be studied.
According to Baran, Galka and Strunk, (2008), in service industry like banking,
providing high quality of services has become an essential part to stay in the competitive market
in the long run with running its business in a smooth manner. For this purpose, banks are
required to perform their financial market operations in a smooth way. However, it can be
critically evaluated that if firms in the banking sector would not do so then retaining the
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customers will become difficult and thus, it would prove to be a loss for the organizations like
Barclays Bank of UK. As per the viewpoints of Kumar and Reinartz, (2012) performance of
banks can be determined by seeing their better profitability and bigger market share. They say
that if banks would give proper emphasis on the quality of their offered services, it would lead to
higher satisfaction level of customers and would stay with the organization for longer duration.
On the other hand, ignorance of quality of services will lead firm to lose the customers and bear
losses.
In the words of Jha, (2008), training is one of the most effective methods by which
employees of the organization can be trained for offering the services to customers in an
effective way so as to make them highly satisfied. Along with that, training makes the employees
efficient enough to deal with the customers at the time when they have any issue with services
offered by organization. It helps the employees to understand the issues of people associated
with the firm and providing them solutions to make them stay with the organization for longer
duration. On the contrary, it can be said that customers have to be satisfied as their dissatisfaction
may lead to increase the chances of their turnover or switching of them to other firms.
Apart from that, Bae and et.al., 2013 says that to run in the long run, firms in service
industry like banking have to gain competitive advantage over others. In the similar way, if
Barclays Bank of UK would offer some kind of differentiation in its services which any other
firm is not providing, it would capture the attention of customers and thus existing one would
stay with the firm and new customers will get attracted. However, it can be critically evaluated
that in the present scenario, without having any kind of differentiation in the products and
services, firms cannot sustain and survive in the long run.
As per the views of Bag and SEN, (2012) services are a continuous process of on-going
interactions that happens in between the service providers and customers. There are number of
intangible activities that are performed by the service providers in a way of solutions for the
issues that are being faced by the customers. Thus, the trust and satisfaction level of people
associated with the organizations are dependent on the perception that they have regarding the
service quality of a particular firm. Therefore, it can be said that if service firms like Barclays
Bank would not provide quality services to its customers then they would receive a negative
perception about it which will be a loss for the organization.
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According to Chiu and et.al., (2012), particularly in banking sector, providing superior
quality services to customers plays a pivotal role for customers as on the basis of this,
performance of service provider is evaluated. Banks generally gain competitive advantage in the
market by winning the loyalty and satisfaction of customers. Thus, it can be critically assessed
that if Barclays Bank would gain the advantage of higher customer satisfaction and their loyalty
then, it can retain the customers in the long run that will prove to be very helpful for the bank to
earn higher profits and revenues. Apart from that, Kim, Kim and Park, (2010) says that providing
premium quality services plays a vital role in maintaining the long term relationship of firm with
its customers. Thus, it can be said that there is a strong relation between service quality and
customer loyalty. Along with that, it can be said that if customers get superior quality services
and if their issues are resolved on timely basis, they feel to be recognized in the organization and
thus, their emotional attachment with the firm increases.
Last but not the least; Walker and Johnson, (2009), gave their views on the impact of
quality services on customer satisfaction in a way that according to them, in order to offer
effectual services, staff of the firm has to be provided with effective training sessions and
management needs to get assured that employees are able to render high quality services. It is the
responsibility of higher authorities in the firms like Barclays Bank of UK that they make sure
their employees are dealing with the customers in such a way that they are getting satisfied with
what they receive from them. It can be critically assessed that if Barclays Bank would not give
due emphasis on the training of their staff, chances of dissatisfaction of customers will be
increased (Hutchins, 2012). However, there are many other ways too by which morale of
employees can be increased and they can be encouraged to work with higher efficiency and
commitment in the firm. These ways are like providing rewards and doing performance appraisal
of them along with offering extra incentives and giving recognition for their better performance.
3.3 Recording and reporting literature review in an appropriate format
Literature review has been done in a proper format in which a detailed discussion is being
made on the aim of investigation that is, studying the impact of quality services on the
satisfaction of customers of Barclays Bank. For this purpose, information has been collected
from various secondary sources like online journals of different scholars based on the same topic
and subjects that are relevant for the chosen subject of study. All journals have been selected
from the year 2008 that were in the English language as journals of any other language have not
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been selected. To main the reliability and validity of data, authentic sources were chosen in the
present study.
LO 4
4.1 Collecting and analyzing data
QUESTIONNAIRE
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Q.1: Are you satisfied with the quality of services provided by Barclays Bank?
Satisfied □
Highly satisfied □
Neutral □
Dissatisfied □
Highly dissatisfied □
Q.2: Do you agree that quality services and customer satisfaction are related to each other.
Yes □
No □
Q.3: Among the following, which factor mostly affects the satisfaction level of customers in
context of Barclays Bank?
Service quality □
Employee behavior □
Workplace safety □
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Availability of more services □
Q.4: Are you satisfied with the complaint procedure of the bank?
Yes □
No □
Q.5: Training is important for employees to provide efficient customer services.
Strongly agree □
Agree □
Neutral □
Strongly disagree □
Disagree □
Q.6: Which of the motivational techniques proves to be the best for employees to provide quality
service?
Performance appraisal □
Training and development □
Reward system □
Involvement in decision making □
Q.7: Which of the following factors is mostly expected by you in context of Barclays Bank?
High quality services □
Fast delivery of service □
Less interest on loan □
Q.8: Please recommend the ways through which quality services can be enhanced in the bank
______________________________________________________________________________
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