Service 2: Online Credit Card Bill Payment (26th June 2009)

Need:

Online Payment of Citibank Credit Card Bill

Expectation:

Should be able to conveniently pay the amount due within a couple of minutes without any hindrance or problems. Other expectations included a simple and easy to use interface for paying the bill. In short, I expected a simple and speedy process so that I could pay my credit card bill any time during the day without spending much time.

Experience:

Upon logging into the Citibank Online account, I could easily navigate to the Credit Card link which is separately located on the left pane. The payment of the bill was hastle free since the payment was made from my Citibank account and no external banks were involved in the process. Citibank also provides the service of Standing Instructions whereby I can automate the process of paying the credit card bill from my Citibank account - the amount that can be deducted from my account can also be set in terms of the minimum amount due or the entire bill amount. This service is helpful in case people are traveling or may not have access to Citibank ATMs or Online services. It is also helpful if one simply forgets to pay the credit card bill. Enabling and disabling this service also depends on the Account holder completely.

I have been a Citibank customer for over 3 years now and am a satisfied customer particularly due to the convenience of operating the account.

Service Analysis:

The above figure summarizes the analysis of the service in terms of the Service Trinity, based on my experience. The Employee Management aspect has not been explored since the service is an Online Service and I did not have any complaints so did not even interact with the Citibank Customer Care personnel.

Service Quality:

In order to determine the perceived service quality of the Citibank Online Credit Card Bill Payment service, the five dimensions of service quality (SERVQUAL) have been used. These dimensions are given in the table below along with the quality perceived by me during my experience.

Dimension	Rating (Scale of 1-10) 1 – Poor; 10 - Excellent	Analysis of Service
Tangibles	7	Website is the only tangible aspect – since it is a simple, well-planned and easy to use website, the company does well in terms of tangibles
Reliability	10	Since it is an automated system, it is highly reliable
Responsiveness	10	Since it is automated, the bill payment gets reflected immediately in the account and a confirmation of the credit card bill payment is received the very next day via email and mobile.
Assurance	8	High credibility for the brand as well as the automated online banking portal Security is also high as the bank ensures Secure Login as well as an On-screen keyboard thereby avoiding possible security attacks and eliminating security concerns
Empathy	N/A	Since it is an automated system, empathy is not applicable to the system unless a problem is faced and the banking customer care personnel are contacted.

Based on the above dimensions of quality, I would summarize the perceived service quality to be of a high level and I am a highly satisfied customer of the same.

Opinions, comments and your experiences are welcome.