Customer Satisfaction Through End-to-end Service Management Strategy: A Study Of Large Commercial Banks In Kenya

Abstract

Access to reliable data across an enterprise means valuable intelligence for strategic decision-making. When it comes to retail banking, competition to attract and keep customers is fierce. Deregulation of the banking industry has lowered competitive entry barriers and competition is coming from both within and outside the industry. Technological advancements and the growth of the Internet have lowered geographic barriers and brought information to customers' fingertips. Changing lifestyles and technological sophistication have heightened customers' expectations and lowered their loyalty. Speed of information transmission has led to commoditization of banks' products and services-thus eroding profits from product and services. To survive and succeed, banks are looking for ways to increase customer satisfaction and retention- while containing costs, improving efficiency and maxmuzmg return on their technology investments. Satisfaction measures continue to reflect an increasing gap between the quality of service offered by the banks in general. Despite the public relations efforts of the major banks to improve their image, banking customers are increasingly dissatisfied with the service they receive from banks. In particular, customers are disgruntled over higher fees and charges, reductions in staff and branch closures. This research focuses on customer satisfaction through end-to-end service management strategy. The objectives of the study are identify the activities constituting end-to-end Service Management for the major banking services and to determine end to end service activities that create customer satisfaction and loyalty. A survey study on the 8 large banks The Population of this study was all commercial banks operating in Kenya, which are currently 43 in number. Data was collected by use a structured questionnaires consisting of both open-ended and closed questions. The findings of the study were such that all customers consistently look for three specific types of attributes in virtually all service products: ease of use, timeliness, certainty (consistency, accuracy, reliability, etc.). Further research could be conducted to investigate how banks have implemented the end-to-end service strategy through information technology.