The role of automated teller machines on customer satisfaction: a case study of DFCU- Acacia Branch, Kololo

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the role of ATM (Automated Teller Machines) on customers’ satisfaction, a case study of DFCU Bank-Acacia Branch, Kololo. The research was guided by four research objectives which were; i. To assess the relationship between socio-demographic factors and customer satisfaction; ii. To determine the effectiveness of ATM services on customer satisfaction; iii. To analyse the relationship between challenges of ATM use and customer satisfaction an iv. To find out customer services offered by ATM points to account holders of DFCU Bank. The study used a cross-sectional survey design and 100 questionnaires were administered to customers of DFCU bank to collect data and SPSS was used to analyse the data. The response rate was 93% and 7% as the non-response rate. SPSS was used to cross tabulate the relationship between the dependent (customer satisfaction) and some independent variables like demographic factors and challenges in ATM use to find out the significance of each independent variable against the dependent variable where all the socio-demographic factors had p-values greater than the critical point of 0.05 and the challenges were all significant with a value of (p=0.000). In addition, multivariate analysis was used to determine the most significant of the independent variables and privacy was the only one with a p-value less than the critical of p=0.01 being the most significant among the challenges faced while using the ATM. In addition, SPSS was used to find out the frequency and percentages of the effectiveness and services of ATM use. It’s from this assessment, that the recommendations and conclusions were derived. The findings show that there was no relationship between the socio-demographic factors with customer’s satisfaction, that the ATM use was effective to the customer satisfaction. The challenges in use of the ATMs have a significant effect on customer satisfaction and that the known services of ATM use are not fully utilized by the customer due to fears and personal issues. The researcher recommends that customer focused services at an ATM should not only build relationships with the bank’s retail customers, but also serve as a vehicle for building content and transaction relationships with the bank’s commercial customers. DFCU Bank should increase on the number of ATMs to fulfil convenient transactions or make inter-switch services accessible.