Attitude Of Personal Banking Customers In Nairobi Towards The Repositioning Strategy Adopted By Kenya Commercial Bank Limited

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to establish whether customers are aware of the repositioning strategy carried out by KCB, (Cognitive component of attitude), determine the customer's feelings towards the repositioning strategy adopted by KCB (Affective component of attitude), determine the customer's responses towards the repositioning strategy adopted by KCB (Behavioral component of attitude). The study was a descriptive research, the research targeted all the KCB personal banking customers in Nairobi, a sample size of 100 personal banking customers were interviewed using nonrandom convenience sampling out of which a response rate of 72% was achieved. The findings from the study indicate that most of the respondents were male, married, aged between aged between (26 - 35) years, had an average monthly income of below Kshs. 100,000, had university and college diploma education, operated either current or savings account, opened their accounts before the changes and did not have accounts with other banks. Major research findings show that the awareness level of the respondents was established to be very high most of the respondents were aware of the new logo, more ATMs, new colours, that staff wear KCB T-shirts on Fridays, new slogan/tagline: "making the difference, refurbished branches/more spacious banking halls, IT upgrade, more staff in the banking halls and shorter processes/counter services are faster. The main sources of awareness were TV, newspapers and magazines, KCB sponsored events, posters & leaflets and personal banker /other KCB staff. The respondents strongly agreed with the following factors; that they were proud to be KCB customers, that KCB is good in social responsibility, that new KCB colours more appealing and vibrant, that now banking halls have better ambience, that new KCB logo is more appealing, that KCB adverts are now more captivating and that now staff are more customer conscious. The overall attitude of the customers towards KCB is very positive, since majority of the respondents trust in the banking services of KCB, feel that the bank is now more friendly and will continue to operate an account with the bank, tell others of the changes in KCB, will open more accounts in KCB should they require, will not close down their accounts, will not switch to other banks, introduced new customers and now come to the bank more frequently. The main limitation of the study was that the results of some questions should first be viewed independently given that some were applicable to those customers with accounts in KCB before the changes, those who opened the accounts after the changes while others did not have an account with KCB. The effect of this is that the statistical proportion of responses would be higher for those answered by both groups compared to those relevant to a single group.