Exploring e‐service quality: a study of Irish online banking

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of self‐service banking technology and investigates customers' perceptions of internet banking self‐service within the Irish financial services sector. This qualitative study of the Irish retail banking sector explored consumers' e‐banking interactions and experiences in addition to assessing the dimensions critical to e‐banking service quality.Design/methodology/approachA purposive sampling technique was employed to recruit 20 consumers representing the desired range of demographic characteristics (e.g. sex, age, profession), previous internet experience levels and product‐related knowledge.FindingsDespite commonalities between traditional service quality and e‐banking service quality dimensions, due to the remote form of the online encounter, many traditional service quality attributes were found to be redundant and instead e‐dimensions such as web usability, trust, access and information quality service recovery and flexibility emerged as important to e‐banking service provision. Based on an extant review of the literature ten e‐service dimensions were proposed and evaluated empirically in the context of e‐banking service quality. Overall, process quality emerged as key within the online context, with nine out of the ten proposed e‐banking dimensions relating to the service process.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to previous research by adding to existing knowledge regarding what constitutes e‐banking service and the determinants critical to e‐banking service quality. The paper makes key recommendations towards enhancing current online financial services quality and delivery.