Customer Loyalty in Retail Banking

Retail banks are facing greater challenges than ever before in executing their customer management strategies. The higher the (perceived) service quality, the more satisfied and loyal are the customers. In particular, banks realised the strategic importance of customer value and seem to be continuously seeking innovative ways to enhance customer relationships. In fact, as the offers of many financial services are very similar and slightly differentiable, loyal customers have a huge value, since they are likely to spend and buy more, spread positive word-of-mouth, resist competitors’ offers, wait for a product to become available and recommend the service provider to other potential customers. The paper will try to investigate which dimensions are important in customer relationship with the banks. Then, the paper tries to study the factors in establishing long lasting relationships that will minimise the customers’ switching costs, according to the perceptions of both relationship bankers and their clients. Intensifying competition, proliferating customer contact channels, escalating attacks on customer information, rising customer expectations and capitalizing on new market opportunities are at the top of every bank executive’s agenda. In looking for ways to drive growth, banks need to evaluate their customer management strategy. According to analyses of the most business consulting companies (KPMG, Capgemini, Deloitte, Tower-Group, etc.) customers are discontented with the retail banking experience. To achieve higher business growth, banks must increase customer loyalty by delivering a distinctive experience that combines the right mix of convenience, value and service and forges an emotional bond with consumers. Winners will be those that transform themselves into customer-centric enterprises by having a clear vision of what they want to achieve, fully aligning business processes and IT infrastructure to achieve those goals and engaging their employees in the process. The first step to do it is the identification of customer satisfaction. This paper intends to reveal its essential elements.