The Impact of Customer Relationship Management on Organizational Productivity in the Financial Sector
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Performance in the financial sector. The specific objectives are as follows:
- To examine the Customer Focus and Marketing Performance in the Nigerian financial sector.
- To examine the Customer Relationship Management Organization and Marketing Performance in the Nigerian financial sector.
- To examine the Knowledge Management and Marketing Performance in the Nigerian financial sector
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY
The financial stability of a country is an important prerequisite towards economic growth. In this regard the financial institution plays a decisive role in the economic growth of Ghana. If a country wishes to attract investment it must have a solid and profitable branch of the financial services industry (Goosen, et al, 1999:187). The functions performed by financial institutions affects all aspects of a country‟s economy and are central to the overall performance of the economy. Customers are the reason why businesses exist. In the past, many companies took their customers for granted. Customers did not have alternative suppliers, or the market was growing so fast that the companies did not worry about fully satisfying its customers. A company could lose 100 customers a week, but gain another 1000 customers and consider its sales to be satisfactory. Such a company believes that there will always be enough customers to replace the defecting ones (Kotler, 2001). In recent times, there has been a paradigm shift from transaction oriented to customer oriented strategies. Companies and organizations are focusing their attention on how to create a long lasting relationship with customers and how to retain them. Customer oriented companies and organizations provide additional services; cross selling, up-selling, recognizing the needs of customers (Wayland and Cole, 1997).
Customer satisfaction, Customer retention, loyalty and the firm’s profitability
Customer satisfaction has a long-term financial impact on the business (Nagar and Rajan 2005). Previous research has investigated the linkage of customer satisfaction and its various outcomes, such as customer loyalty (Stank, et al, 1999;Verhoef, 2003) and profitability (Anderson, et al, 1994, Mittal and Kamakura, 2001). Highly satisfied customers of a firm are likely to purchase more frequently, in greater volume and buy other goods and services offered by the same service provider (Anderson, et al, 1994, andGronholdt, et al, 2000). Research in accounting has also shown that customer satisfaction is an intangible asset and a leading indicator of business unit revenues (Ittner and Larcker, 1998). Many companies focus on finding new customers instead of retaining and satisfying the existing customer base. However, since competition among companies is tough the retention of customers has become more important than the acquisition of new customers. In recent years companies have realized that a critical success factor is not a single transaction but the creation of long-term relationship Although there is no universally agreed definition of customer loyalty (Uncles, et al, 2003), Customer Loyalty can be defined as a situation when a customer has a positive attitude towards a company, expresses a willingness to repurchase from that company and actually does make the next purchase from that company rather than from a competitor (Chojnacki, 2000). Customer satisfaction has a positive impact on firm’s profitability due to a number of reasons.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study of customer relationship management and organizational productivity in the financial sector
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on customer relationship management and organizational productivity in the financial sector. 200 staff of Union bank plc, awka, Anambra state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was on customer relationship management and organizational productivity in the financial sector. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of customer relationship management and organizational productivity in the financial sector
Summary
This study was on customer relationship management and organizational productivity in the financial sector. Three objectives were raised which included: To examine the Customer Focus and Marketing Performance in the Nigerian financial sector, to examine the Customer Relationship Management Organization and Marketing Performance in the Nigerian financial sector, to examine the Knowledge Management and Marketing Performance in the Nigerian financial sector. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staff of union bank plc awka, Anambra state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made HRMS, customer care officers, marketers and junior staffs were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The major CRM practices are collaborative, customization, customer prospecting as well as key account management practices. The results shows that customization is the most popular and used practice, the reason given as that today’s customer is dynamic and each financial product has to be tailored to his/ her requirements at any given time. Thus customer intimacy has to be the focal point of any thriving financial organization. In the same vain there has to be an interactive customer management to enhance customer retention.
- There is strong link between customer relationship management and customer retention as shown by the hypothesis tests carried out. This calls for implementation of CRM practices implementation to any forward thinking marketer to cultivate valuable long term relationships. Interactive as well as customization of financial products has to be done. Banks has to put in place measures that build long term relationships. Customers should be focal point for any organization. This calls for customer orientation.
Recommendation
In light of the above conclusions it is recommended that Head offices should launch in-house service workshops for all workers with a focus on CRM applications and practices. This will enhance full embracing of the concept by all employees as all employees are marketers and can help in relationship building with clients, even a security guard in a bank is a marketer and hence should be empowered with CRM knowledge. Also in light of the conclusion in terms of poor knowledge by customers banks should educate their clients and would be clients on how they can take advantage of the new communication technologies to maximize their financial value. Customers should be educated on how they can make use of the internet to enhance their business with their bankers i.e. how they can make use of internet banking, SMS banking in the comfort of their offices and also to keep themselves up dated of happenings in the market. In case of inadequate personnel to execute CRM solutions, organizations are recommended to hire experts in the discipline since it’s cheaper than having a department. Experts will assist in CRM implementation. This research managed to discover some of the hidden strategies that can be employed by commercial banks to gain competitive advantage. It is the researchers` feeling that there is also a room for improvement as far as customer satisfaction is concerned. The researchers suggest that the next research should address issues affecting acceptance of the internet banking and how best can customers get to know its effectiveness.
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