Investigating the effect of the quality of electronic services and the effectiveness of word-of-mouth advertising on customers' behavioral intentions (case study of branches of Bank Mehr Ekhtaz in Semnan province)

                                Executive Management Master's Thesis

Abstract:

During the past few decades, the quality of electronic services has attracted the attention of many researchers due to its strong impact on business performance, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Service quality is considered as a criterion in evaluating the degree of coordination of the level of services provided with the expectations of customers. In service and financial institutions, especially banks, word-of-mouth marketing is growing very fast. Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the common marketing and advertising tools whose effectiveness is also seen in service marketing. The index of customers' behavioral intentions indicates whether customers are willing to buy more from the organization or whether they reduce their purchases. The purpose of this research is to present a specific model to investigate the effect of electronic service quality on the effectiveness of word-of-mouth advertising and the behavioral intentions of customers of Bank Mehr Ekhtaz in Semnan province. The research method used is descriptive and survey. The statistical population of the research is the customers of Bank Mehr Ekhetaz branches in Semnan province, which is considered to be unlimited with a sample size of 485. The sampling method of the research is simple random and during three days visiting Mehr Ekhetaz Bank branches and distributing a questionnaire to collect customers' points of view. In the analysis of the collected data, Friedman's analysis of variance was used to rank the variables and the correlation coefficient was used for the intensity and type of relationship between the variables. The results of the research show the significant effect of the two variables of electronic service quality and the effectiveness of word-of-mouth advertising on the behavioral intentions of customers with the intervening variable of customer experience.

Key words of the research: quality of electronic services-customer behavioral intentions-word-of-mouth advertising-experience

Chapter One

Research Overview

Introduction

One of the essential tools to realize and expand electronic commerce, the existence of a system It is electronic banking, which will facilitate the operation and activities related to electronic commerce in sync with the global financial and monetary systems. The implementation of e-commerce requires the realization of electronic banking (Alhiari Fard, 2009). For this reason, the use of electronic systems in the world's financial and credit institutions is expanding rapidly and the number of users of electronic banking services is increasing day by day. Electronic service is a verb, effort or performance that is delivered through information technology such as the network, information kiosks and mobile phones (Rawley [1], 2008). With the increasing use of electronic experiences in organizations, measuring and evaluating the quality of electronic services in the virtual world has gained great importance. Nowadays, word of mouth information is a necessary need, because in this way, facilities are created for people so that they can more easily discard unnecessary information and analyze the rest and provide their useful experiences to the organization. Managers of organizations operating in a competitive environment must identify what is important to their customers in their target market and understand the criteria by which their product compares with that of competitors in the selection process. Organizational strategies should be formed based on the understanding and recognition of the thoughts, feelings and behavior of consumers. Consumer research, as the most important way to improve marketing strategies, can help managers in understanding consumers (Samadi, 2018).

In this chapter, the problem that the research seeks to solve is stated and its importance and goals are also explained. The questions and hypotheses, the temporal, spatial and thematic domain of the research will also be specified.

Statement of the problem

Electronic services are more than placing an order, answering questions and e-mail. Electronic services make customers have a different experience of interactive flow of information. How information is perceived and exploited and what information customers need or expect to receive play an important role in the quality of the electronic service process and customer satisfaction (Salayon [1] and Flores [2], 2009). The electronic service process is based on information obtained through information technology, and the quality of this information is very important in determining customer needs. As more customers personally take action to meet their needs online, the business model becomes scalable and affordable (Begley et al., 2008).With the increasing use of electronic experiences in organizations, measuring and evaluating the quality of electronic services has gained great importance. Word of mouth marketing is a form of marketing that encourages people to tell others about your marketing message. The only type of marketing that plays an important role in the service sector and is based on the true and honest thinking of the customer towards the brand. Successful organizations pay full attention to the demands of their customers and create an opportunity to discuss the quality of goods and services with their friends, acquaintances and family. In other words, they design and provide their products and services based on the customer's desired value, and they price according to the knowledge of the customer's purchasing power and the value that customers attach to the product compared to the competitors' products (Lin, 2010). Considering the spread of electronic services in banks and the relative similarity of the provision of such services, what effect can the quality factor and word-of-mouth marketing strategy to promote services have on customers' desires and behavioral intentions? 1-3. The importance and necessity of conducting research In today's post-industrial society, there have been many changes in customer behavior. Significant developments have occurred in the field of services, especially financial and banking services, which have increased the level of expectations and expectations of customers. Electronic (online) banking services are among these. With the complexity of economic and commercial issues and the increase of activities in this field, providing electronic services has become an integral and necessary part of these institutions. The distinguishing feature of financial and banking institutions is the quality of electronic services with the approach of focusing on the behavioral intentions of customers. Each customer has multiple thoughts, feelings, plans, decisions, and references. A person who only pays attention to the activity of purchasing a service has ignored many activities related to it. While marketers should explore a wide range of customer activities, including thinking about the product, obtaining information, paying attention to advertisements, quality, purchase and use to satisfaction and re-referral (Wilke, 2009, p. 14). Several factors play a role in today's business world and companies should pay special attention to them, these factors include:

increasing competition at the global level;

increasing customer awareness and increasing demand and a sharp decrease in loyal customers;

fragmentation of markets;

rapid change in customers' buying patterns;

continuous increase in quality standards;

the impact of technology on all the fields of human life;

the discredit of traditional marketing methods (such as reducing the effectiveness of advertisements) (Kandampoli and Odi, 2006).

According to the research report of the Data Monitor Institute [3] (one of the leading centers of analysis of banking information in Europe), the number of users of electronic banking systems in eight countries, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and England, increased from 4.5 million people in 1999 to about 22 million people reached in 2005 (Sepe Bank Research Department, 2018). In 2005, more than 75% of companies operating in developed countries use at least one of the electronic banking services.

Word-of-mouth marketing strategy by providing quality electronic services and focusing on customer intentions, gives customers a distinction to choose. In this research, it has been tried to investigate how the above factors affect each other. Electronic banking can take effective steps to reduce the costs of the government and customers. Reducing the direct transfer of banknotes is effective for public health. According to the statistics obtained, 7.3 billion banknotes are circulated in the country every year, which according to the population of 70 million in our country, per capita is 100 banknotes, which is 12 to 16 banknotes per person among industrialized countries, and even in countries like India and Pakistan are between 40 and 50 sheets of banknotes.  The number of banknotes in our country indicates the absence of electronic banking. About 120 billion rials are spent annually for the separation and collection of these banknotes in the country, and if a part of this cost is spent on the development of electronic banking, many problems will be solved.  Banks can also take many effective steps in providing proper service to customers by reducing clients, reducing administrative overhead costs, and reducing bank operations. Preventing embezzlement is one of the phenomena that will be solved with this system