Customer Satisfaction Index Model for Indian Banking Industry: A Qualitative Study

The conventional financial measures have always dominated the business performance evaluation in India. There is a need to augment the current approaches to evaluate the financial health of individual firms and industries. Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) is one of the best solutions which is a customer-based satisfaction benchmarking system and serves as a standard metric, widely implemented in the United States and Europe. However, there is no such index in India and there is a need for a non-financial, customer-based satisfaction metric. This study is a pilot attempt to develop a Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) model, specifically for the Indian banking industry. To achieve this, the focus group technique was employed to find the key determinants of customer satisfaction in the banking industry. The comprehensive thematic analysis revealed a total of six themes and nine sub-themes which have been proposed as the antecedents of customer satisfaction in the CSI model for the Indian banking industry. The future research intends to develop instrumentation based on the focus group results and validate the hypothesized CSI model proposed in this study.


Introduction
There is a rising criticism of the current performance evaluation system of Indian businesses based on financial measures which are focused on the past and lack a futuristic outlook (Anand, Sahay, & Saha, 2005).With the changing economy and customer expectations, the conventional measures of output and quantity need to be replaced with quality and customer metrics (Fornell, Johnson, Anderson, Cha, & Bryant, 1996;Anderson & Fornell, 2000).Hence, there is a growing necessity for non-financial, qualitative and forward looking measures for performance evaluation of businesses (Joshi, 2001;Farris, Bendle, Pfeifer, & Reibstein, 2010).Of the various customer metrics such as service quality, customer satisfaction, loyalty and intentions to purchase, customer satisfaction is the most widely used metric by firms since it is generic and universally gaugeable (Gupta & Zeithaml, 2006).Also, there is considerable evidence to support that customer satisfaction measures and indices are leading indicators of customer purchase behaviour, retention, revenue growth and financial performance (Ittner & Larcker, 1998;Chenhall & Langfield-Smith, 2007).Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) represents a uniform and a comparable measurement system for evaluating and enhancing customer satisfaction across firms and industries (Fornell et al., 1996).It provides an established system for systematic benchmarking over time across firms and a gauge of how well companies satisfy their customers (Fornell, 1992).The national CSIs such as American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) are widely accepted indices used to regularly monitor the health of the economy, industries and individual firms (Neely, 1999;EPSI Report, 2007).There is no such standard metric to measure customer satisfaction in India.There is a need for a similar index which provided an impetus to this study, a pilot attempt to develop a Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) model, specifically for the Indian banking industry.
The banking sector occupies an influential place in India's economy.Since the liberalization of banking policies by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 1990s, there has been an expansion of the banking sector with tremendous growth in the number of private sector banks (Mistry, 2013;Mandal & Bhattacharya, 2014).This led to a more competitive landscape along with the mounting consumer awareness and expectations (Kanojia & Yadav, 2012) which forced the bankers to shift their focus towards more service oriented and customer centric approach (Mukerjee, 2013).Since banking services is a customer oriented industry with minimal product differentiation, customer is the focus and customer service is the differentiating factor (Mangnale & Chavan, 2012).This brought the concept of customer satisfaction to the centre stage.It is a critical issue in banking industry due to its long term impact in terms of gaining customer loyalty and profitability (Anderson, Fornell, & Lehmann, 1994;Fornell et al., 1996).Thus, a CSI to evaluate the performance of banks will assist them in identifying if their main value proposition is improving or degrading over time.

Literature Review
Recognizing the importance of customer satisfaction, marketing researchers conducted several studies over the years (Spreng & Mackoy, 1996).Many individual companies and marketers tracked customer satisfaction on a one-time or continual basis.However, customer satisfaction research took a great leap with the introduction of customer satisfaction indices at national level.In 1989, in an effort to promote quality and competitiveness of its market and industries, Sweden became the first country to establish a national economic indicator reflecting customer satisfaction called Swedish Customer Satisfaction Barometer (SCSB) (Fornell, 1992).The idea was to develop an index to gauge how effectively companies and industries satisfy their customers.The CSI intended to provide customer's evaluation of the quality of their products and services at company level and also facilitate a cross-company and industry level comparisons (O'Loughlin & Coenders, 2004).
As the economy changes, theories and measures must also change.The present financial indices or measures such as market share, profitability, productivity, etc. cannot be used effectively as standalone metrics without taking into account the quality of output and customer satisfaction.CSI acts as a complement to these conventional indices (Fornell et al., 1996).Inspired by the SCSB, national CSIs were introduced for other countries and regions.The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) was established in 1994 (Fornell et al., 1996) followed by Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer (NCSB) introduced in 1996 (Andreassen & Lindestad, 1998) and European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) in 1999 for 11 countries in the European Union (Eklof & Westlund, 2002).Indices were developed and tested for countries like Switzerland (Bruhn & Grund, 2000), Denmark (Martensen, Gronholdt, & Kristensen, 2000), Austria (Hackl, Scharitzer, & Zuba, 2000), Malaysia (Abdullah, Husain, & El-Nassir, 2001) and Turkey (Türkyilmaz & Özkan, 2007).These national CSI models consisted of antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction like perceived quality, customer expectations, perceived value, corporate image, customer complaints, customer loyalty and commitment.These models were validated using large representative sample of customers of top firms from various industries, due to which the measurement scales used in these studies consisted of standard set of generic questions for each construct (Fornell et al., 1996).These national CSIs were used by numerous researchers in customer satisfaction studies, of which ACSI and ECSI were the widely used CSI models in marketing literature.
Most studies adapted these CSI models for validation in different contexts, industries and countries.Kristensen, Martensen and Gronholdt (2000) tested the application of ECSI methodology for a private mail and courier service i.e.Post Denmark and concluded that ECSI seemed sufficiently flexible for different industries.Yu, Wu, Chiao and Tai (2005) examined customer satisfaction with automobiles in Taiwan using a modified ACSI model excluding perceived value and found a good model fit, except for the effect of customer expectations on satisfaction.In a study to measure customer satisfaction in a banking organization of Taiwan, Hsu, Chen and Hsueh (2006) used a combination of variables from ACSI and ECSI, since both had their strengths and weaknesses.They incorporated corporate image by replacing customer expectations and found all relationships to be significant except customer complaints to loyalty.Terblanche (2006) validated the ACSI model in the context of the South African motor vehicle industry, except for the relationships of customer expectations similar to Yu et al. (2005) and Wu and Ding (2007).Slongo and Vieira (2007) aimed to understand the modifications and improvements proposed in the new NCSB model by Johnson, Gustafsson, Andreassen, Lervik and Cha (2001) in the supermarket context.The findings revealed satisfactory results except for the significant effect of complaints handling on customer satisfaction unlike Johnson et al. (2001).Thus, these researchers used the national CSI models directly or with minor modifications to suit their research context and to a certain extent validated the models except for a few relationships w.r.t.customer expectations and complaints.
Taking a step further from this direct usage, there were studies that employed the CSI models by deconstructing or expanding its constructs to help improve the model explanatory power and fitness.Most of them focused on replacing the overall quality scale with industry or research specific multi-dimensional scale.In a unique study by Ryzin, Muzzio, Immerwahr, Gulick and Martinez (2004), the ACSI model was used to examine the drivers and behavioural consequences of citizens' satisfaction with government services in New York City.The measurement scales were formulated based on government services to suit the research objective.For quality, a range of activities such as fire protection, bus service, schools, park and recreation facilities were included.Wu and Ding (2007) conducted a study to validate the ACSI model in the context of consumer electronic e-tailers using the ACSI model with the same constructs, however modified the measurement scale for perceived quality with E-S-QUAL instrument (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Malhotra, 2005).In a similar study, Hsu (2008) proposed a new index for online customer satisfaction (e-CSI) using the ACSI model modified by replacing perceived quality with e-service quality (E-SQ).A focus group was conducted to identify the factors salient to the customer in evaluating e-SQ and a 13 item quality scale was developed and tested which confirmed higher variance explained for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.Ferreira, Cabral and Saraiva (2010) evaluated customer satisfaction in the Portuguese injection mould industry for which an industry-specific ECSI model was designed.A qualitative study was undertaken to identify the important aspects of quality in the injection industry and a detailed quality scale was developed and tested which corroborated a better explanation of customer satisfaction and loyalty.A similar study was conducted by Hsu, Tsai and Wang (2013) to develop a decomposed customer satisfaction index for the boutique motel industry using a modified ACSI model where perceived quality was replaced by decomposed service quality to improve the explanatory power compared to pure models.The delphi technique was used to find the factors contributing to service quality and an industry specific scale was constructed.There are other comparable studies which adapted the original or modified version of the national CSI models (Bayraktar, Tatoglu, Turkyilmaz, Delen, & Zaim, 2012;Chavez-Diaz, Rojas, & Orozco, 2015).However, there is a dearth of research in India related to CSI studies with a few of them which just adapted and validated the existing CSI models (Mangnale & Chavan, 2012;Ali & Dubey, 2014).
A comprehensive review helped to unearth major gaps and disparities in existing research.First, there is no research undertaken to develop a customer satisfaction index in India, specifically for the banking industry.Second, there is a need for a CSI model with variables and measurement scales indigenous to the Indian conditions.Third, there are hardly any studies explicating a detailed development of a CSI from scratch using qualitative analysis.Most studies involve direct application or adaption of existing CSIs.These research gaps strengthened the need for the present study.

Research Objectives
The objectives of the study were: 1) To explore and identify the key determinants of customer satisfaction in Indian banking industry using the focus group technique; 2) To propose a hypothesized customer satisfaction index model using qualitative results and literature review.

Research Methodology
The study was carried out in Chennai city, Tamil Nadu in India.An inductive approach with an exploratory, qualitative research design was used since it seeks thorough knowledge and insights into the problem and helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for quantitative research (Wyse, 2013).The focus group method was adopted for data collection, which is one of the effective techniques providing in-depth and subjective understanding of the customers (Calder, 1977).Focus group is a form of group discussion that capitalises on communication between the participants which include exchanging anecdotes and commenting on each others' experiences and opinions (Kitzinger, 1995).After data collection, focus group output was subjected to thematic analysis to find key themes representing the factors driving customer satisfaction.Based on thematic analysis results and literature support, a new hypothesized CSI model for Indian banking industry was proposed.

Focus Group Procedure
The focus group was conducted in Chennai, the sampling site of this study.The traditionally recommended size of a focus group is five to eight participants, since it is more effective, co-ordinated and helps gain in-depth information from each participant, unlike larger groups which are difficult to control and limit each participant's opportunity to share insights (Greenbaum, 1998;Krueger & Casey, 2014).Hence, the researcher conducted the focus group discussion using six participants who were customers of various banks and regular users of banking services.This can be regarded as an ideal and adequate sample size given that they effectively answer the research questions and accomplish the study objectives.The participants were recruited using researcher's personal contacts through snowball sampling technique, since such sample facilitates an enriched and candid discussion due to more openness and connection between the researcher and the participants and among the participants themselves (Noy, 2008).The selection criterion for participants was that they need to be bank customers for a long period so that they had enough experience and knowledge regarding the subject.The researcher ensured that the participants were from diverse demographic background and customers of different banks to attain a more representative sample.The profile of the participants is summarized in Table 1.The researcher put forth four open-ended questions one by one for discussion among the participants.The questions were derived from Chen ( 2009) comprising of the reasons you were customer of your bank, advantages and disadvantages, points of improvement and differences between your bank and other banks.The focus group discussion lasted for about 90 minutes with all participants presenting their diverse views and experiences about banking services.The data collection included audio recordings, observation of non-verbal communication cues and note taking.At the conclusion of the focus group, the researcher provided a summary of major points of the discussion and gave the participants an opportunity to confirm or clarify the points.

Thematic Analysis
Thematic analysis is a method of qualitative data analysis unlike grounded theory, narrative analysis or discourse analysis which are systematic approaches to conduct qualitative research (Braun, Clarke & Terry, 2014).Independent of theory and epistemology, thematic analysis is an accessible and flexible method which exclusively deals with identifying and understanding themes in data, unlike other approaches whose goal is to develop a substantive theory or narrative (Cho & Lee, 2014).To accomplish the research objective of exploring and identifying the key determinants of customer satisfaction in banking industry, thematic analysis was found most appropriate.It is defined as a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) which minimally organises and describes the dataset in rich detail (Braun & Clarke, 2006).After the focus group discussion was completed, the researcher transcribed the audio recordings.The transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis.Specifically, theoretical thematic analysis was used to analyze the focus group data, which is driven by the researcher's theoretical interest and knowledge in the area and thus was explicitly analyst driven (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
According to Braun and Clarke (2006), thematic analysis consists of six phases.The first phase involved familiarising with the data followed by the second phase which was generating initial codes.Coding is the process of creating codes, the most basic segments of raw data identified prior to interpretation (Boyatzis, 1998).
A code is a label given to significant pieces of data that contribute to a theme (Saldaña, 2009).This study involved a careful examination of the transcribed content followed by manual classification and tagging of important and relevant verbatim texts with codes.Here are some examples of coding process from this study.
The participants highlighted the issue of service charges levied by the banks.One participant said, "In my bank, there are no unnecessary charges.The service charges are also comparatively less than other banks." This extract was coded as 'service charges' since the participant emphasized on this issue which is an important feature of banking services.Other participants added, saying that, "My bank has very high cost services compared to even other private banks."which was also coded as 'service charges'.After the coding process, the third phase of the thematic analysis was forming themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
In this phase, the generated codes were analyzed and combined into overarching themes.Themes are much broader and provide a big picture.A theme captures something important in relation to the research question and represents some level of patterned response within the dataset (Braun & Clarke, 2006).Based on examples mentioned previously in the coding process, the participants discussed much about the various service charges, taxes and interest rates imposed by the banks.The corresponding pieces of data were categorized as different codes such as service charges, interest rates, etc.Thus, a total of six codes created with 31 pieces of verbatim text had an underlying resemblance that they all focused on the monetary aspect.Across these six codes, the participants highlighted the issue of how much they need to pay to obtain the banking products and services which is nothing but value in terms of money (Zeithaml, 1988).Hence, these six codes were combined together to form a common theme termed as 'monetary value' as presented in Table 2. Similarly, the researcher examined all codes and grouped those with similar meanings and contexts into common themes with the guidance of a marketing expert and two bank executives to validate the same.The fourth phase dealt with reviewing themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006) which involved refinement of created themes.Themes were discarded or combined or broken down into separate themes based on the criteria of internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity (Patton, 1990).The refinement process also involved creating sub-themes within themes wherever necessary (Braun & Clarke, 2006).The final list of themes and sub-themes derived from a total of revised 71 codes and 283 pieces of verbatim coded text is presented in Table 3.The detailed list of themes and codes is presented in the appendix.The fifth phase was defining the themes which involved identifying the essence of what each theme is about, defining and describing the scope and content of each theme shortly (Braun & Clarke, 2006).The final set of themes and sub-themes and their definitions are presented in the The quality of assistance and advice provided by the bank to customers during purchase or usage of products and services

Tangibles
The tangible facets or man-made physical environment of the bank i.e. equipments, facilities, space and comforts

Customer Care
The ability to solve customer problems and queries effectively

Efficiency
The speed and timeliness of delivery of products and services

Quality of Staff
The quality of staff in terms of their knowledge, qualification, conduct, responsiveness and willingness to serve the customers

Security
The safety and privacy of the customer, his account and transaction information across all banking channels Automated Service Quality The quality of automated or technology based delivery of products and services

ATM Quality
The quality and ease of using ATM systems, its services and features

E-Banking Quality
The quality and ease of using e-banking technology and its services

Monetary Value
The customer perception of net benefits gained in exchange for the price paid for products and services

Non-monetary Value
The customer perception of net benefits gained in exchange for the non-monetary costs i.e. time, effort and psychological costs

Time and Effort Value
The customer perception of the time and effort involved in the delivery and usage of products and services

Relationship Value
The customer perception of the relationship and bonding benefits with the bank

Brand Image
The perceptions' customers have about the bank's brand image

Results and Discussion
A comprehensive theoretical thematic analysis produced an accurate portrayal of the focus group content.
Overall, the analysis yielded six themes and nine sub-themes as briefed below with significant citations.

Theme 1: Core Products and Services
This theme represents the wide range of products and services offered by the bank and their distinctive features.
The participants discussed the various banking products and services they have used, their benefits and shortcomings as shown by few excerpts.
"I chose this bank because of the locker facility.I can get good locker facilities with lower rates".
"My bank also offered me a lifetime free credit card and the credit limit was enhanced with increase in my salary credit.This was awesome." "I may have a plan to avail home loan in future and to the best of my knowledge, mine is the best bank for home loans with lower interest rate than other banks." The participants shared their experiences about purchasing and using various products, services and their key features such as home loans, educational loans, free credit cards, locker facility, etc.A total of 57 data extracts were coded as 'core products and services' indicating that it was widely discussed and the principal issue.

Theme 2: Customer Service Quality
This theme signifies the quality of overall assistance and advices provided by the bank to customers during and post purchase and usage of products and services.This is a broader theme with five distinct sub-themes representing all important aspects of manner in which the products and services are delivered comprising the sum of tangibles, customer care, efficiency, staff and security.Together, these sub-themes indicate the overall quality of the customer service being delivered.

Sub-theme 2.1: Tangibles
The tangibles sub-theme relates to physical surroundings and facilities provided by the bank which include the ambience, space, equipments and comfort facilities.In the discussion, the participants mainly complained about the small premises and over-crowding which makes their bank visit and usage of services very exhausting and time-consuming as highlighted by some excerpts.
"The bank has small premises.It should be shifted to a large building as it's very busy and it's always crowded." "My bank has fully air conditioned rooms and is very comfortable.Apart from this, the bank has very cozy outlook and upholstered furniture." The participants expected their banks to be spacious with large premises and facilities to accommodate all visitors comfortably.

Sub-theme 2.2: Customer Care
This sub-theme refers to the ability of the bank to solve customer problems.It indicates the level of competence, availability and willingness to resolve customer issues and queries.As shown by few examples, the participants discussed their experiences about the way their complaints were handled by the bank.
"My bank offers good customer and technical support 24/7.Customer care is easily approachable.I can call anytime and mostly my problems are resolved." "Due to rigid IVR process and unawareness, it takes too long and the customers are unable to connect to the customer care representatives.So the process should be simplified." The main areas focused by the participants were customer and technical help, 24/7 support, customer care helpline, IVR complexity and access to customer care representatives.

Sub-theme 2.3: Efficiency
The efficiency sub-theme denotes the overall speed and timeliness of the delivery of products and services by the bank.In short, it is the time taken from the point of customer request for a product or service to the point of its delivery or completion.This involves the entire process efficacy, formalities, paperwork and other challenges to complete the task.
"For certain services, there is a long process of paper-work to be done, especially taking loans.There are various criteria and procedure involved.The signature verification also takes too much time." "The branch change and updating personal information procedures could be made easier as these are simple services which they can provide on internet banking.But, they ask us to come personally to the bank with IDs." The participants unanimously agreed that most banks have unnecessary formalities, conditions and red-tapism which can be reduced to improve efficiency.

Sub-theme 2.4: Quality of Staff
This sub-theme was one of the widely discussed issues by the participants.It relates to the quality of the staff in terms of their knowledge, qualification, behaviour, responsiveness and willingness to serve the customers.
"My point is the staffs of bank should give equal treatment to every customer and not to show any favouritism." "The manager of the bank should be easily available for making complaints and for informing issues." "Still an old age school of thought persists in some branches.The staffs have a stiff, non friendly approach in service." The participants shared a lot of negative experiences and grievances indicating the dismal state of service by the bank personnel.The participants stressed the need for more helpful and courteous staff who will treat them with respect, understand their problems and offer them solutions.

Sub-theme 2.5: Security
This sub-theme deals with the security aspect of banking.It refers to the safety and privacy of the customer with regard to his bank account and transaction information in all banking channels including ATM and e-banking.
"The net banking facility is very secure.I am always assured that the money and transaction details are protected.I have never come across any fraudulent stuff." "Sometimes, I feel the ATMs are not at safe places.I feel scared to go at night and also there is no proper security." These excerpts emphasized that security is essential at all places and channels of banking.

Theme 3: Automated Service Quality
This theme represents the overall quality of technology based on automated mode of delivery of products and services.With the advent of new technologies, multiple channels of banking have emerged aimed to improve its quality with greater flexibility and lesser efforts.The automated modes of banking which include the ATM and e-banking have been incorporated as the sub-themes under this theme.
5.3.1 Sub-theme 3.1: ATM Quality ATM is one of the most commonly used modes for cash withdrawal and for other basic services today.Hence, ATM quality is an important sub-theme which specifically relates to the quality of ATM systems, its services and features.It also includes the ease of using the ATM facilities and their maintenance as shown by these excerpts.
"My bank has more withdrawal limit in compared to other banks.I can withdraw Rs.50,000 from ATM per day." "In my bank I can change my ATM Card PIN and credit card PIN in the ATM itself without going to the bank branch." The participants primarily discussed the limit on the number of free withdrawals and the maximum withdrawal amount permitted through ATM along with the other services being offered.Other issues highlighted were the need for better maintenance and management of ATMs with 24/7 service.

Sub-theme 3.2: E-banking Quality
This sub-theme indicates the overall quality and the ease of using e-banking technology.E-banking which includes both PC and mobile banking has become the new alternative channel of banking used frequently by the customers now-a-days, to the extent that there is no need for them to visit bank branches.
"My bank's e-banking website has a very good internet banking (GUI) compared to other banks.The navigation is very easy as it is user friendly." "Almost all the services are available in internet banking.Since facilities of transferring funds, paying bills, and scheduling standing instructions are available in net banking, I need not visit the banks for these services." The key areas focussed by the participants regarding e-banking were the website interface, ease of use, navigation, availability of all services and options and also website aesthetics.

Theme 4: Monetary Value
The monetary value is one of the most important themes which indicate the customer perception of net benefits gained in exchange for the price paid for banking products and services.Indian consumers are price sensitive (Mukherjee, Satija, Goyal, Mantrala & Zou, 2012) who expect greater returns, specifically for the monetary price they pay.In their discussion, the participants mentioned it as a vital reason to choose their banks.
"My bank charges high service tax for credit card transactions.For mobile alert also, they are deducting amount, which could be given as free service." "Home loans with lower interest rate is the only positive difference in my bank when compared with other banks." The discussion highlighted few critical areas such as service charges, loan interest rates, EMIs, charges for services like mobile alerts, credit cards, etc. and minimum account balance.The participants largely felt that the charges levied by their banks in these aspects were unnecessary and high which need to be reduced.

Theme 5: Non-monetary Value
Money is not the only sacrifice made by customers to avail products and services.There are significant non-monetary costs involved and hence the theme 'non-monetary value' came into existence.It signifies the customer perception of net benefits gained in exchange for the non-monetary costs which include time, effort and psychological costs.Based on this, the non-monetary value theme was divided into two sub-themes; time and effort value and relationship value.This sub-theme denotes the customer perception of the time and effort involved in purchasing and using products and services.It simply refers to the level of easy access to the banking services.
"Convenience and ease-of access are the primary reasons why I choose this bank.It is a nationalised bank which has branches in almost all parts of the country." "As there is no ATM in my locality, I have to travel a lot or use other banks' ATMs which are chargeable." Good accessibility with less time and effort was a widely emphasized issue with 56 extracts coded under this sub-theme.The important points discussed were the number of branches and ATMs, their proximity and the working hours of banks.

Theme 5.2: Relationship Value
This sub-theme represents the customer perception of the benefits of establishing relationship and bonding with the bank.It deals with the non-monetary, emotional gains of the customer from association with the bank.
"There is nothing special for privileged customers.Customer loyalty and reward programs are missing e.g. they do not even invite loyal customers for any special events." "If I know the staff personally no need for me to go, just I can just call and clarify any doubt.I feel very comfortable." Though they are secondary to the main services, the participants highlighted key issues such as the need for more loyalty and reward programs, recognizing and rewarding privileged customers.However they opined how knowing the bank staff personally leads to improving customer relationship and bonding.

Theme 6: Brand Image
The brand image theme signifies the customers' perception about the bank's brand image.It includes a set of attributes and associations embedded in the memories of the customers.
"It is a nationwide bank., unlike other private banks it is run by the government ." "The drawback is that the bank is privately owned and has smaller clientele base.I am little worried about how stable it will be." The participants were mainly concerned about ownership of the bank, whether it is government or private bank and also about issues like its nationwide spread, and its stability in the long run.
The details shared in the focus group discussion helped the researcher to derive some dominant themes and sub-themes.Overall, the processing and interpretation of emotions, facts and information offered a crucial contribution in terms of better understanding of Indian customers' perceptions about banking services and the factors which affect their satisfaction.

Proposed CSI model for Indian Banking Industry
To substantiate the focus group findings, the thematic analysis results were utilized to develop a proposed CSI model for Indian banking industry for further empirical validation.The themes and sub-themes identified were hypothesized as the antecedent variables of customer satisfaction in the CSI model.However, to establish the interconnections between the variables, popular theories and literature support were employed.
The first step was to decide the adaptation of the themes and sub-themes into an appropriate hierarchical latent variable structure.Based on evidence from various quality scales in banking studies (Jun & Cai, 2001;Sureshchandar, Rajendran & Anantharaman, 2002;Yang, Jun & Peterson, 2004;Karatepe, Yavas & Babakus, 2005), three themes; core products and services, customer service quality and automated service quality together reflected the overall banking quality and were treated as second-order latent variables that were condensed into one third-order latent variable termed as 'perceived quality'.The sub-themes under customer service quality and automated serviced quality were incorporated as first-order latent variables.The use of such hierarchically structured latent variables is very limited, but it is a valuable technique which allows for more theoretical parsimony and reduces model complexity (Quaddus & Woodside, 2015).
In this study, two distinct themes based on value were identified; in terms of the customer's monetary and non-monetary sacrifices.It is essential to test the effects of these two aspects differentially and hence the two themes, monetary value and non-monetary value were incorporated as two distinct latent variables.The non-monetary value was treated as second-order latent variable with sub-themes; time and effort value and relationship value as its first order latent variables.The final theme, brand image was considered as a simple latent variable in the proposed CSI model.
The next step was to establish the relationships between the latent variables and ultimate dependent variable i.e. Brand image has been widely defined as the sum of impressions that is created in the minds of the buyers about the brand (Newman, 1957;Ditcher, 1985).Researchers have ascertained that brand image is a significant driver of customer satisfaction (Andreassen & Lindestad, 1998;Koo, 2003;O'Loughlin & Coenders, 2004;Sondoh Jr, Omar, Wahid, Ismail & Harun, 2007).A successful brand image helps consumers to understand and differentiate the brand.It consequently increases the likelihood of purchase and loyalty (Hsieh, Pan & Setiono, 2004).Hence, brand image was hypothesized as an antecedent of customer satisfaction.
H4: Brand image has a significant effect on customer satisfaction Based on the formulated hypotheses, the proposed CSI model for the banking industry was composed as presented in Figure 1.

Conclusion
This study began with an idea originating from the research gap in terms of lack of non-financial, customer-based satisfaction metric.Currently, there is no standardized customer satisfaction index for India that provided an impetus to this pilot research to construct an index for the banking industry.This study is successful in terms of laying the foundation towards building a Customer Satisfaction Index for consumer products and services in the Indian context.It is instrumental in devising an approach to construct a CSI model specific to the banking industry.The comprehensive qualitative research using focus group facilitated the process of finding an indigenous and unique mix of themes and sub-themes that were used as variables in the hypothesized CSI model.Thus, the study effectively achieved its objective of identifying the key determinants of customer satisfaction and developing a CSI model for the Indian banking industry.

Implications
The scope for extensive applicability of the CSI presents a wide range of practical implications of this study.
First, the study helped unearth an array of customer satisfaction determinants with certain known themes and some unique ones never used before in satisfaction studies such as perceived non-monetary value and its sub-themes which highlight the concept of non-monetary sacrifices of the consumer.This study is useful for both academicians and bankers to understand the determinants of customer satisfaction in terms of customer perceptions in Indian banking industry.The existing other national CSIs and customer satisfaction models with established scales are often very generic or irrelevant in the Indian context, which reiterate the significance of this study.
This study is the initial step to create a standard indigenous banking CSI as a performance evaluation metric.The banking CSI has the potential to be a useful tool for evaluating and enhancing the performance of the banks.It will help in assessing their strengths and weaknesses, finding the areas of improvement and monitoring effects of strategic decisions and changes.In terms of long term implication, annual CSI reports can be published providing performance overview of individual banks and banking industry as a whole.It will act as a complement to conventional performance measures guiding multiple stakeholders such as banks, policy makers and consumers.

Limitations and Future Research Directions
Due to time constraints, the focus group study was limited to Chennai.A geographically diverse sample can facilitate more representativeness to ensure lower bias and greater accuracy of results.
The next phase of this study intends to develop instrumentation based on the focus group results and empirically validate the hypothesized CSI model.Eventually, a validated CSI will be established to compute indices measuring performance of banking industry.In future, similar CSIs can be established for different industries such as hospitals, hotels, insurance, etc. to help achieve an improved national competitiveness, quality and greater satisfaction over time.
5.5.1 Theme 5.1: Time and Effort Value (Accessibility)

Table 1 .
Profile of Focus Group Participants Other participants expressed mixed views, saying that, "My bank should lower interest rate for home loans.Atleast, reasonable interests can be given compared to other banks.""Homeloanswith lower interest rate is the only positive difference in my bank when compared to other banks."Theseextracts were coded as 'interest rates'.Similarly, all important and relevant extracts of data were analyzed and categorized into appropriate codes.A total of 294 data extracts were deemed significant and classified into 74 codes.
The participants widely discussed about interest rates of various loans offered by banks.One of them said, "Personal loan offered by my bank has very high EMI.It has additional interest rate than others."

Table 2 .
Creation of Monetary Value Theme

Table 3 .
List of Final Themes with Number of Codes and Coded Texts

Table 4 .
The final phase was producing the report presenting the analysis findings with vivid examples or extracts.

Table 4 .
List of Final Themes, Sub-themes and their Definitions