Abstract
The purpose of this developmental paper is to present a report of a work-in-progress on the investigation of service quality in the Nigerian banking sector during the period of coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, the doctoral study is investigating the five dimensions of SERVQUAL instrumentation including reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness (Yusof et al (2012), with the purpose of assessing service delivery with reference to corporate banking services in the Nigeria banking sector in the pandemic era. In all five dimensions of service quality, the study from the systematic literature review revealed gaps between customer perceptions and customer expectations of service delivered to them during the pandemic. The gap analysis between service perceptions and expectations showed that all perceptions were lower than their expectation, indicating that there were areas of service improvement efforts needed to have been improved to enhance quality of service. Preliminary field work indicates that, Nigerian banks needed to improve in their provision of both physical (such as the quality and functionality of Automated Teller Machines (ATM), accessibility into the banking business premises, for example parking spaces for customers with cars), and non-physical such as loan facilities, fair charges on services, professional relationships with customers, and protection of customer data just to mention a few. The preliminary report revealed the necessity for banks to fulfil the requirements of SERVQUAL by upgrading their facilities and equipment to enable them to decrease the gap between customers` perceptions and expectations.