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Worldwide integration or internationalisation and liberalisation have led to cut throat competition among the business organisations, as at present it has become easier and faster for the organisations to operate and compete nationally and worldwide making it important for business organisations to enhance their productivity and reduce their costs. Further this competition has been enhanced with the rapid advancement, development and innovation in information technology, which has created a equal conditions and opportunities for companies by eradicating spatial, industrial and regulatory difficulties and problems (Zafar et al., 2011) Moreover, this development or advancement in technology has changed the way or process by which services are provided to consumers leading to drastic change in service industry largely or banking industry specifically (Joseph & Stone, 2003). Because of this advancement and fierce market competition service quality becomes a significant aspect, making it necessary to understand so as to maintain satisfied customer base(Broderick & Vachirapornpuk, 2002). Technology and internet have not only changed the process of providing services to customers but it has also changed the way customers expect and perceive the service and service provider itself making it difficult to satisfy customers and most importantly to retain them. Presently more and more people are preferring online or e services due to its innate convenience(Meuter et al., 2000; Szymanski & Hise, 2000) speed, anytime anywhere availability(Dabholkar, 1996) or flexibility and time saving (Dabholkar, 1996; Meuter et al., 2000). Especially with regards to online services it has become very convenient and easy for customers to make comparison of the services provided by different service providers and the value the customers are receiving (Santos, 2003) Moreover, online business platform has provided the advantage of lower switching cost to customers enabling them to switch from one online company to another with just few clicks, making it crucial to retain customers in the virtual business world (Reichheld & Schefter, 2000). Same is the case with banking industry, because of low disparity in products and services of different banks and lower switching cost due to online presence. Hence, it important for e-service providers to understand what customer want and expect from them, satisfying them. However, the most important aspect to be profitable in this online space is not only customer acquisition but also retention of old customers is important and for retaining them it is crucial to satisfy them. Further online banking companies have realised over the time that other than website presence and low prices, the most important aspect to for satisfaction and retention of  customers is improving overall service quality(Wang et al., 2003)In addition, where there are abundant online banking platforms which customers can choose from the focus of financial organisations is shifting towards customer centric approach, where the top priority is to create a loyal customer base. However, this loyal customer base can only be created by creating high level of customer satisfaction and customers will be satisfied only when high or superior quality services are provided to them (Gronroos, 2000). Therefore, it becomes crucial to study the online banking service quality and the association between e-service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

E-service Quality:

In the recent past countless researchers studied and analysed concept of service quality and has recognised the significant importance of service quality in service differentiation and the competitive edge it provides to organisations over their competitors(Ennew et al., 1993; Zeithaml et al., 1996). The trend towards service quality first initiated in the early 1880s when the business organisations begin to understand and apprehend that mere quality of product, will not ensure to sustain competitive strength over their business rivals(van der Wal et al., 2002). (Zeithaml et al., 2000) states that service quality arises out of comparative analysis between what a business organisation should offer and what it actually gives or provides to its customers. Based on the early scholarly writings, service quality can be understood as a concept or approach of measuring as to what extent delivered service live up to the expectations of customers.(Parasuraman et al., 1988) outlined service quality as the comprehensive assessment of service organisations that stems from comparison between organisations actual performance with customers’ expectations from that organisation. Therefore, the term of service quality can be explained as the quality perceived by customers when they make comparison between their expectations from the services and the service, they actually receive from service organisations. (Gronroos, 2000) originated the concept of “Total Perceived Service Quality” which means how a service recipient or customer perceives the distinction between expected and experienced services. With the introduction of internet concept of online or virtual service quality becomes popular. Enormous amount of scholarly work has been done on electronic service quality and it’s a popular research area among researchers and marketers. Electronic service quality can be stated as comprehensive assessment or evaluation of online services delivered with expectations of customers over the virtual or online channel(Santos, 2003) In the opinion of  (Zeithaml et al., 2002) the electronic service quality is a field where there is a window or opportunity to provide efficient and effective services to users over electronic media.

Customer Satisfaction and customer Loyalty

Customer satisfaction is a significant facet for the prosperous growth of every business whether its traditional brick or mortar system or web business (Ho & Wu, 1999). However, it becomes all more important in online business where switching cost is less and comparison can be made easily between different forms and one can shift from one organisation to another in just few mouse clicks if they are not satisfied. When the customers are satisfied, they become a favourable or positive source of word-of-mouth publicity which is by far more effective and efficient than advertising and print media (Bhattacherjee, 2001) Further it is customer satisfaction which aids or helps in retention of customer base which is less expensive than customer replacement (Hill, 1997) Satisfaction is the outcome which stems from past as well as present experiences of customers and which in turn affect the future decisions and course of actions of customers about whether to repurchase goods or services from same firms or not (Stauss & Neuhaus, 1997) By definition satisfaction means outcome of the assessment made by customers on the basis of their experience with the product, services or company(Gummerus et al., 2004). According to (Kotler, 1997) satisfaction can be described as “an individual’s perception or feeling of pleasure or disappointment which arises from comparative evaluation of a product’s perceived performance in connection with their expectations”. Satisfaction level of customers is the crucial and the significant factor in creating customer loyalty (Anderson & Mittal, 2000) Numerous researches have proved that when the customers are satisfied, they are very likely to exhibit loyalty behaviour i.e., frequent purchasing or buying from same organisation (Anderson & Sullivan, 1993; Fullerton, 2003; Tsai et al., 2006) referrals or recommendations to others resulting in favourable word of mouth publicity (Anderson, 1998; Heitmann et al., 2007) . By definition customer loyalty can be elucidated as well established or deep-rooted commitment to re-buy or re purchase frequently the products or services which one prefers in future thereby leading to recurring purchasing of one brand or set despite of situational effects and marketing attempt having the capacity or capability to generate switching conduct or behaviour (Oliver, 2014). Kotler and Keller (2006) have established major measures of customer loyalty: repeat purchasing, retention and referrals. Repeat purchasing signifies that customer tends to buy particular product or service over others. Further retention means commitment to a particular brand and resistance to change regardless of unfavourable influence or perception and referrals here denotes recommending other people to purchase that particular product or service.

Several researchers have conducted studies on online service quality in general and e -banking service quality in particular and its relationship with customer satisfaction and loyalty. Review of literature helps one to understand research work already done or existing in our field providing detailed knowledge and exploring the gaps existing in the already done research studies providing scope for widening one’s frame of mind. Here efforts have been made to review some of the existing studies.

(Firdous & Farooqi, 2017)examined the association between electronic banking service quality and satisfaction of customers. Through, regression analysis, it was established that e-banking service quality significantly impact customer satisfaction wherein, online banking service quality dimension mainly efficiency, system availability, fulfilment, privacy, contact, and responsiveness had significant impact on satisfaction of customers.

(Sehgal, 2017)conducted a study in which he examined the impact of internet banking service quality on customer satisfaction of public sector bank in Northern India. It was found that e-service quality had significant impact on satisfaction wherein, it was discovered that the three service quality factors namely, reliability, accessibility and security had favourable influence on customer satisfaction.

(Amin, 2016)found that e-banking service quality had favourable impact on electronic satisfaction which in turn has significant complimentary influence on loyalty of online customers.

(Mei Ling et al., 2016) explored the primary factors of customer contentment in the case of internet banking, wherein five factors such as service quality, web design etc. were discovered which impact satisfaction level of consumers. Most importantly it was established that out of these factors’ web design and content, convenience and speed had the most influence on consumer satisfaction. 

(Al-Azzam & Al-Azzam, 2015) found association among service quality and satisfaction of customers wherein service quality significantly impacts customer satisfaction. Further it was revealed that tangibility dimension involving physical facilities, equipment’s used in the bank, bank staff positively impact customer satisfaction.

(Munir, 2015)researched relationship between online banking service quality and customer satisfaction and found that service quality, information quality and system quality had favourable and significant association with satisfaction level of internet banking users in Bangladesh.

(Sharma et al., 2014)in their study found that service quality significantly influences customer satisfaction and loyalty. It was established that customer loyalty plays a significant contributing factor in establishing and maintaining competitive edge in service industry in general and banking industry in India.

(ALI et al., 2014)conducted a study in which they found that service quality trust and reputation had a notable favourable impact on customer loyalty, and it was further established that the banks should pay greater significance to service quality in creating, developing and maintaining customer loyalty

(Gillani & Awan, 2014)established that the perceived service quality is an important characteristic in creating customer satisfaction and trust, further it was developed that satisfied customer will refer and recommend the bank to their friends and family illustrating positive relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Similarly, study conducted by (Msoka & Elizabeth, 2014) found that better service quality results in customer retention and increased customer loyalty.

(Al-Jazzazi & Sultan, 2014)researched the key factors of internet banking service quality and their impact on customer satisfaction. Using exploratory factor analysis, the key factors or determinates of e-service quality were found which were: usability, efficiency, security, and web site image and it was determined that they had significant influence on satisfaction of internet banking users.

(Dhurup et al., 2014)carried out a survey in which they researched the attitude of customers of South Africa towards internet banking service quality and its influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty. With the help of factor analysis seven key factors of e-banking service quality dimensions: assurance, responsiveness, ease of use, accessibility, fulfilment, speed and accuracy, and contact. The findings of the study revealed that there exists positive association between these online banking service quality dimensions and customer level of satisfaction and customer loyalty.

In research conducted in Kerala by(George & Kumar, 2014) on the impact of Virtual banking service quality on the satisfaction of customers wherein they found that except e-service quality dimension efficiency and website features, remaining dimensions which were reliability, responsiveness, fulfilment, and privacy/security had significant influence on customer satisfaction. Further the researchers stressed on instilling confidence among internet banking users about the safety and privacy of transactions to promote the adoption and usage of online banking services. However,(Sakhaei et al., 2014) discovered that all the dimensions mentioned above were associated with customer satisfaction in their study on Iranian Internet banking users. It was found that the dimension reliability has most vital effect on satisfaction of customers whereas website design has least influence.

(Camilleri et al., 2013),undertook research in which they examined the perception of customers about internet banking service quality and its impact on customer satisfaction level and further the main factors or determinants leading to adoption of internet banking in Malta. They found five internet service quality dimensions which were explored perception of users about bank service quality and internet banking, inquired about dimensions which were reliability, responsiveness, communication, access and security. Most importantly it was found that internet service quality has significant impact on customer satisfaction with reliability dimension having the most impact on level of satisfaction.

(Choudhury, 2013)in their research found that service quality significant influence purchase intentions of customers and reliability is the most significant determinant and after that employee behaviour, tangibles, and convenience.

(Ibok & Moses Ikoh, 2013)carried out study on the facets of customer satisfaction in online banking and discovered that main antecedents of online service quality were account access, account use, privacy and security, account control, cost/time effectiveness and ease. Especially it was found that barring cost/time effectiveness all the other factors which were account access, account use, privacy and security, account control, and ease were favourably associated with customer satisfaction whereas cost/time effectiveness were negatively related to customer satisfaction in Nigeria.

A study was conducted by (Gupta & Bansal, 2012) on the key determinants of online banking service quality and examined its impact on consumer satisfaction. With the help of factors analysis (EFA and CFA) five aspects of internet service quality was found i.e., efficiency, privacy, reliability, responsiveness, and site aesthetics. Moreover, it was found that all these aspects had significant impact on e-banking service quality altogether and customer satisfaction. Most importantly it was determined that Security/Privacy and efficiency had greatest impact on overall e- service quality of banks and level of satisfaction of customers in the stated order.

(McKecnie et al., 2011)undertook a study on the main facets of online banking and their impact on loyalty and satisfaction of customers. The main facets of internet banking service quality were customer service, technology security and information quality, technology convenience, and technology usage easiness and reliability determined with the conduct of confirmatory factor analysis. Further it was found that customer service and technology usage easiness and reliability had significant positive impact on customer loyalty and satisfaction.

(Lee & Lin, 2005)undertook research in which they studied the interconnection between online service quality aspects and internet service quality overall, customer level of satisfaction and purchase intentions. With the application of structural equation modelling and confirmatory factor analysis it was determined that barring personalisation dimension, website design, reliability, responsiveness and trust had significant impact on online service quality altogether and customer satisfaction which thereby had significant influence on purchase intention of customers.

A study conducted by(Barnes & Howlett, 1998) discovered that service quality is significantly associated with customer retention. Similarly, (Berry et al., 1988) found that service quality perceived by customers had significant favourable association with the customers intention to recommend the organisation to other people.

Research Gap

A careful perusal of existing literature, shows that there is a plethora of studies on Internet service quality and its association with customer satisfaction and loyalty however there is scant literature available on the association between internet banking service quality and its implications on female customers. Hence the present study was conducted to understand the relationship between internet banking service quality and female customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The study was an exploratory questionnaire-based study. The main aim of the investigation was to examine the relationship between online service quality in context of banks, the level of satisfaction and loyalty among female internet banking users. With the help of a pre structured and pre validated questionnaire, information on perception of internet banking service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty were collected. The primary respondents i.e., female e-banking users belonging to Tricity i.e., Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali were contacted using snowball sampling. A pre-structured and validated questionnaire was transcribed into a Google Form and provided to the participants. A 27-item scale was used to study the perception of internet banking service quality (consisting of seven dimensions Efficiency; System availability; Fulfilment; Privacy; Responsiveness; Compensation and Contact), 2 item scale was used to study the level of female satisfaction and 2-item scale was used to determine the female customer loyalty. The internet banking service quality scale was taken from Parasuraman et al., 2005 and Akinci et al., 2010; customer satisfaction scale was taken from Toor et al., 2016 and customer loyalty scale was taken from Homburg & Giering, 2001. The reliability/ consistency of the questionnaire was checked using Cronbach alpha and it was found that Cronbach alpha for internet banking service quality scale was 0.955 and for customer satisfaction scale it was found to be 0.771 and for customer loyalty scale was 0.957 indicating good internal consistency and strong reliability. Further the responses were graded to give a higher score for options indicating towards the better or higher level of perception of efficiency /system availability/ fulfilment/ privacy/responsiveness/ compensation/ contact and greater level of satisfaction and loyalty. A separate Overall E-Service Quality Domain was created by combining the 7 domains (efficiency domain; system availability domain; fulfilment domain; privacy domain; responsiveness domain; compensation domain; contact domain) together. The methodology of classifying participants based on overall efficiency; system availability; fulfilment; privacy; responsiveness; compensation and contact; customer satisfaction; customer loyalty and overall e-service quality score and assessment of their responses and demographics have been previously described . Development of Satisfaction and Loyalty assessment model We developed Binomial Logistic Regression models. First model was developed for the prediction of association of customer satisfaction with overall e-service quality and second model was developed for the prediction of association of customer satisfaction with e-service quality dimensions (efficiency; system availability; fulfilment; privacy; responsiveness; compensation and contact). Further third and fourth model was developed to examine the association of customer loyalty with overall e-service quality and with e-service quality dimensions (efficiency; system availability; fulfilment; privacy; responsiveness; compensation and contact) respectively. At last, fifth model was developed to study the association between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

228 respondents in all took part in the study. Using SPSS Version 20 data was analysed. Independent T Test was used to compare continuous variables, between two groups, , and for the comparison of categorical variables, Chi square test of Association/ Fisher Exact Test was used. For all the tests a P-value of less than 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. 

A total of 228 female internet banking users agreed to participate in the current study. The major characteristics of the participants were age between 25-44 years (65.8%), were post-graduates (58.8%), mostly unemployed (35.1%), having annual family income of Rs 5 Lakhs or less (36.8%), hailing from urban locality (67.5%), having account in Public Sector Bank (65.8%) and majority of females were doing online banking transactions on their own (79.8%). Surprisingly it was observed that still 20.2% of female participants were seeking help from family or friends while doing online transactions and 26.3% respondents mentioned that they (including friends or family) have faced online fraud or harassment while using online banking (Table-1).

Table-1 Socio-Economic Profile
		Count	Table N %
Age	18-24 years	58	25.4%
	25-44 years	150	65.8%
	45-60 years	20	8.8%
Education	Up to 10th	4	1.8%
	Up to 12th	30	13.2%
	Graduation	60	26.3%
	Post-Graduation	134	58.8%
Occupation	Working in public sector	61	26.8%
	Working in private sector	43	18.9%
	Self-employed (Professional/Business)	44	19.3%
	Unemployed	80	35.1%
Annual family income	5 lakh or less	84	36.8%
	5-10 lakhs	79	34.6%
	more than 10 lakhs	65	28.5%
Background	Rural	74	32.5%
	Urban	154	67.5%
Account in which bank	Public Sector Bank	150	65.8%
	Private Sector Bank	78	34.2%
Transaction	Self-Transactions (without any help)	182	79.8%
	Seeking help of others (family/ friends)	46	20.2%
Harassment	Yes	60	26.3%
	No	168	73.7%

Independent T Test, Chi square test of Association/ Fisher Exact Test was used to study whether was any significant difference in the perception of efficiency; system availability; fulfilment; privacy; responsiveness; compensation; contact; overall e-service quality and the level of female customers satisfaction and customer loyalty domain based on demographic profile and general domain. Following were the major findings (Table-2):

Efficiency: Overall it was found that out of total 228 respondents’ majority of respondents (54.4%) had better perception of efficiency of online banking. Further it was found that there exists significant difference in the level of perception about efficiency based on age; education level and incidence of online fraud or harassment

System Availability: Out of total 228 female internet banking users who participated in the study, most of the participants (N=116,50.90%) opined that online banking has better system availability. Further it was found that there exists significant difference in the level of perception about system availability based on annual family income and bank in which respondents have account.

Fulfillment: Maximum number of females (N=132, 57.90%) believed that online banking has better fulfilment out of total female participants N=228. Further it was found that there exists significant difference in the level of perception about fulfillment based on annual family income and bank in which respondents have account .

Privacy: Overall it was found that out of total 228 respondents’ majority of respondents (61.40%) had better perception of privacy in online banking. Further it was found that there exists significant difference in the level of perception about privacy in e-banking based on education and incidence of online fraud or harassment.

Responsiveness: Out of total 228 female internet banking users who participated in the study, most of the participants (N=121,53.10%) opined that online banking has better responsiveness. Further it was found that there exists significant difference in the level of perception about responsiveness based on level of education and annual family income.

Compensation: Maximum number of females (N=136, 59.60%) believed that online banking has better compensation out of total female participants N=228. Further it was found that there exists significant difference in the level of perception about compensation based on level of education and annual family income.

Contact: Overall it was found that out of total 228 respondents’ majority of respondents (53.90%) had better perception of contact in online banking. Further it was found that there exists significant difference in the level of perception about privacy in e-banking based on annual family income.

Overall E-Service Quality: Out of total 228 female internet banking users who participated in the study, most of the participants (N=124,54.40%) opined that online banking has better overall service quality. Further it was found that there exists significant difference in the level of perception about overall e-service quality based on age; level of education; incidence of online fraud or harassment and annual family income.

Customer Satisfaction: Overall it was found that out of total 228 respondents’ majority of female participants (67.50%) had higher level of customer satisfaction from online banking. Further it was found that there exists significant difference in the level customer satisfaction based on age; level of education; background and annual family income .

Customer loyalty: Maximum number of females (N=133, 58.30%) had higher level of loyalty towards e-banking out of total female participants N=228. Further it was found that there exists significant difference in the level of customer loyalty based on level of education background and bank in which respondents have account.

Binomial logistic regression was applied to study the association of customer satisfaction with overall e-service quality and e-service quality dimensions; the association of customer loyalty with overall e-service quality and e-service quality dimensions and the association of customer loyalty with customer satisfaction: Following were the results :

First binomial logistic regression model was developed for the prediction of association of customer satisfaction with overall e-service quality and it was found that there was a significant association between customer satisfaction and overall e-service quality (p-value=0.000) (Table-3). Further the power of the logistic binomial model developed in the study was 73.7% of the known observations and can be expected to project future estimates.

Table-3 Association between Overall Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction
	B	S.E.	Wald	df	Sig.	Exp(B)	95% C.I.for EXP(B)
							Lower	Upper
Overall Service Quality (1)	-2.254	.339	44.180	1	.000	.105	.054	.204
Constant	1.983	.275	51.865	1	.000	7.267

In second binomial logistic regression model wherein association of customer satisfaction with e-service quality dimensions (efficiency; system availability; fulfilment; privacy; responsiveness; compensation and contact) was studied and as per the results given in Table-4, there was significant association of customer satisfaction with efficiency (p-value=0.001) and privacy (p-value=0.007) dimension. However no significant association of customer satisfaction was found with other dimensions i.e., system availability (p-value=0.490); fulfilment (p-value=0.933); responsiveness (p-value=0.269); compensation (p-value=0.174) and contact (p-value=0.582). Further the power of the logistic binomial model developed in the study was 80.3% of the known observations and can be expected to project future estimates.

Table-4 Association between Service Quality Dimensions and Customer Satisfaction
	B	S.E.	Wald	df	Sig.	Exp(B)	95% C.I.for EXP(B)
							Lower	Upper
Efficiency (1)	-1.424	.415	11.760	1	.001	.241	.107	.543
System availability (1)	-.307	.445	.476	1	.490	.736	.308	1.759
Fulfilment (1)	-.038	.449	.007	1	.933	.963	.399	2.323
Privacy (1)	-1.082	.399	7.366	1	.007	.339	.155	.740
Responsiveness (1)	-.508	.459	1.220	1	.269	.602	.245	1.481
Compensation (1)	-.541	.398	1.847	1	.174	.582	.267	1.270
Contact (1)	-.230	.417	.303	1	.582	.795	.351	1.801
Constant	2.897	.385	56.740	1	.000	18.113

For the prediction of association of customer loyalty with overall e-service quality third binomial logistic regression model was developed and as per the results in Table-5, there was no significant association of customer loyalty with overall e-service quality (p-value=0.127). Further the power of the logistic binomial model developed in the study was 58.3% of the known observations and can be expected to project future estimates.

Table-5 Association between Overall Service Quality and Customer Loyalty
	B	S.E.	Wald	df	Sig.	Exp(B)	95% C.I.for EXP(B)
							Lower	Upper
Overall Service Quality (1)	-.413	.270	2.327	1	.127	.662	.390	1.125
Constant	.528	.186	8.069	1	.005	1.696

Further, fourth binomial logistic regression model was developed wherein, association of customer loyalty with e-service quality dimensions (efficiency; system availability; fulfilment; privacy; responsiveness; compensation and contact) was studied and it was found that there exists no significant association of customer loyalty with efficiency (p-value=0.605); system availability (p-value=0.976); fulfilment (p-value=0.530); privacy (p-value=0.075); responsiveness (p-value=0.919); compensation (p-value=0.876) and contact (p-value=0.872) dimensions (Table-6). Further the power of the logistic binomial model developed in the study was 62.3% of the known observations and can be expected to project future estimates. 

Table-6 Association between Service Quality Dimensions and Customer Loyalty
	B	S.E.	Wald	df	Sig.	Exp(B)	95% C.I.for EXP(B)
							Lower	Upper
Efficiency (1)	-.185	.358	.267	1	.605	.831	.412	1.676
System availability (1)	-.011	.365	.001	1	.976	.989	.484	2.022
Fulfilment (1)	-.240	.383	.394	1	.530	.786	.371	1.666
Privacy (1)	-.642	.360	3.181	1	.075	.526	.260	1.066
Responsiveness (1)	.040	.390	.010	1	.919	1.040	.485	2.233
Compensation (1)	.052	.336	.024	1	.876	1.054	.545	2.037
Contact (1)	.056	.350	.026	1	.872	1.058	.533	2.100
Constant	.722	.222	10.543	1	.001	2.058

In addition, it was found that customer loyalty is significantly associated with customer satisfaction (p-value=0.000) (Table-7) in fifth binomial logistic regression in which association between customer loyalty and customer satisfaction was evaluated. Further the power of the logistic binomial model developed in the study was 66.2% of the known observations and can be expected to project future estimates.

Table-7 Association between Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty
	B	S.E.	Wald	df	Sig.	Exp(B)	95% C.I.for EXP(B)
							Lower	Upper
Satisfaction (1)	-1.259	.296	18.127	1	.000	.284	.159	.507
Constant	.762	.173	19.406	1	.000	2.143

Discussion

In the present study total 228 female internet banking users participated in the study. It was found that majority of female population participated in the study opined that online banking has better efficiency (54.4%), system availability (50.90%), fulfilment (57.90%), privacy (61.40%), responsiveness (53.10%), compensation (59.60%), contact (53.90%) and overall service quality (54.40%). Further majority of females had higher level of customer satisfaction (67.50%) from online banking service quality and loyalty towards e-banking (58.30%).

In addition, research revealed that out of total respondents belonging to age group 25-44 years and 45-60 years majority of respondents had better perception of efficiency (25-44 years;56.70% and 45-60 years;80%) and overall service quality (25-44 years;54.70% and 45-60 years;75%) of online banking. Also, it was observed that the proportion of females having poor satisfaction (46.6%) out of total females belonging to age group 18-24 years (N=58) was higher as compared to proportion of respondents having low satisfaction with online banking service quality (25-44 years;29.3% and 45-60 years;15%) out of total females belonging to age group 25-44 years and 45-60 years. In addition, it was revealed that out of total females educated above higher secondary education (Graduation and Post-graduation) majority of them had high perception about efficiency (graduation;63.30% and postgraduation;56%), privacy (graduation;71.70% and postgraduation;61.90%), responsiveness (graduation;65% and postgraduation;53%), compensation (graduation;68.30% and postgraduation;60.40%), overall service quality (graduation;66.70% and postgraduation;54.50%) and more customer loyalty (graduation;61.70% and postgraduation;61.20%). However, the respondents who have studied below higher secondary education (up to 10th and up to 12th) majority of them opined that online banking has poor overall service quality, efficiency, privacy, compensation, responsiveness and had low loyalty towards e-banking. Regarding annual family income, it was established that majority of respondents out of total population participated in the study having annual income of 5 lakhs or less believe that online banking had low or poor system availability (57.10%), fulfilment (51.20%), responsiveness (58.30%), compensation (52.40%), contact (58.30%) and overall service quality (53.60%) as compared to respondents having annual family income more than 5 lakhs. Proportionately it was found that the females having poor satisfaction (46.4%) out of total females having annual family income of Rs 5 lakhs or less (N=84) was higher as compared to percentage of participants having low satisfaction with online banking service quality (5-10 lakhs;24.1% and more than 10 lakhs;24.6%) out of total females having annual family income of 5-10 lakhs and more than 10 lakhs. Especially, the current study revealed that the females who have faced any kind of harassment or online fraud maximum of them opined that e-banking service quality is poor (58.30%) and had low efficiency (58.30%) and privacy (51.70%). Moreover, it was found that the out of total females having account in public bank majority of them said online banking has poor system availability (54%) in comparison to females having account in private bank who mentioned that they had good system availability (60.30%). In addition to above, survey revealed that most females hailing from rural area had low level of satisfaction (51.40%) with online banking service quality and poor loyalty (59.50%) towards online banking in comparison to respondents hailing from urban locality.

Most importantly the current research on female internet banking users revealed that Feamle customer satisfaction is significantly associated with overall service quality in online banking and efficiency; privacy dimension of e-service quality. The result of the current study corrugates with the studies conducted by (Blut et al., 2015; Firdous & Farooqi, 2017; Herington & Weaven, 2009; Muyeed, 2012; Sehgal, 2017; Udo et al., 2010) wherein, they found that service quality significantly affects customers level of satisfaction in general. In addition, no significant association was found between female customer loyalty; overall e-banking service quality and e service quality dimensions i.e., efficiency; system availability; fulfilment; privacy; responsiveness; compensation and contact. However, studies conducted by (ALI et al., 2014; Dhurup et al., 2014; Gillani & Awan, 2014; Msoka & Elizabeth, 2014; Sharma et al., 2014) found that online banking service quality is significantly related with loyalty of customers in general. Further it was found that female customers loyalty is significantly associated with the level of satisfaction of females. Similar results were found in the studies conducted by (Belás & Gabčová, 2016; Coelho & Henseler, 2012; Leninkumar, 2017) in which they found significant relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Hence it can be inferred from the results that overall e-banking service quality impacts female’s level of satisfaction, which in turns impacts their loyalty, thereby indicating that customer’s level of satisfaction acts as a mediator between e-service quality and customer loyalty. Similar findings were found in the research studies conducted by (Amin, 2016; Chu et al., 2012; Cronin et al., 2000; Hassan et al., 2013) whereby it was established that customer satisfaction acts as a link between online service quality and customer loyalty.

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