This paper presents an analysis of customer choice criteria and multiple banking. In particular, the study presents an analysis of the relative importance of various choice criteria for main and secondary banks, highlights differences and considers marketing implications. A quantitative methodology incorporating 495 respondents is employed in the analysis. Findings show significant differences between selecting a first and secondary bank. Recommendations from others are influential and significantly more important in prompting choice of secondary bank. Offering an incentive is also significantly more important in prompting choice of secondary bank, but is less influential in terms of overall ranking of importance. Service expectation and low fees/overdraft charges are less significant in prompting secondary bank choice. Implications for the marketing of main and secondary accounts are explored.
This study provides an insight into customer choice criteria and multiple banking. In particular, it presents an analysis of the relative importance of choice criteria in prompting choice of main and secondary banks. A relatively large number of studies have analysed the issue of choice in the context of banking services (cf. Anderson et al., 1976; Martenson, 1985; Boyd et al., 1994; Devlin, 2002) including a number in a particular cultural, ethnic or religious context (cf. Erol and El-Bdour, 1989; Erol et al., 1990; Joy et al., 1991; Kaynak et al., 1991; Gerrard and Cunningham, 1997 and Gerrard and Cunningham, 2001).
Far less is known about choice criteria in “multiple banking” settings with Kaynak and Kucukemiroglu (1992) and Gerrard and Cunningham (2001) being the only known studies. In common with those studies, in this analysis, multiple banking is defined as occurring where an individual uses the same product at two or more separate banking institutions. For our study, the common product is a current account, alternatively known as a transactional account. Whilst previous studies will be discussed in the literature review section, both have limitations and have not answered the fundamental question about the extent to which important choice criteria for main and secondary banking institutions differ significantly and the marketing implications which arise from any differences which are found. This study addresses these matters by presenting a detailed comparison of the relative importance of criteria which influence choice of main and secondary banking institutions.
The current study, thus, adds to existing academic understanding of multiple banking, as the question of choice criteria differences in the case of multiple bank users has been largely overlooked in previous studies. As a result, the findings will be of particular interest to academics whose interest lies in the marketing financial services. Practitioners will also be provided with an enhanced understanding of the factors which prompt choice of institution for a secondary account, which will enable them to tailor marketing efforts towards attracting such account holders when formulating strategies to achieve such objectives. The findings of this study should be of value to practitioners, especially those who aim to expand their customer base.
The study proceeds as follows. In Section 2, a detailed literature review is presented, whilst, in Section 3, the methodology for the study is detailed. The results and a discussion of them are outlined in Section 4 and, in Section 5, implications are presented. Finally, in Section 6, limitations are acknowledged and conclusions drawn.
