THE EFFECTS OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT ON CUSTOMER RETENTION IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

ABSTRACT

Today, there is a fierce competition in the insurance industry in Nigeria, and one of the key issues is the company‟s ability to practice effective Customer Relationship Management to achieve customer satisfaction in order to retain its existing customers and look for more. The subject of Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention has become a global issue. The study sought to examine the effect of customer relationship management on customer retention, with customer satisfaction playing the mediation role. Questionnaire was the main data collection tool used to gather data from 450 customers of the fifteen Non-life selected Insurance Companies in Lagos. The estimation tool used to test the study hypothesis was Structural Equation Model and STATA 12.0 software was used for analyses. Findings revealed that customer relationship management has a significant positive effect on customer retention. Also, there is a positive and significant correlation between customer satisfaction and customer retention. This shows that the more satisfied customers are the more likely they will stay or stick to a particular policy. Thus, the study result declares that, partial mediation is achieved. The study concluded that both customer relationship management and customer satisfaction are antecedents to customer retention. Customer relationship management is also a significant driver of customer satisfaction in the insurance industry.The study recommended that, the insurance practitioners should invest resources and capacity to intensify the management of customer relationships as this has been shown to impact on profitability. The researcher recommends there should be a further study on the effects of CRM on Customer retention in the life sector of the insurance industry. Another research can be conducted to assess the impact of CRM practises in the insurance industry in Nigeria.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background of the Study

Several organizations including insurance companies spend a significant part of their time, energy and resources chasing new business. Even though it is important to replace lost business, grow the business and expand into new markets, one of the primary goals is to keep existing customers and enhance customer relationships (Weinstein, 2002). Thus, the cost of acquiring new customers can be up to 10 times the cost of retaining existing ones, and even a small increase in retention rates can add thousands of cedis to premium revenue. Experience shows that a customer holding two policies with the same company is much more likely to renew than a customer holding a single policy and – it is impossible to determine which types of customers are profitable and should try to retain. Although finding new customer is very important, the emphasis is shifting towards retaining profitable customers and building lasting relationship with them. Companies have also discovered that losing a customer means losing not just a single sale but also a life time‟s worth of purchase and referrals. In effect, the double goal of marketing is to attract new customers by promising superior value and retain current customers by delivering satisfaction (Kotler & Armstrong, 2011).

Most insurance product developments are easy to increase and when insurance companies provide nearly similar services, they can only distinguish themselves based on effective customer relationship management (CRM) and customer satisfaction practice. Customer retention is the central concern for CRM. Customer satisfaction,

which refers to the comparison of customers‟ expectations with his or her perception of being satisfied, is the essential condition for retaining customers (Kracklauer et al., 2004). Therefore, customer retention is an effective and importance tool that insurance companies can use to gain a strategic advantage and survive in today‟s ever increasing insurance competitive environment.

CRM represents an activity to developed full-knowledge about customer behavior and preferences in order to initiate programs and strategies that encourages customers to continually enhance their business relationship with the company (Parvatiyar A & J. N. Sheth, 2001). The strategies of customer relationship management are anticipated to curtail occurrence of service failures that motivate customer to switch in the insurance industry (Crosby et al., 1990; Jones & Farquhar, 2003; Best, 2002; Mithas et al., 2005; Uppal, 2008 and Sharma et al., 2011). Furthermore Verhoef (2003), study demonstrates that, CRM positively affect customer retention. Verhoef & Donkers (2001), confirm that CRM allows insurance companies to employ strategies with the help of customer databases in administrating personal customer relationships effectively towards retention. Customer relationship management has typically been viewed as an important determinant affecting customer retention. The connection between customer relationship management and customer retention is worth studying in the competitive Nigeriaian insurance market.

1.2         Statement of Problem

Insurance companies offer inimitable financial services which promotes the growth of every nation. The services range from the underwriting of risks common in economic entities and the mobilization of large amount of funds through premiums for long term investments. The risk absorption role of insurers ensures financial stability in the financial markets and provides a sense of security to economic entities. The business world without insurance is unsustainable since risky business may not have the capacity to retain all kinds of risks in this ever changing and uncertain global economy (Ahmed et al., 2010). Indeed, a well-developed and evolved insurance industry is a boon for economic development as it provides long- term funds for infrastructure development of any economy (Charumathi, 2012). The National Insurance Commission, the regulatory body of the Nigeriaian insurance sector, has therefore intensified its supervision, field visits, and has adopted a risk-based assessment of insurer‟s activities. All of these regulatory measures are to ensure that the performance of insurance companies is in sound condition. In spite of the important role of the insurance industry, there is little information in the industry to help professionals to work to make good policies and address the needs of customers and formulate effective policies. Availability and easy access to accurate statistics on the Nigeriaian insurance market remains a big challenge to the sector today. Most Nigeriaians therefore are totally at a loss about what actually transpires in the industry. This has affected insurance penetration negatively in Nigeria. For instance, in 2008, insurance penetration in Nigeria was 1.57%, whiles South Africa recorded 12.7% (National Insurance Commission [NIC] Annual Report, 2008).

Most of the Nigeriaian insurers argue that, the insurance business is drenched however there is high participation of foreign insurance companies indicating the unexploited opportunities in the country (Ansah-Adu et al., 2011). The core argument is that, CRM practices can support organizations to achieve marketing productivity through establishing strong relationship with the customers in competitive markets (see Parvatiyar & Sheth, 2001; Sheth & Parvatiyar, 1995; Sheth & Sisodia, 2002). Thus, when organizations concentrate on customers by practicing CRM strategies, they can understand their needs and provide greater value which will improve company‟s position in the competitive market. However, the effectiveness of CRM to achieve customer satisfaction and influence customer retention remains skeptical. Organizations perceive CRM operations as purely technological (see Payne & Frow, 2005) rather than delivering customer needs through organizational plans, staffs and procedures of service (Sharma et al., 2011). Moreover, Relationship marketing literature is sated with studies that explores on effects of CRM to improve customer retention (Boulding et al., 2005; Mithas et al., 2005, Uppal, 2008 and Sharma et al., 2011); and the effectiveness of CRM from the customer‟s perspective (Padmavathy, 2012; Palmatier et al., 2006 ), effects of customer satisfaction on customer retention (Reichheld & Teal, 1996; Best, 1998; Reinartz & Kumar, 2000; Reichheld & Kenny, 1990 and Khan 2012.) and the effects of CRM on customer satisfaction (Mithas et al, 2005; Faed, 2010;Hassan, 2015; Long et al., 2013;Izquierdoet al., 2005; Khedkar, 2015).

Additionally, the impact of CRM practices on different industries have been extensively studied as well in areas such as hotels (Lo et al., 2010), retailing (Gummesson, 2004; Long et al., 2013; Payne et al., 2005; Minami & Dawson, 2008), banking services (Dimitriadis, 2010; Anabila , 2010), tourism (Ozgener & Iraz, 2006), transport services (Cheng et al., 2008), cellular industry (Saadat et al., 2013) and public services (Pan et al., 2006). Despite these numerous studies, there is a relatively low literature on the effects of CRM on customer satisfaction in the insurance industry (Rastghalam et al., 2014; Verhoef, 2003) and to examine the influence of CRM practices on customer retention in the insurance industry. Furthermore, there is no research conducted to examine the mediation role of customer satisfaction on the relationship between the effect of CRM on customer retention in the insurance industry at large and particularly in Nigeria from the customer‟s perspective (see Abu, 2011).

1.3         Research Objectives

The main aim of the study is to explore the effect of customer relationship management on customer retention on the insurance industry in Nigeria with customer satisfaction playing the mediating role. The specific objectives would be as follows:

1. To examine the relationship between customer relationship management and customer retention in the insurance industry in Nigeria
2. To examine the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention in the insurance industry in Nigeria
3. To examine the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the relationship between customer relationship management and customer retention in the insurance industry in Nigeria.

1.4         Research Questions

Based on the objectives set above, the study seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What are the relationship between customer relationship management and customer retention in the insurance industry in Nigeria?
2. What are the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention in the insurance industry in Nigeria?
3. What is the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the relationship between customer relationship management and customer retention in the insurance industry in Nigeria?

1.5         Significance of the Study

The results of this study would hopefully be significant in the sense that it would enable insurance companies to better understand why customers defect; the effect of customer relationship management and the various motivational factors which could be harnessed to inspire customers to retain them to increase and sustain productivity.

The study would also contribute to the little existing knowledge on customers‟ retention in the insurance industry in relation to the effects of company‟s profitability.

1.6         Scope of the Study

The total number of both life and non-life insurance companies in Nigeria are forty five (45). The study would be limited to the selected Insurance Companies in Lagos, Nigeria. The customers would comprise the study population and the study would be carried out in the space of 6 months.

1.7         Overview of the Research Methodology

This section outlined the research methodology processes to be used in the study. A discussion of the study‟s survey research design is presented and its adoption justified. The population and the sample strategies are all covered in the study. It also covers the sources of data which would be used to obtain the data for the study and the tool for the data analysis. Furthermore, the study combined both primary and secondary data. The secondary data was collected from published literature, journals, brochures, company information etc. The primary data was collected through a survey questionnaire. Policy holders are the target population because they are homogeneous in their use of insurance services. Their opinions will be sought because they would be best to evaluate existing stage of insurance services. Data was collected from 450 customers of some selected Insurance Companies in Nigeria, specifically Lagos, on convenience basis.

1.8         Limitations of the study

In spite of the significant contribution of this study to literature, the study has some limitations. Firstly, this study used subjective measure for the variables in place of objective measures. Nonetheless, subjective measure appears to be most suitable measure for the variables in the context of this research. Lack of reliable company information from staffs with the doubt of such information reaching their competitors coupled with inappropriate documentation by the companies in the non-life insurance companies in Nigeria do not make it possible to use objective measure. Despite the limitations, subjective measures of performance have been used extensively by researchers (Cosby et al., 1990; Padmavathy et al., 2012; Wong et al., 2007; Rai et al., 2013) to study large samples. Furthermore, Wall et al. (2004) confirms the validity of subjective measures as alternative for objective measures. Additionally, generalizing the outcome across African countries must be done carefully since the study was limited to an emerging economy in the sub-Saharan African country of Nigeria.

1.9         Organization of the study

Chapter one of the study is the introduction chapter which contains the background of the study, the structure of the work, the statement of the problem, objective of the study, problems to come across, and the organization of the study. The chapter two consists of the detailed discussion on the accessible studies by a variety of researchers on customer relationship management, customer satisfaction and customers‟ retention in an organization. The chapter three of the study contains the research methodology to be applied for the study. It discusses the alternative methods of studying the effects of customer relationship management on customers‟ retention, with customer satisfaction playing the mediating role and its impact on profitability in the insurance institutions. The fourth chapter of this study consists of the data analysis which would be collected for the study and also comprises of the results and discussions to be extracted from objectives developed for the study. The concluding chapter of this study would consist of summary results, conclusion of the study, recommendations for the insurance industry of the findings and future research.

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