Banks and the Global Economy

Customers whether individuals or businesses, view banks as providers of a unique service. As such, creating an environment that incorporates and practices a "sense of caring" will always be an important element in the banking environment.

Given the myriad of choices available to consumers today, the issue of customer service and customer management is probably more important than ever before. Customer service quality implies consistently anticipating and satisfying the needs and wants of the customer.

Today, the following perceptions and needs exist within the customer community (Herbig, 1997) as it applies to the banking community:

Bank service quality is deteriorating.

There is an increased demand for "add-on" value to the service(s) provided by the bank.

There are greater expectations for services that are "customized" for the specific company and/or individual.

There is a stronger need for "one-stop" service.

A growing desire for high-tech as wel

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y functions that are common to each branch such as selling, servicing, and intermediating processes. A summary of the main definitions normally used in the literature of branch efficiency analysis is shown below in Table I (from Athanassopoulous, 1997, 9). Table I. Branch efficiency definitions Activity Efficiency Description Objective Transaction Technical, Scale Inputs: Operating costs and technology Outputs: Volume of transactions Minimize operating costs Production Technical, Scale Inputs: Operating costs and technology Outputs: Volume and/or the number of accounts Minimize operating costs Intermediation Technical, Scale, Allocated Input: Interest and non-interest costs Output: Volume and non-interest income Minimize total costs Table I summarized the three (3) main branch activities that are typically analyzed in studies pertaining to branch efficiency. The assessment of technical and scale efficiency are prevalent in all three (3) cases while in the intermediation models there are examples of input-mix efficiency that is allocated indicating incompatibilities in the way in which the actual variables are measured (Athanassopoulous, 1997, 9). Methodology T
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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