Assesing the determinants of customer choice of bank. A case study of business owners within narok town.

Abstract

The banking sector has shown to have great contribution to the GDP of Kenya and in many other economies. Despite their contribution, they continue to struggle for survival due to competition as they have greatly increased in number. Bank managers should therefore come up with strategies that will increase customer retention. There is therefore need to provide an explanation on the determinants of customer choice of commercial banks in Narok county. The purpose of this study is to establish how cultural, social, personal and marketing of bank products and services assist in determination of customers choice of bank in Narok county. This research will be a descriptive study that used descriptive study using cross-sectional survey method. The population of the study comprised of 1100 business owners in Narok town. A sample size of 10% of the total population was selected to whom questionnaires were administered. The research will use stratified random sampling method to select the respondent. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire using a drop and pick later method and interviewing the respondents. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage, and mode. Tables were used to present the data. From the findings it is evident that customer choice of a bank is mainly affected by economic factors and marketing of products and services. The amount of income of an individual determines the amount he or she has to save in a bank. Social factors such as friendship groups and family had strong effect on consumer choice of a bank. On cultural factors the study established that it has a low effect on customer choice of a bank though this effect is very significant and should be taken seriously. Personal attitude and age has very low effect on consumer choice of a bank. Customer service, availability of loan and convenience also affect consumers’ choice. The study recommends the bank embraces customers of young customers and also adopt marketing strategies to take care of competition.