Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

Several observational visits were paid to the banks by one of the researchers over a period of ayear and a half, during which distinct changes in the physical layout of the site were observed. Itwas then decided to initiate informal conversations with staff in order to get a sense or ‗feel for‘how such changes were developing and why. Based on these conversations, the bank wascontacted to arrange interviews with staff. We also asked permission to interview customers whodropped into the branch. All employees contacted were enthusiastic and open to beinginterviewed. We decided to interview marketing and customer service managers whose role itwas to ensure that a consistent ‗fit‘ between customer experiences and the banking experienceand environment, as well as frontline customer service staff. Notes were taken and all interviewswere tape-recorded and transcribed, with the full agreement of the participants. Due to bankprotocols, interviews lasted between 30 and 45 minutes instead of the usual hour to hour and ahalf and were semi-structured according to an interview guide. Questions included the length oftime the employee had been with the company, his or her job role and educational background.They were also asked about how they perceived the corporate brand and image of theorganization. Some simple definitions of ‗atmosphere‘ were given to staff to read before theinterviews commenced something which the respondents said they appreciated very much. Theinterviews ended with questions about how physical design as well as other elements (smell,sound, etc.) can be improved in future. Customers were asked similar questions but questionsabout their background and so on were obviously neither relevant nor appropriate to the projectand so these were left out.The two banks are called Bank A and Bank B, for research purposes. Bank A is a local bank inSingapore with many branches located all over the island. Bank B is a multinational bank with astrong presence in Asia. In total, 12 bank employees were interviewed, 5 of them at Bank A and7 of them in Bank B. In addition, 15 customers (10 for Bank A and 5 for Bank B) wereinterviewed.Findings (Bangladesh):In response to the question about the overall servicescape of the bank all the respondentsanswered that the servicescape was an important aspect of their patronage of the particular bankin question. To many of the respondents retail banking was seen as a routine, often timeconsuming and tedious activity. While these clients waited in queue before a teller could helpthem or the bank‘s Relationship Manager filled in a form for them, they expected theenvironment to be clean and non-chaotic. Typical response from the bank clients with regards tothe overall servicescape of the bank were: