Relationship Marketing Strategies and Customer Loyalty: a Case of the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Kenya
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Date
2013Author
Omenye, Jacqueline
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Due to the increasing competition in today’s business world, many companies are
required to build long-term profitable relationship with customers and to achieve
customer loyalty. Therefore, relationship marketing has become more and more
important since the last decade of 20th century, especially in service industry. There
are many different relationship marketing tactics implemented for retaining
customers. However, some of those tactics did not affect customer loyalty effectively,
and switching behaviors frequently occur among most of targeted customers. The
study was aimed at assessing the impact of relationship marketing tactics on customer
loyalty in the Kenyan mobile industry where deregulation has led to intense
competition and scramble for market share. A self-completion questionnaire with a
total of 40 closed questions was developed to gather field data. All of the items were
measured by using a five-point Likert scales, defined with 5 as strongly agree and 1 as
strongly disagrees. The research involved collecting data from subscribers who visit
the mobile service providers’ customer retail outlet shops in both Mombasa and
Nairobi. Descriptive statistics was used to test the impact of the four key relationship
marketing tactics; namely, service quality, value offered, price and brand image on
customer loyalty. The study found that all four relationship marketing tactics have a
significant and positive effect on customer loyalty in the telecommunication in Kenya.
The study provides insight and significant feedback from mobile phone users to the
telecommunication operators. As the competitive environment increasingly becomes
fierce, the voice and preferences of the customers are also becoming the priority. This
finding is expected to serve as a guide and help telecommunication managers in
making informed judgment about the relationship marketing mix relevant to the
present customers’ needs that yields increase in revenue and profit
Publisher
University of Nairobi, School of Business