Abstract
M.Com. (Business Management)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an integral tool for maintaining long-term relationships with customers. Customers’ continual engagement with the organisation is dependent upon their satisfaction with the quality of the rendered service. In a Business-to-Business (B2B) environment, this usually means satisfying multiple stakeholders as B2B transactions involve more than one individual. Satisfying customers means that the service provider meets or exceeds customer expectations. We measure these outcomes by assessing how customers perceive the organisation’s image, the quality of services provided, the level of customisation of the service, whether they think they receive returns, and whether they trust the service provider. When customers are satisfied with the afore-mentioned assessment tools, they are likely to continue to engage with the service provider, demonstrating loyalty.
This research’s aim is to determine the influence that the factors of corporate image, service quality, perceived value, customisation and trust have on customer satisfaction, and how all ultimately enhance customer loyalty at a mobile service provider. The research gathered data from MTN Business customers who had purchased and made use of MTN Business solutions and services. Although studies have been conducted on the proposed factors of corporate image, service quality, perceived value, customisation, trust, their influence on customer satisfaction and ultimately on customer loyalty, no research appears to have been conducted exploring the influence of these factors on a mobile service provider in South Africa.
The study makes use of the positivistic research paradigm. Through this research paradigm, the researcher could interpret social interactions of business customer relationships with MTN Business South Africa. The methodological approach is descriptive and quantitative in nature. Data was gathered by means of a self-administered questionnaire, and distributed to a sample of 500 MTN Business customers. Seven response categories ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” were used for respondents to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with a set of statements, and measured using the Likert Scale. Non-probability sampling was used as the researcher selected elements to be included in the study from a customer database. The sample drawn from the MTN Business database focuses on customer billing. The researcher made use of judgement sampling to select sample emblements. SPSS version 22 was used to analyse the data and produced statistical reports from which results were interpreted and conclusions drawn. Simple regression analysis was used to determine whether the independent variables (corporate image, service quality, perceived value, customisation and trust), the intervening variable (customer satisfaction) and the dependent variable (customer loyalty) were correlated. These variables were all tested in previous studies by Tu, Li and Chih (2011); Bojei, Julian, Wel and Ahmed (2013); Roberts-...