IDENTIFICATION AND RANKING OF COMPETENCIES THAT POSITIVELY INFLUENCE THE CUSTOMER SERVICES: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The work identifies and ranks the competencies that positively influence the customer services and thereby is helpful in customer satisfaction.  The study is conducted in a cooperative bank in one of the districts of South India. Identification of the competencies was made after review of the literatures, interviews with the employees, and expert opinion and a consensus was arrived at. Analytic Hierarchy Process is used to rank the competencies.  Five job competencies are identified to be ranked. Three distinct groups of employees are identified, and responses are collected in the scale proposed by Saaty (1980). Normalization of the data is made by computing the geometric mean of the responses.  The ranking reveals that relationship management competency has the top most priority and the teambuilding, and technical competency the least priority in providing the customer service. The major finding of the study is identification of cognitive competency as most important for managers and accountants and the clerical staff requires relationship management competency to achieve customer satisfaction. This finding will be helpful in identifying the training needs of three categories of employees in improving their customer service performance through job competencies.