Introduction In the services marketing sector the marketing environment is dominated by three forces: increasing competition from private

players, revolution in technology and continuous shifts in the regulatory environment has led to customer sophistication. They are demanding higher standards of service.Brown and Swartz reported that the consistent delivery of the superior service is the strategy that is increasingly being offered as a key to service providers to position themselves more effectively in the market place.Attainment of quality has become pivotal concern among marketers and they have realised that competition can be well managed by differentiating through quality.
The banking sector is one of the biggest service sector in India.. The Indian Banking System consisting of various public and private sector financial institutions is serving the people for their financial and economic needs. the success of any financial institution (bank)

depends upon the service delivery of the products offered and the satisfaction of the customers. Of late there has been a quantitative expansion of banking services but qualitatively the scenario has been far from satisfactory. Indian banks have shifted their focus from operational services to customer centric services. Today they are looking at newer ways to make a customer.s banking experience more convenient and effective. by using new technology, tools and techniques The emerging need of the time is that the banks both in the public as well as private sector cater to the needs of the customers by creating creation, developing and enhancing indivisualized customer relationship with carefully targeted customers resulting in maximising their total customer lifetime value by giving them satisfaction against their expectations. The focus of banks has shifted fromcustomer acquisition to customer retention. They have become more smarter and demanding. Now the banks aim at Total Customer Satisfaction by providing qulity services.

NEED FOR THE STUDY Change is the only constant feature in this dynamic world and banking is not an exception. The major challenge faced by banks today is the ever rising customer expectation as well as risk management and maintaining growth rate ). Since financial services are generally undifferentiated products, it becomes imperative for banks to strive for improved service quality if they want to distinguish themselves from the competition. Service quality has been viewed as a significant issue in the banking industry by Stafford (1994) because service quality is being used to position the banks in the market place (Brown & Swartz 1989) .Apart from Service quality, customer satisfaction, customer retention and delight are now the major challenges gripping the banking sector in India. . customers
expectations are raising as the level of services are increasing due to the emergence of Information

Technology and competition. With the foray of foreign banks in Indian market, the number of services offered has increased and banks have laid emphasis on meeting the customer expectations but still there are service quality gaps. In this context present study is taken upto compare the service quality gaps in public and private sector banks.since the

the need of the hour intodays era of cut throat competition istoprovide customer satisfaction. by taking measures to fill the service quality gaps.

Service Quality Service quality is a concept that has considerableinterest and debate in the research literature because of the difficulties in both defining it and measuring it with no overall consensus emerging on either.With the increased competition, service quality has become popular area of academic investigation and has been recognized as a key factor in keeping competitive advantage and sustaining satisfying relationships(Zeithmal et al., 2000) The study in banking sector by Parasuraman et al. (1985, p44) stated that "customers' perceptions of quality are influenced by various gaps which lead to service quality shortfalls and, in particular, that the quality perceived in a service is a function of the gap between customers' desires/expectations and their perceptions of the service that is actually received". Supporting this definition, Lewis (1991) proposed that service quality is a measure of how well the service delivered meets customers' expectations of a product and service. For instance, the service provided by the local commercial bank (Government and private) and multinational banks in Bangladesh can be compared. From the observation, it has been found that the gap (perceived and delivered services) is very high in case of state-owned banks (such as Sonali, Krishi Bank etc.) and some of the private commercial banks ( such as United Commercial Bank, Agrani, Rupali etc.) compare to the multinational banks (HSBC, CITI NA, SCB) in Bangladesh. According to the above definitions of service quality, it may therefore be concluded that service quality is an assessment of the customers about how well the service fulfils their expectations in terms of perceptions of the service. Objectives of the study TO find the service quality gaps in selected public and private banks. To find the factors that have led to the service quality gaps. To suggest suitable measures to address the factors leading to service quality gaps. To recommend steps for improving service quality.

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