Title: An assessment of customer satisfaction in microfinance in Bangladesh

Authors: Mohammad Thoufiqul Islam; Takashi Natori

Addresses: Graduate School of Technology Management, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1, Nojihigashi, Kusatsu City, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan ' Graduate School of Technology Management, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1, Nojihigashi, Kusatsu City, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan

Abstract: As a pioneer in the microfinance (MF) area, Bangladesh is experiencing a high rate of diffusion. This growth phenomenon of the MF industry is indicating the urgency of conducting a customer satisfaction survey. This study attempted to investigate the satisfaction level of MF customers through cluster random sampling in Bangladesh. While analysing more than 550 respondent's data, this study found that 68% were satisfied with the services of MFIs. Fifteen major factors had been identified as significant from the regression result. Some of them are faith on recording, mobile money transfer, interest on loan and interest on savings. This study also applied structural equation modelling (SEM) to develop a path diagram which revealed that product category influenced customer satisfaction more than human resource capabilities and physical category.

Keywords: customer satisfaction; microfinance institutions; MFI; product category; human resource capability; physical category; Bangladesh; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2014.057984

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2014 Vol.8 No.1, pp.91 - 109

Received: 22 Aug 2012
Accepted: 11 Jan 2013
Published online: 07 Jun 2014 *

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