An Evaluation of the Management of Customer Experiences by Commercial Banks in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The research investigates the management of customer experience by Zimbabwean commercial banks. Most of the products being offered by the banks have become standardised therefore banks are being forced to orient their strategies towards customers instead of products making customer experiences a very key factor in strategic management. The research used the descriptive survey research design and non-probability sampling was used to select participants from the study population. Research instruments used were questionnaires and interviews. Data analysis was done using SPSS computer package. The study findings revealed that Zimbabwean commercial banks seem to be failing to realign their service offering to meet customer expectations. Therefore it can be concluded that the service offering in Zimbabwean Banks does not meet customer expectations. The study also reveals that employees in the Zimbabwean commercial banking sector are not adequately motivated to have customer centric values. The study results divulge that customers are satisfied with the physical environment and managers conveyed that they used the Physical Environment as a package and a facilitator. Finally managers mentioned that they face challenges when they are trying to manage customer experiences, 39% of management showed that lack of support from senior management which can be closely linked to the lack of resources contributed significantly to the challenges they faced in trying to manage customer experiences. Management also brought to fore the point that they were no clearly defined customer experience strategies in the organizations therefore it becomes very difficult to execute such strategies. The researchers recommended the need for Zimbabwean commercial banks to begin to actively involve their customers during product development and to put in place customer experience management strategies in their strategic plans.

Keywords: Customer experience management, Customer expectations, Customer perceptions and Commercial banks.