Assignment Task: Customer Satisfaction with Online Food Aggregators

Introduction

In recent times, marketers have realized that emerging markets can offer attractive opportunities owing to the rising incomes and customer spending patterns in these markets (Sheth, 2011). However, customers from emerging markets behave differently from those in developed markets (Jain & Jain, 2015). The rising penetration of the Internet in emerging markets has resulted in the delivery of various services like banking through electronic channels. Banks in emerging markets like India increasingly use digital technologies for e-service delivery (KPMG, 2016). Owing to this technology-mediated environment, banks cannot take customers’ trust and loyalty for granted (Levy, 2014). Despite a movement toward technology usage, however, there has been an increase in customer complaints about service deficiencies (RBI, 2018). This suggests the need for more studies on E-service quality and its impact on customers’ behavioral intentions (Carlson & O’ Cass, 2010), especially in the emerging markets.

Most of the research on E-service quality with respect to banking services has been undertaken in the context of developed markets, and there is a lack of studies based on emerging market experiences (Paul et al., 2016). The customers in India follow cultural and social norms that are different from those in developed countries. Studies have shown that the behavioral intentions of emerging market customers as a consequence of E-service quality can differ from those in developed nations (Paul, 2019). Therefore, this study proposes to evaluate the perception of retail bank customers in an emerging market, India with regard to E-service quality and its impact on customers’ trust and loyalty. E-service quality refers to the extent to which an online service or a website facilitates efficiency and effectiveness in purchase and delivery (Blut, 2016; Parasuraman et al., 2005). In order to manage E-service quality well, firms need to focus on suitable website design (Blut, 2016), fulfillment (Blut, 2016; Parasuraman et al., 2005), security/privacy (Blut, 2016; Kim & Kim, 2010;), and system availability (Parasuraman et al., 2005;). E-service quality is a key challenge for online services like banking, and it can significantly impact customer behavior (Parasuraman et al., 2005). Banks are taking efforts to develop strong bonds with customers, and attempts are being made to foster customer trust and loyalty (Levy, 2014). This paper measures E-service quality as a multidimensional construct, as suggested by Blut (2016). This granular approach helps to ascertain the differential influence of website design efficiency, fulfillment, security/privacy, and system availability on trust and loyalty on customer behavior. This study contributes to the literature in the following ways. First, it measures E-Service quality using the multi-dimensional approach suggested by Blut (2016). Second, this multi-dimensional measurement of the E-service quality construct makes it possible to investigate the differential impact of various dimensions of E-service quality on trust and loyalty. Retail banking customers in emerging markets use Bank’s e-services. The differential impact of the E-service quality’s dimensions on trust has not been investigated in the context of emerging markets. Third, the study investigates the differential impact of e-SQ dimensions on loyalty. Finally, the study provides evidence of the impact of trust on the loyalty of retail banking customers in an emerging market. Through these findings, this study contributes to the literature on service quality in the context of emerging markets. The findings suggest that fulfillment and security/ privacy influence trust while website design efficiency, security/privacy, and system availability influence loyalty.