Islamic banks: Contrasting the drivers of customer satisfaction on image, trust, and loyalty of Muslim and non‐Muslim customers in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to investigate customer satisfaction and its effect on image, trust, and customer loyalty for Islamic banks.

The study uses data from Islamic banks and dual‐window Islamic banks, pertaining to two different customer segments (Muslims and non‐Muslims).

The results indicate that customer satisfaction has a significant relationship with image, image has a significant relationship with trust, and trust has a significant relationship with customer loyalty for both customer segments. Furthermore, significant differences occur in the effect of customer satisfaction on image, image on trust, and trust on customer loyalty between Muslim and non‐Muslim customers.

The findings suggest that Muslim customers establish relationships with Islamic banks because they trust that Islamic banks are Shariah compliant. Therefore, providing secure banking products that are fully compliant with Islamic principles are necessary.

This research is important as it clearly demonstrates that the loyalty of Muslim and non‐Muslim customers to Islamic banks is influenced by customers being satisfied, as well as the image of and trust in Islamic banks. In this context, when customers are unwilling to trust Islamic banks, they are also unwilling to be loyal.