IMPACT OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON CUSTOMER RETENTION: A STUDY OF CUSTOMERS OF SELECTED RESTAURANTS IN ENUGU METROPOLIS

Abstract

The study examined the impact of customer satisfaction on customer retention of some selected fast food restaurants in Enugu metropolis. The research was conducted to provide empirical evidence on the relationship existing between customer satisfaction and customer retention to assist the management offast food restaurants in Enugu metropolis to initiatepoliciesand programs that will help them to continue to satisfy their customers. The specific objectives of the study was to examine the effects of trust, customer care, better communication, after sales service and promise fulfillment on customer retention in the fast food restaurants in Enugu metropolis. The research design used was the cross- sectional survey research design. The area covered by the study was Enugu metropolis and the instrument used was questionnaire that was confirmed using content validity and test-retest for reliability. The employed analytical techniques comprises of simple tables, percentages, simple regression in statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 20) to analyze and treat the data collected. The results obtained from the study revealed that trust, customer care, better communication, after sale services and fulfilled promises have positive and significant effects on customer retention of fast food restaurants in Enugu metropolis. Basedon the findings, the study recommended that the managements of all the fast foodrestaurants in Enugu metro polis should deliver consistent, reliableand dependable services to their customers to gain their trust, provide adequate customer care to ensure that customers’ needs are met during and after the services are delivered, provide adequate and better communication networks to enable them collect and handle all complaints arising from product use, develop and maintain effective and efficient after sale services to ensure periodic calls and visit to keep customers informed of new offers and benefits and consistently re- evaluate performance against standard to ensure all promises made during the transaction are fulfilled. Customers are assets to every business organization and getting them satisfied after service use makesthem to be loyal to the organization.