Customers’ Involvement and Retention of Deposit Money Banks in Port Harcourt

Abstract

The success of any firm depends on its ability to consistently satisfy and build total trust with its customers.  This cannot be achieved if customers are not involved in the production and commercialization process of the organization anchored by market orientation. This study investigates the influence of customers’ involvement on customer retention of deposit money banks in Port Harcourt.  Customers’ involvement has become pertinent for organizational success because it helps management to utilize a model good enough to explain, predict, create and deliver customers’ expectations and wishes for a particular brand. The study population had 324 officials of the 21 existing deposit money banks in Port Harcourt listed in the Nigerian stock exchange .A cross sectional survey research design was adopted; primary data was sourced from one hundred and sixty-six (166) staff of seven (7) deposit money banks in Port Harcourt through administering questionnaires to the sample of one hundred and seventy-nine (179). The data were analyzed and interpreted into meaningful information with descriptive and inferential statistical tools; percentages, bar chart, graph and regression analysis with the aid of Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) statistical software. Five equations where formulated, and their level of significance were tested. Model one (Ho1) with a correlation coefficient R value of 0.325 shows a positive but weak relationship between coaching and customer satisfaction in deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. Model two (Ho2) with a R² value of 0.428 also shows that the relationship between coaching and total trust is positive but weak. The R² value of model three (Ho3) is 0.708 which shows a positive and strong relationship between partnering and customer satisfaction and model four (Ho4) with a R² value 0.716 shows partnering and total trust are statistically significant so is model 5a,b (Ho5a,b) with R² values of 0.856 and 0.678 respectively. The study concludes that customers’ involvement does not have a strong positive, significant influence on customer retention without the aid of market orientation. Hence, the continuous improvement of market orientation is recommended to retain and involve customers in deposit money banks in Port Harcourt to create utility, delight that will keep profitable customers clued to the organization.