Customer retention in retail financial services: an exploratory study

This investigation is concerned with how financial services retailers approach the<br/> retention of customers. Markets for financial services have become saturated,<br/> competition has become fiercer and consumers have gained greater confidence in<br/> the consumption of financial services. Traditional retailers of financial services<br/> have begun to look to their existing customers to maintain and improve their<br/> profitability in these turbulent times. They hope that by retaining selected<br/> customers, they will be able to lower their costs by cross-selling financial<br/> products. In spite of considerable practitioner interest in customer retention, to<br/> date there is limited empirical study, in particular, into how retaining customers<br/> might actually be achieved. This study adopts a pluralistic methodology and uses<br/> the perceptions of staff working for financial services retailers to build a picture of<br/> how retention is organised. Interviews with managers and two surveys are<br/> conducted to gather the data, which are then evaluated within a framework of<br/> contemporary marketing. The study finds that there are a number of aspects<br/> involved in retaining customers that include information systems and strategy.<br/> The results of the investigation also suggest that these retailers are organised<br/> around the acquisition of customers and that balancing retention with acquisition<br/> may prove challenging.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctoral Thesis

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Student thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Northampton

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Farquhar, Jillian

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• P, Johnstone
• Brown, R

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

oai:pure.atira.dk:studenttheses/813f4353-45ae-4eab-85b1-562623d49c43

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:pure.atira.dk:studenttheses/813f4353-45ae-4eab-85b1-562623d49c43