Designing a Local Model of Encounters (service encounters) with the Key Customers at Sina Bank

Subject Areas : Financial Economics

Mansour Sheikholeslami-Kondulos ¹ , Alimohammad Mazidi-sharfabadi ^{2 *} , SeyedAlireza Afshani ³

1 - Social Welfare Department, Social Sciences Faculty, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran
2 - Department of Human Sciences, Meybod Islamic Azad University, Meybod, Iran
3 - Social Welfare Department, Social Sciences Faculty, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

Received: 2023-01-15 Accepted : 2024-10-28 Published : 2025-07-02

Keywords: Encounter management, Key customers, Sina Bank, Customer service planning,

Abstract :

With regard to the increasing importance of bank customers and effective management of customer relations (service encounters), it is observed that the organizations that have implemented programs and systems for managing customer relations have gained many economic and non-economic benefits. Therefore, it is important to identify and prioritize the key factors for successful customer relations management in the bank. The current qualitative research employed a grounded theory method and aimed to design a local model of communication (service encounters) with the key customers at Sina Bank. The data were collected through interviews with 31 key customers at Sina Bank in Tehran to reach theoretical saturation. The data were analyzed yielding the core them of “weakness in customer service policy” indicating that Sina Bank has had poor planning for customer affairs. The weaknesses were identified to be at three levels: At the level of individuals with the theme: "confusion of branch managers and absence of careful communication plans with customers", at the level of unit with the theme "lack of specific instructions and subjective dealings with customers", and the level of structure with the theme "customer loss and reputation risk".