An empirical study of Chinese customers' preferences for service channels in China's retail banking

The purpose of this paper is to analyze individual customers' preferences for service channels of Chinese commercial banks in order to shed light on how these banks are able to effectively target their potential customers. A questionnaire survey was administered to the urban residents in two Chinese vastly different regions. Contingency analysis and optimal scaling were adopted in the analysis. The findings reveal that their preferences for service channels differ among different types of consumers. The study concludes that it is necessary to have the market segmented based on demographic characteristics of customers as well as on security and convenience so that over-the-counter business can be more efficiently conducted.