Mebrahtu, Kahsu (Assistant Professor)Abrha, Gebremedhn2021-06-142023-11-042021-06-142023-11-042014-05http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/26808As the competitive environment become more turbulent in the banking industry, there is the need to provide quality service and ensure customer satisfaction, in order to enjoy high market share and competitive advantage. The study therefore was conducted to assess and compare service quality and overall customer satisfaction in the banking industry, taking Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Awash International Bank s.co as target study area. The main objective of this study was to assess and compare customer expectations and perceptions and overall customer satisfaction towards CBE and AIB S.co using five dimensions of service quality: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy and a single item was used to measure overall satisfaction. Questionnaires were distributed to 384(192for each bank) customers of the two banks. The target population was contacted conveniently to the researcher that was found available. The primary data was collected using self administered questionnaire through survey method. To analyze the objectives, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and paired sample t-test was employed. The results revealed that assurance dimension raised the highest level of perception in CBE and in AIB S.co and responsiveness has the highest gap score while tangibility has the lowest gap score in both banks. Moreover the entire service quality dimensions have a strong and positively correlated with overall satisfaction. In addition, the finding of paired sample t-test shows that there is a significant difference in perception of customers’ of CBE and AIB S.Co. To conclude, based on the mean perception of SERVQUAL dimension Awash International Bank S.co provides better service quality comparing to Commercial Bank of Ethiopia except tangibility dimension which is high in CBE. Gaps of AIB S.co are rather smaller than the gaps of CBE which are a proof that AIB S.co delivers more quality service to the customer. This is simply because; the quality of service in CBE is so much below the expectations. The study suggests that SERVQUAL model is appropriate in the banking sector. Hence, managers of the two banks can use this instrument to provide better quality services to their customers.en-USService QualityCustomer Expectation and PerceptionSERVQUAL DimensionThesis