Service Recovery Strategies and Customer Retention of Selected Banks in Lagos State, Nigeria

This study explores the relationship between service recovery strategies and customer retention of selected banks in Lagos, Nigeria. Service failure occurs when the quality of service delivery fall short of customers’ expectations. That is, when customers receive services of lower quality than they wish to receive or lower than they can tolerate. Service recovery is crucial to the survival of any business organisation whether for profit-making or not--profit making. Service recovery strategies are the actions taken by a company in response to service failure. It is the action taken by companies to satisfy and retain its valued customers when service standards and qualities do not meet the customers' expectations and bring about satisfaction. While literature has been inundated with various forms of customer attraction and retention strategies, little has been done in the area of process, customer relations, complaints handling, and compensation recovery strategies. To address these service gaps, the study focused on the effect of process recovery strategy on customer repurchase of bank services; the influence of customer relation strategy on customer loyalty.The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The target population for this study was 4,800,000 customers that registered for Bank Verification Number (BVN) in Lagos State out of which a sample of 520 was picked. To determine a desirable sample from the population, Yamane (1967) sampling formula was used. A multiple sampling method was adopted - first step was stratified sampling, followed by proportional and simple random sampling process. The response of completed questionnaire was 458, this constitutes 88.09% rate. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential (Pearson's Product Moment Correlation and Linear Regression) analysis.Finding shows that process recovery strategy has a positive and significant effect on customer repurchase of bank services (β = 0.817, t = 30.765, ρ<0.05). The R-squared value reveals that process recovery strategy explained almost 67.5 percent of the variances in customer repurchase of bank services (R2=0.675; p<0.05).The study also shows the Unstandardised coefficient of customer relation strategy to be 0.879 (β = 0.879, t= 18.737, ρ = 0.000) meaning that customer relation strategy has a statistically significant influence on customer loyalty. The study concluded that process and customer relations recovery strategies have a positive and significant influence on customer retention of selected banks in Lagos, Nigeria. It is recommended, therefore, that in addition of banks meeting their customers’ expectations, they should focus on recovery of services for sustainable customer retention. Keywords:Service failures, service recoveries, process recovery, customer relations recovery, repurchase of bank services, Customer loyalty, customer retention

THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES ON THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY

This paper investigated the impact of digital financial services on the Nigerian economy, a study of Nigerian deposit money banks (DMBs). An expo-facto data analysis was carried out on independent variables of digital financial services: volume of ATM transactions (VATM), volume of POS transactions (VPOS), volume of WEBPAY transactions (VWBP) and volume of mobile banking (VMOB) regressed on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a dependent variable. These were obtained from the 2017 Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin using the ordinary least square regression (OLS). Findings from the study revealed that the volume of mobile banking, point of sales, and volume of automatic teller machines transactions have positive impact on the economy of Nigeria with the volume of automatic teller machines having the highest impact on the gross domestic product of Nigeria as a proxy of economic growth while the volume of web services has a negative impact on the Nigerian gross domestic product. The study therefore recommends improvement on the operationalization of the independent variables: (ATM, POS, WEB PAY and MOB) by the monetary authorities, Fintech (financial technology), and the DMBs (Deposit money banks) to enhance the dependent variable of gross domestic product in Nigeria as a global economy while putting more effort on the security, safety, and literacy of these innovations to eliminate or reduce the negative impact of the web services innovation on the Nigerian economy

Achieving operational resilience through kaizen practice: a case in a commercial livestock farm in Nigeria

Purpose – This study is focused on achieving operational resilience through the practices of kaizen across the operational structure. The research is based on a case study of a commercial livestock farm in Nigeria. The study views the practice of kaizen from the perspective of the commitment of the members of the case study organisation who are directly involved with the operations of the organisation. Design/methodology/approach – The study applies a qualitative approach to explore the topic, engaging members of the case study organisation in the research to gather relevant data on the implementation of kaizen practices and the drive to attain resilience in the case study organisation. Semi-structured personal interviews and workshops were used for data collection. The study adopts systems theory to explore the topic, identifying and engaging relevant stakeholders. Findings – Parts of the findings relating to kaizen are the issues with the livestock production process, aggressive leadership and the issue of livestock mortality in the case study organisation. These were discussed based on extant literature. The study affirms the importance of organisational members’ commitment and adequate leadership support to achieve sustainable kaizen practices. The study highlights the need to align kaizen practices with relevant organisational practices, such as reward systems and contextual requirements for its implementation in an operational process. The study suggests that further study can focus on the dynamics of the legal system on the implementation of kaizen, especially from a developing economic background like Nigeria, where this study was conducted. Originality/value – The study projects learning about the spatial factors that can affect the practices of kaizen in critical sectors like livestock managemen