Free Essay: A Governance Framework for Assessing Service Quality in the Mobile Banking Sector

The marketing philosophy of most organizations is focusing on exploring, delivering and creating customer satisfaction in the process of profit maximization. It forms the baseline through which performance will be evaluated. The trend is common in banks due to the closeness of their services. Thus, they end up competing to attain great levels of customer satisfaction by improving quality of service. Customer satisfaction refers to the measurement of the extent to which services and products supplied by a company can meet and surpass the expectations of customers. The concept is important as it provides business or owners and markets with metrics for management and improvement of the business. Service quality is a measurement of how well a service has been delivered in comparison to the customer expectations. The measurement of service quality by business operators is done to improve the service, to assess the satisfaction of clients better and to identify the problem quickly. The past few, decades has led to a considerable attention in the study of the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality (Lu et al., 2015). Whereas the two constructs are independent, they share a close relationship, which implies that an increase in service quality is likely to cause an increase in customer satisfaction and vice versa. The introduction of mobile banking has been adopted by most banks as they try to achieve greater levels of customer satisfaction. For instance, mobile phones, automated teller machines and even the availability of cheap internet have greatly contributed to the development of electronic banking.

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One of the areas that have taken a greater toll in this is the availability of banking services through the mobile banking platforms. Essentially, mobile banking is intended to create a wireless communication channel that will bring value to the customer in all banking transactions. Mobile banking has had several advantages such as availability, ease of use and even a high penetration rate. With the financial capacity of most people being restricted, most banks are competing against each other to attract and keep customers (Abeka et al., 2016). The importance of studying service quality in mobile banking is hinged on the fact that customers are important stakeholders in mobile banking and their satisfaction is a priority to management. Improvements in mobile banking will rely on a comprehensive knowledge of the level of compliance or difference between the services quality offered and the expectations of customers. The confidence of customers regarding the service quality, which will enhance adoption of the service relies on the presence of an effective governance framework, hence the drive for this study.

Problems Statement

Despite there being great advances in technology, the level of service delivered in mobile banking remains a great challenge to the potential users. Globally, most people have adopted mobile banking, and the trend is growing. Mobile banking refers to a service provides by banks and other financial institution to enable customers to conduct financial transactions remotely by using mobile devices such as tablets and Smartphone. The IT departments of developed countries such as the US and Japan are investigating new ways of mobile banking since they already have the working technology. These nations are examining ways through which their banks can extend their reach to all clients. Therefore, clients have to leave their mobile phone number whenever they apply for any banking service. The mobile banking technology means that every client can be a potential user of applications involving mobile banking in the US, Japan, and most developed countries.

Countries such as Nigeria offer an interesting case study in the study of the mobile banking sector due to the progress in banking technology in the country. More banks in Nigeria are adopting the mobile banking technology to extend fast, reliable, quality and accessible service to a growing population of their customers. However, the level of services delivered is quite low in Nigeria and other African states (Manali, 2014; Onipede, 2012; Bankole ET a1. 2011). Developed nations such as the United States and Germany have cities with a higher population, and thus it is easy for the service providers to invest in higher quality items (Tatem, 2012). The low population in the rural areas makes it quite hard for banks and mobile companies to invest in the required infrastructure that will help improve the service delivered.

Poor infrastructure, which encompasses mobile compatibility, privacy, software issues, and standardization, is inhibiting the progress of mobile banking adoption (Okeke, Ezeh, and Ugochukwu, 2015). Examples of these software issues include obsolete and outdated software, the presence of bugs, missing DLL files, applications that run slowly or freeze, and sudden shutdowns (Dermish, Kneiding, Leishman & Mas, 2011). Most banks rely on aging hardware to support mobile applications. These infrastructures are not at the level to support customer demand for real-time responses and personalized assistance. The poor infrastructure of the mobile banking platform is restricting a widespread adoption especially in rural areas of Nigeria (UNESCO, 2017).

Bilal and Sankar (2011) share an example of a privacy issue that mobile banking users may encounter is authentication problem where they claim that unauthorized persons may access their accounts. In another article, Bohorquez and Felz (2015) share that users maybe concerned that mobile banking does not have assured privacy since they think that data on their accounts may be easily accessed. Manali (2014) shares that common software issues include the inability for software to fit different platforms such as iOS, Windows, Ubuntu and Linux. On the other hand, Jones and Bonsignour (2011) shares that an example of a common software issue is the presence of bugs in the software. Wieczorkowski, Paweloszek and Polak (2015) reports that common standardization issues that are often experienced is the increase workload to IT personnel so as to achieve integration with other systems. Another common standardization issue is the risk of non-compliance to regulations (Gonzalez, Padilla, Hidalgo, Gomez-Benito, & Benitez, 2011). Roberts and Grover (2012) share that reliability issues may include frequent slow downs. Another reliability issue may be frequent downtimes (Overby, Bharadwaj, & Sambamurthy, 2006). Compatibility issues may include the inability for mobile banking website to fit all phones (Koenig-Lewis, Palmer, & Moll, 2010). Lastly, another mobile compatibility issues may include the inability of applications to fit all cell phones (Al-Jabri, & Sohail, 2012).

Despite the poor infrastructure, the mobile banking user interface is made to be as simple as possible since most of the people in Nigeria are not well educated. It is estimated that the adult literacy rate lies at 56.9% (UNSECO, 2011). The majority of the literate people are found in urban areas, and the majority of the illiterate are in rural areas, the literacy rate also varies between states. To cater for these disparities, the mobile banking user interface has to be as simple as possible. However, the excessive simplicity of the mobile banking platform endangers the quality of mobile baking services since most crucial functions may be ignored in the final interface.

Objectives

The objectives of this research are to propose a governance framework for assessing the service quality in the mobile banking sector. Some of the issues like mobile compatibility, privacy, software issues and standardization, which results from poor infrastructure will be investigated. Mobile compatibility is at the center stage of mobile banking since it provides the platform for the service to work. Software issues are crucial since mobile banking depends on the quality of the software used. Privacy is crucial for the protection of the finances of the clients as well as the banks while standardization enables the general application of mobile banking service over wide criteria. The research will propose setting stronger passwords to tackle privacy issues, developing software that fit all platforms to solve software compatibility issues, and conducting extensive prior tests to tackle reliability issues. It will also propose customization to tackle standardization issues.

This research will focus on how to come up with solutions through which banking services can be governed to improve the quality of mobile banking services. Moreover, recommendations on how the mobile banking users can better utilize the platform will also be proposed. The governance framework is intended to assess mobile banking applications for most people. With low-level education for most people, it becomes crucial to see that issues such as privacy, convenience, and cost and user satisfaction are met. By improving the service quality, it will be easy for the banks to improve the rate of customer satisfaction, get a better emotional response and even have the specific focus.

Fig. 1 Problem Statement/ Objective Mapping

Metrics

Issues

Solutions

Scope

The use of mobile compatibility, software-related issues, privacy and standardization arc deemed appropriate to gauge customers' satisfaction because they reflect convenience. The elimination of software issues makes the system more reliable for users. Moreover, enhancing privacy-protection protocol enhances the confidence of users as they feel that malicious third parties will not access their data. Moreover, mobile compatibility improves the accessibility of the system, while standardization ensures the delivery of high-quality services that meet the expectations of customers.

The assessment of service quality is best captured by the above-mentioned variables under a governance framework (Grigoroudis & Siskos, 2010). Customers' satisfaction clearly indicates that the customers' expectations are being met and that the consumers get the value for their money. The availability of service boosts reliability and eliminates delays that reflect the quality of the system. Moreover, the perceived risks for users enhance the implementation of optimal risk-mitigation strategies that improve the quality of the system. Additionally, ease of use reflects the implementation of high-quality programming in the system development to facilitate accessibility and the user interface. Moreover, the compatibility level with devices also reflects the quality of the system through its ability to be used by users with a wide range of devices, indicating elimination of device-based restrictions and inefficiencies.

The penetration of technology into every sector of the society is being felt even in service delivery sectors of organizations, which necessitates the incorporation of modern technology in their management systems. Research around service quality approach is scarce and quite generalized in the exploration of effective implementation. As much as there is a limited body of knowledge on the subject, service quality approach has been applied in most of the service industries, in the banking sector; and the associated concepts are perceived as the difference between the customer expectation and the service experience (Lu et al., 2015). The determination of the experience of customers is the essential exercises in analyzing system performance. The results from the study will provide insight on important factors in the assessment of customer satis...