The service I’m going to select is going to be the service that people use the most, which is personal banking. I personally use the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and have only used their banking services since I first opened an account when was a teenager, which was the same bank my parents used also.
The customer gap, which is the gap or difference between the customer expectations and the customer perceptions, does exist at this bank as I am sure they exist at most banks. Seeing this is Canada’s largest bank, I’d like it if their hours of operation for my branch were longer like some other banks. Also, seeing they are the most profitable bank in Canada, I’d like to see their branches looking a little better looking and their customer service to be slightly better than that of others. I believe because of the fierce competition for banking and regulations, most banks are pretty much the same in terms of their branch looks, service delivery and fees. There are some types of those “no fees” banks out there but they do not have branches and services like RBC. I’d rather pay the fees for their full breath of services (such as loans, mortgages and credit cards), convenience of locations and access to ATM’s (like at all Esso gas stations) when needed.
Gap 1, which is the gap between customer expectations and the company’s understanding of those expectations, does also exist. Some of the factors that contribute to this is because they have a lot of “frontline” employees, which probably do not communicate all issues to upper management. Also, because RBC is such a huge corporation, most of these issues would not really be addressed. There are many layers of upper management throughout the organization and would not be able to change things easily, such as changing the hours of branch hours. There would be many policies in place to make it difficult to do this.
Gap 2 is not having the right service designs and standards. This is