Investigation Of The Effect Of Customer Relationship Management On Customer Retention In Commercial Banks A Case Of Kcb Limited In Kenya Nairobi Region

ABSTRACT

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a combination of organizational strategy, information systems, and technology that is focused on providing better customer service. The main objective of CRM is to acquire new customers, retain the current customers, and nurture a favorable relationship with the existing customers. CRM as a methodology of creating and evolving an organization in the marketplace while at the same time influencing positively the perception of the organization in individual customers. Today, consumers are more educated, better informed, more technology savvy, have more purchasing power and hence, more demanding in the products and services they buy. Therefore, companies should use CRM as a strategy that goes beyond simply making the customer feel important and strives to make the customer an extension of the research and development team, the marketing team, the advertising team, and any other line of business that can benefit from direct contribution by the ultimate consumer. Kenya Commercial Bank has managed to weather this competition to stand out as one of the successful Kenyan businesses today. This study sought to analyse the Customer Relationship Management strategies that are being used by Kenya Commercial Bank to retain and attract new customers. The variables include customer recognition practices, brand visibility, promotion and technological systems and how they affect customer retention. To achieve this objective, the researcher used structured questionnaires. The target respondents were front office employees of Kenya Commercial Bank who were picked randomly from 44 branches in its Nairobi region. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. The main importance of the findings was to assess the influence of Customer Relationship Management on customer retention as a strategy for maintaining competitive edge in the banking industry. The study found out that the customer recognition was not used mainly in the customer retention effort while that would have been most preferred, however technology, brand and promotion were extensively used which had led to increased customer retention and profitability but had created resentment by customer with most of them thinking that the bank was using them to make huge profits and that the bank did not genuinely care about their relationship. The research showed that there was need at promoting a healthier relationship between customers and the bank in general. The utilization of the technology was good and should be encouraged, brand awareness and loyalty was also high plus the promotional activities were seen to be working extensively and the momentum should be maintained. It was however necessary to look at thing that did not work. There was need to increase focus in customer recognition and enhancing the relationship that traditional banking used to elicit to its customers. There was also need of proactive public relations by banks that they would make the general public aware of the difficulty of the environment it operated in so that they would not see them as organization who were meant to fleece their customer in order to make huge profit margins.