Relationship Marketing Strategies and Customer Loyalty: a Case of the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Kenya

Abstract

Due to the increasing competition in today’s business world, many companies are required to build long-term profitable relationship with customers and to achieve customer loyalty. Therefore, relationship marketing has become more and more important since the last decade of 20th century, especially in service industry. There are many different relationship marketing tactics implemented for retaining customers. However, some of those tactics did not affect customer loyalty effectively, and switching behaviors frequently occur among most of targeted customers. The study was aimed at assessing the impact of relationship marketing tactics on customer loyalty in the Kenyan mobile industry where deregulation has led to intense competition and scramble for market share. A self-completion questionnaire with a total of 40 closed questions was developed to gather field data. All of the items were measured by using a five-point Likert scales, defined with 5 as strongly agree and 1 as strongly disagrees. The research involved collecting data from subscribers who visit the mobile service providers’ customer retail outlet shops in both Mombasa and Nairobi. Descriptive statistics was used to test the impact of the four key relationship marketing tactics; namely, service quality, value offered, price and brand image on customer loyalty. The study found that all four relationship marketing tactics have a significant and positive effect on customer loyalty in the telecommunication in Kenya. The study provides insight and significant feedback from mobile phone users to the telecommunication operators. As the competitive environment increasingly becomes fierce, the voice and preferences of the customers are also becoming the priority. This finding is expected to serve as a guide and help telecommunication managers in making informed judgment about the relationship marketing mix relevant to the present customers’ needs that yields increase in revenue and profit