The Effect of Bonding, Responsiveness and Communication on Customer Retention: The Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

In the past, research has been conducted on what causes clients to remain with a bank in the global banking business. Relationship marketing is predicated on customer retention; hence, these findings encourage authors of scholarly marketing literature to include these aspects. This study looks at how bonding, responsiveness, and communication directly affect customer retention and customer satisfaction, as well as how bonding, responsiveness, and communication indirectly affect customer retention via customer satisfaction. Through the use of the convenience sampling method, a total of 384 customers were chosen. An investigation of banking customers was carried out in the form of a cross-sectional survey, making use of a structured questionnaire. The results showed that bonding and communication had a direct and significant effect on keeping customers, but responsiveness did not. Also, bonding, communication, and responsiveness have a direct and significant effect on customer satisfaction. In a similar vein, customer satisfaction has a direct effect on customer retention. On the other hand, bonding and responsiveness were seen to have an indirect but significant effect on customer retention via customer satisfaction, whereas communication did not. The study suggests that managers retain consumers by promptly reacting to customer needs and communicating effectively. This will assist them in satisfying and retaining customers.

Keywords:

• Bonding
• responsiveness
• communication
• customer retention
• customer satisfaction