Perceived quality and loyalty in service operations: a study in banking segment’s corporate person division

abstract: This study aims to verify the relationship between perceived service quality and loyalty among corporate customers of a bank located in the southern region of Brazil. Two research stages were developed, one qualitative exploratory and the other quantitative descriptive. The qualitative stage aimed to collect managers’ and customers’ perceptions about the bank services. This stage has been developed through semi-structured in-depth interviews, which provided input to improve the collection instrument applied in the quantitative stage. A survey with 48 questions was applied to 129 customers, based on SERVPERF service quality scale, Santos’ loyalty scale (2001) and questions added from qualitative stage. The qualitative stage has contributed with a proposal of scale adapted to the current context of the banking sector, corporate customers . In the quantitative stage, through multiple regression analysis, we have identified that empathy, safety and response factors, in descending order of importance, have had a greater impact on loyalty, with a power of explanation of 62%. Additionally, through ANOVA, the results allow us to conclude that means are higher among customers with a longer relationship with the bank, among customers who operate with credit and who have the bank as the main financial institution in terms of investments.