Correspondence: Riadh Ladhari, Faculty of Business Administration, Laval University, Québec, Canada. E-mail: riadh.ladhari@fsa.ulaval.ca

¹is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Faculty of Business Administration, Laval University, Québec, Canada. His current research is focused on service quality and customer satisfaction. His work has been published in refereed journals such as Managing Service Quality, Journal of Business Research, Psychology & Marketing, International Journal of Hospitality Management and Library Management. In addition, he has presented several papers at national and international conferences.

Received 16 December 2008; Revised 16 December 2008.

Abstract

This study investigates the psychometric properties of the well-known SERVQUAL model in the Canadian banking industry. The study utilises the performance component of SERVQUAL in an empirical survey conducted among 193 Canadian bank customers. The results support the dimensionality, reliability, convergent reliability, discriminant validity and predictive validity of the scale in this service setting. Thus, SERVQUAL is a suitable instrument for assessing bank service in the Canadian context; bank managers can, therefore, confidently use this instrument to undertake continuous evaluation of their service quality. The results also show that responsiveness and empathy are the most important dimensions of overall service quality in the Canadian banking context. Findings show that the service provided by employees makes the largest contribution to bank customer satisfaction. In view of the study's finding, Canadian bank managers must recognise that frontline employees are crucially important in establishing and maintaining a competitive position for their institution.