6. Discussions
There are so many elements that constitute CRM practices but among the variables used for this study, the most significant elements that constitute CRM practice in the banking industry includes having CRM policy, appointing relationship managers, having top management to support the CRM programme and giving feedback to customers.This is because these were the variables that were significant in both customer and staff data.
The most significant variable of CRM practiced by the bank according to the customers was the fact that the bank gives feedback to its customers followed by an agreement that the bank has relationship managers who take care of the customers’ needs. On the issue of their loyalty to the bank, customer responses suggest that they were loyal to the bank even though they did not strongly agree with some of the variables of customer loyalty.
There was evidence of CRM practice in the case bank however; it was obvious that the implementation was not effective because customers did not strongly agree to most of the variables which constitute effective CRM practice. The customer responses could be attributed to improper communication of the CRM programme to customers. Proper implementation of the CRM programme is important because Hollensen (2003) noted that both parties in the customer/firm relationship can benefit from customer retention through CRM.
The bank staff clearly demonstrated that CRM practice leads to customer loyalty through their responses. According to Roh et al. (2005), companies that implement CRM make better relationships with their customers, achieve customer loyalty resulting in substantial payback, increased revenue and reduced cost. In this regard, the staff data indicate that the bank has achieved growth and some customers continue to transact business with the bank because of their CRM policies.
The relationship between CRM and customer loyalty was positive. This is explained by the correlation analysis which showed a strong positive correlation between CRM and customer loyalty. Beerli, Martin, and Quintana (2004) state that today most banks offer the same type of products and the core product is not the attribute that makes the customer loyal rather CRM programmes and the manner in which they are implemented. Thus if banks want to improve the loyalty of their customers, they must improve the CRM practices of their banks