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on overall customer satisfaction for both CLN and CLS. That is, if the bank can instill feelings of con?dence in its customers regarding the way they handle customers’ affairs and the safety of bank transactions and if they can deal with customers in a professional and petent way, then, customers will be satis?ed with their bank and take this a step further by remending the bank to others. Zeithaml et al. (1993) suggests that poor performance by service ?rms is primarily due to not knowing what their customers expect from them. Banks are not customer focused in both areas of Cyprus. Additionally, their products are not tailored to meet client demand. Banks in Cyprus are in a “defacto cartel” like position (Smid and Zwart2020) and exploit this situation with a “take it or leave it” attitude towards the bank services they offer. This attitude is especially prevalent in the North. Due to the banks that have gone bankrupt, customers in the North do not have much of a choice in the banks they will do business with. Safety of deposits bees their ?rst priority in terms of choosing a bank. This defacto status enjoyed by banks in Cyprus faces the risk of breaking down, especially now that the South has joined the EU and foreign banks will have easier access to the market. Possible accession to the EU for the North half of the island looms on the horizon, if a peace agreement can be reached. Under new market conditions that will arise from EU accession, if the banks in both areas of Cyprus don’t understand and ful?ll customer requirements and enhance service quality, they will be faced with a loss of clientele and a deterioration of quality over the ing years. Furthermore, in the case of a settlement in the ongoing Cyprus problem, the strong ?nancial position of the Central Bank of Cyprus could be destabilized and this could delay the introduction of the Euro as the country’s new of?cial currency, thus, affecting the economy as a whole. 6. Managerial implications Since it is more expensive to ?nd and attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing one (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991), banks in both areas of Cyprus need to rede?ne their corporate image to one that emphasizes service quality by introducing standards for service excellence. “First impressions count!”. Keeping the importance of this in mind, banks in the North, need to revamp the appearance of their banks so that they portray a more contemporary image and reach the standards of their counterparts in the South. Our study has shown that customers in both areas are looking for banks that keep their promises, instill con?dence in the customer about the way they handle transactions, provide prompt service and have employees that are petent and always willing to help the customer. Due to the highly interactive nature of the employeecustomer relationship, including input from employees on what constitutes “ service excellence” will be bene?cial for banks in both areas. Banks in Cyprus also need to reassess what customers expect from them in terms of products and services and thus, provide client speci?c services. The banking sector in both areas of Cyprus needs to invest in employee training programs that will provide employees with an understanding of service culture and service excellenceparticularly at front line levels Employee training programs should focus on interpersonal munication and customer care factors in order to be able to meet the customers’ need for “personalized service”. Employees interacting with customers in a professional manner will be able to provide the service with an emphatic approach, will be able to promptly recover service failures and also ensure that the service delivered is consistent with the service promised. This will result in high customer satisfaction and retention, extend the zone of customer tolerance for service failures, increase remendations about the bank to others and increase customer loyalty (Parasuraman et al., 1991b。