Impact of Relationship Marketing Practices on Customer Retention in the Insurance Industry in Kenya

Abstract

Insurance companies need sound systems of marketing strategies implementation to achieve a competitive edge over the competitors and to achieve results within the envir onment in which they operate. The study aimed at finding out the impact of relationship marketing practices on customer retention in insurance companies in Kenya. It was directed by the following objectives; t o establish the relationship marketing practice s adopted by insurance companies in Kenya and to determine the effect of relationship marketing practices on customer retention among the insurance companies in Kenya. The study employed a descriptive survey as its research design. A combination of various techniques of data analysis to determine an overall picture of the variables in the population using SPSS was used . From the findings, most of the relationship marketing practices presented to the respondents were, to a moderate extent, perceived to have an effect on customer retention. Those practices that were found to be perceived as having the greatest effect include: d esigning and implementing programs to efficiently and effectively allocate the appropriate resources to each customer ; ensuring adheren ce to laws and regulations governing the conduct of business and maintaining high ethical standards ; entering into one - to - one communication with a customer and undertaking customer data - mining to identify important customer s who warrant special attention. The study concludes that the insurance companies have adopted customer satisfaction practices to a large extent . The study recommends improvement in use of technology related relationship marketing practices . This study is significant in help ing life insur ance companies to understand how best to implement the relationship marketing strategies. It is also of importance to the Insurance Regulatory Authorities to understand the effect of relationship marketing practices on customer retention among the insuranc e companies in Kenya . The study also recommended that studies on other dimensions of relationship marketing be carried out in the insurance companies in Kenya. For instance one might be interested in investigating the relationship marketing strategies and challenges of implementing such strategies among the insurance companies