The rescindment of cash management in the Swedish bank industry : a study of how to maintain the customer satisfaction while reducing the overall service offer

Abstract: Sweden is going through big changes within the bank sector. Increasing card usage, decrease of cash acceptance in the society, an attempt to reduce money laundering, and a possible increase in profitability has lead to the rescindment of cash management among three of the four major banks. This has lead to a big debate in the society, a lot of frustration from customers, and a drop in customer satisfaction for every bank that started the process of removing cash management. The purpose of this study is to find out how the banks could keep their customer satisfaction when removing cash management. When doing the study, the rescindment of cash was a deduction of a part of the service, compared to the normal adding or starting of a service. The study was done through a focus group that was the base of a questionnaire that got answered by 125 respondents. A regression analysis was completed and the answers from it were thereafter analysed with the theories chosen for this thesis. The results show that in order to maintain the customer satisfaction after removing cash from branches, the banks need to focus on five components to compensate and must be proactive for the rescindment of cash management. The five components affecting customer satisfaction are Price, Place, Promotion, Participants, and Process. Focusing on these components and letting the customers be a part of the formation of the new service layup, will give a higher quality of service. The study also show that components like Product and Physical appearance are not components that affect the overall customer satisfaction in cases such as this. The strongest affecting component is Participants, which can be both employees and other customers being present when the service is being consumed. The employees stand for a majority of the customer perception of the bank and its service. By moving cash management from branch to ATM, the customers will experience a new process and less interaction with the employees. The study is relevant to companies within the service industry that are taking away parts of their service but still want to keep their customer satisfaction. Since there are no former studies within this field this gives indications on what the customer finds important. It also adds to the overall understanding of customer satisfaction and what affects it within the service industry. The study opens up the issue for future researchers to dig deeper in order to see if the five identified components are also adoptable to other service industries or if these five components are the same for banks in other countries with other set ups.