THE EFFECTS OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MARKETING ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY OF GLOBAL SYSTEM OF MOBILE COMMUNICATION SERVICES. ( A STUDY OF NETWORK SERVICE PROVIDERS IN NIGERIA)

The study was on the effects of customer relationship marketing on customer loyalty of global system of mobile communication services; A study of the network service providers in Nigeria. The objectives of the study was to investigate the effects of customer relationship marketing existing between;  complaint handling and customer loyalty, lower call rates and customer loyalty, lower interconnectivity rates and customer loyalty and bonus offer on calls and customer loyalty of the network providers. The study adopted a survey research method. The population of the study consisted of the subscribers of both MTN, AIRTEL, 9MOBILE and GLO networks in the South-East Nigeria and the sample size was 400. The questionnaire was designed in 5 likert scale and was administered to the respondents through face to face contact. Out of the 400questionnaires, 351 of these questionnaires were properly filled and returned. The hypotheses were tested using the Spearman Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (SPMCC) statistical tool. This was facilitated through the use of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 17. The findings of the study revealed high level insignificant relationship existing between complaint handling and customer loyalty while weak relationship existed between lower call rates, lower interconnectivity rates and bonus offer on calls with customer loyalty. This implied that subscribers will stay with their network providers as long as the network providers are able to satisfy the subscribers’ various needs and meet customer requirements within their expectations. The study recommended that the network providers should sensitize the operators on the better ways of dealing with customers’ complaints in order to create loyal customers. The national communication commission should be pro-active in their control and oversight functions with the network providers in order to improve the overall quality of their services. The operators should make their customer relationship marketing packages to be more interactive and participatory, carryout research to identify the different needs of the subscribers, create awareness of the customer relationship marketing benefits and losses, create new lines for busy subscribers, and develop new customer relationship marketing packages that will attract, hold and maintain long term relationship with their subscribers.