Abstract:

In the contemporary era, the quality of services is considered a key element in attracting customers and the success of a company. Service companies have utilized service quality as an effective competitive tool, thereby creating a unique value proposition for themselves compared to other rival companies (Luoh, 2011). Identifying the factors influencing the quality of services provided by organizations, and the importance of each factor compared to other aspects, facilitates a more cost-effective and customer-preference-oriented management, which is of extraordinary importance. This study focuses on identifying and ranking the factors influencing the quality of services provided by financial organizations in Herat and Badghis provinces, Afghanistan. This study is descriptive in terms of research method and practical in terms of its purpose. The sampling method used in this study is non-random and purposeful. Initially, an open-ended questionnaire was distributed to 16 finance and banking experts to identify the factors influencing service quality. The results obtained from the initial surveys closely resemble the factors used in the SERVQUAL model, and therefore, the SERVQUAL model was chosen as the basis for this research. The final questionnaire was developed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, with pairwise comparisons based on the SERVQUAL model. The pairwise comparisons questionnaire was conducted by a total of 26 participants, including 10 finance and banking experts, 10 bank employees, and 6 active foreign exchange transaction participants. Participants have at least one master's degree with relevant educational backgrounds.

According to the results of the paired comparisons, all the matrices formed for the pairwise comparisons of criteria with each other and the pairwise comparisons of each criterion with the alternatives are completely consistent (CR<0.1). The research results have shown that the influential factors on the quality of services provided by financial organizations in Herat and Badghis provinces of Afghanistan are ranked as follows: Assurance with a weight of 0.455 in the first rank, Reliability with a weight of 0.323 in the second rank, Responsiveness with a weight of 0.102 in the third rank, Empathy with a weight of 0.073 in the fourth rank, and Tangibility with a weight of 0.047 in the last rank. Financial organizations in Afghanistan are ranked according to the influential factors on the quality of services provided by these organizations as follows: Government banks with a weight of 0.585 in the first rank, Private banks with a weight of 0.254 in the second rank, and Exchange offices with a weight of 0.160 in the last rank.