Enhancing satisfaction with credit card products: The Role of empathy, responsiveness, and reliability

Abstract

This study aimed to identify and assess the influence of service quality factors on customer satisfaction (CUS) regarding credit card products at Joint Stock Commercial Banks in Hochiminh City. The research problem is time-sensitive, stemming from the alarming trend of increasing credit card cancellations. This situation necessitates an urgent review and adjustment of product policies and service delivery processes. The study uses the SERVPERF service quality model (Cronin & Taylor, 1992) as its theoretical foundation. The survey data with a sample size of 476 individual customers using credit cards that was analyzed using the PLS-SEM technique. This study identifies a significant shift in the priority order of these factors as banking services become highly standardized: tangibles assets (TAA) and assurance (ASS) have become fundamental expectations in the modern banking industry, thus losing their statistical significance as drivers of increased satisfaction. Conversely, empathy (EMP) emerges as the strongest differentiating factor, while responsiveness (RES) plays a crucial role in retention: its presence does not necessarily increase satisfaction, but its absence will lead to immediate customer abandonment of the service. Based on these empirical results, this paper provides an academic basis for the “Triple of Refined Service Quality” (empathy, responsiveness, and reliability), arguing that the traditional five-dimensional SERVPERF model has become redundant in a fiercely competitive financial environment where tangibles and fundamental professional behavior (assurance) are no longer differentiating factors. These findings represent a significant advance in knowledge by distinguishing between “maintaining factors” and “differentiating factors,” providing a more precise framework for future studies of retail financial products in the digital age.