Customers’ Satisfaction of Islamic Banking and Conventional Banking in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Being a Muslim majority country, the Shariah based Islamic banking
system competing with conventional banking system has gained quite a lot of
popularity among the banking stakeholders. Irrespective of some significant
differences between the two systems, both the banking systems have considerable
customer bases. This study tried to compare the satisfaction levels of customers of
Islamic and conventional banking taking 41 variables in seven distinct areas of
customer sensitivity. The study clearly noted that the satisfaction level of the Islamic
bank customers significantly higher than the conventional bank customers in any of
these areas. The Islamic bank customers found to be more satisfied with the
variables maintenance of confidentiality by the bank, confidence in the bank's
management, behavior of employees, provision of Islamic products and services,
compliance with Islamic Shariah, convenience of branch locations, convenience of
working hours, access to current banking related information, cleanliness of the
banking environment, and overall interior comfort of branches. For conventional
banking, the most satisfied variables are maintenance of confidentiality by the bank,
confidence in the bank's management, access to current banking related
information, convenience of branch locations, number of branches, cleanliness of
the banking environment, facilities of the bank, use of technology, and overall
interior comfort of branches, risk of depositing money in the bank.