ASSESSMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BANK IN WOLAITA SODO, ETHIOPIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Service quality is one of the most critical success factors that generally  influence the competitiveness of a service organization. Elements of service quality differentiates a bank from its competitors . The purpose of the study is to evaluate the service quality of Commercial bank of Ethiopia (public bank) and Bank of Abyssinia (private bank) in Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia and suggest measures for improvement in it. The study was conducted on 200 bank customers of each bank in between 15 Dec to 28 Dec 2016 in Wolaita Sodo. Descriptive research design was employed. Systematic sampling technique was used to contact the customers so that the responses can be collected  from the customers. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used for analyzing the data. Findings of the research show that the service quality of customers of both the banks is on average front and satisfied category in both a public and private bank. The technical aspects and functional aspect of service quality are on satisfactory but not above average and excellent. The private bank have significant higher service quality in relation to responsiveness and assurance dimension in comparison to public bank but still that requires a lot of improvement. The research outcome recommends that both the banks should work out on all service quality dimensions viz., tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. Both the banks should work hard towards these fronts as this can give banks a competitive advantage in increasing competitive environment.