Customer service is an integral part of any facet of banking and it defines the future of any banking organization. In India, this realm has undergone vast changes induced by regulatory and competitive forces and the banking industry has undergone revolutionary changes since 1991. For a service sector like banking industry, the whole range of activity and generation of income swivels around the customer. It is necessary to identify the key success factors in the banking industry, in terms of customer satisfaction keeping in view the increasing market size and intense competition. This study compares customers’ perceptions of service quality of public and private banks of Jammu. The service quality of both the banks has been measured using SERVQUAL (service quality) scale. SERVQUAL scale was used to determine different dimensions of service quality and chi-square analysis was used to understand the impact of SERVPERF (service performance) dimensions (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) on customer satisfaction. It was found that customers of public sector banks are more satisfied with the service quality, than those of private sector banks.

Service quality, customer satisfaction, public sector bank, private sector bank