The mediating role of customer satisfaction in the relationship between service quality and customer retention in the rural banks in Ashanti Region

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Date
NOVEMBER, 2015
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Abstract
The study primarily focused on evaluating the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the link between service quality and customer retention in the rural banks in the Ashanti Region. Customers of 20 rural banks operating within and around the Kumasi Metropolis were targeted for the study. Data were collected using questionnaires. Out of 200 questionnaires administered, 179 were received and used for the analysis. This represented a response rate of 89.5%. Ordinary Least Square Regression Analysis was used to estimate the proposed theoretical model. Due to the multiple inter-dependent relationships to be estimated, hierarchical models were built and evaluated. The results of the study indicated that customer satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between service quality and customer retention. The study also revealed that within the research context, the direct effect of service quality on customer retention is greater than its indirect effect which further supports that service quality is a significant antecedent of customer retention and its effect on the latter construct does not fully work through customer satisfaction. Further results indicated that service quality significantly accounts for 30.9% and 6.2% variations in customer satisfaction and customer retention respectively while customer satisfaction significantly explains 14.1% variations in customer retention. In this study, it was found that aspects of service quality that are of greater concern to customers which significantly affect both customer satisfaction and customer retention was ‘assurance’. This finding support recent observation in the country where most customers of rural and micro-finance institutions have been alarmed and developed less trust and are sceptical about their bankers’ ability and integrity to safeguard their accounts and investments given that some of these banks continue to fail and or ‘run away’ with their investments. Based on these findings it suggested that rural banks should focus more on making customers feel safe in their transactions with them and also by having employees who are knowledgeable in and have professional control over their jobs.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Marketing and Corporate Strategy of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the award of the degree of Master of Business Administration (Strategic Management and Management Consulting).
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