Identifying & Classification of Criteria in Choosing a Bank By Customers: Case Study at Bank Mellat

in order to attract the customers، it’s really needed to consider the elements they take in to account in evaluating a company. New banks attempts in stealing the customers from the experienced bank especially in retail banks prove the importance of such topic. The main purpose of this research is to identify the criteria by which a customer chooses a bank in retail banking in competitive market. Doing so، 166 evaluating criteria were extracted using field study، interviews with 43customers، back office and front office in several banks. After reconsidering the criteria by the experts، they were reduced to 50 elements and distributed as a pre-test among 60 customers. After validity and reliability test by «Stage random sampling» and «Cochran method» 669 samples were obtained. 678 questionnaires were confirmed out of 810. In order to identify and analyze these factors، by «factor analysis method»، 45 questions were remained، The identified factors are as follows: Employees and trust، Quality and ease of service، Up to date technology and techniques، Physical appearance، Variety of services، investment، credits and loan، cost، reputation، convenience، incentives. Among these factors، employee and trust by 13،317 percent of variance were recognized as most important ones.