Time Is Central

Investigates service satisfaction through a survey of bank customers who had engaged in one of five financial transactions:applying for an automatic teller machine card; redemption of a certificate of deposit account; application for a loan; opening a new bank account; opening/closing a safe deposit box. Seven elements of customer service satisfaction were selected for study: consumption time,waiting time, courtesy, attentiveness, professionalism, accuracy, and ability. Based on discriminant analyses, five of these seven elements showed significant relationships in at least one of the five services. Consumption time dominated all other considerations in explaining satisfaction, possibly because of customers′ time poverty.