The advancement of technology has significantly changed the customer expectations towards different services. In
a highly competitive world, a bank needs to focus on satisfaction of customers with its products in order to reap
maximum gain in the market. Major focus of the study is to identify the gaps that exist between customer expectations
and perceptions with regard to the service quality and the areas that need to be improved to deliver superior quality
of service in selected rural branches public sector banks in Odisha. The 30 items concerning 5 dimensions of the
SERVQUAL instrument was used to measure the service quality of the banks. The parameters of service quality are
Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy. This study also investigates the rural bank
customer’s expectations and their perceptions on the rural banks’ performance. Data was collected from two hundred
samples from rural areas of Odisha State. It was found that there exists a gap between customer perceptions and
expectations in rural Odisha, and emphasis should be given on three dimensions of service quality namely,
Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy to close the GAPS.

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