Experience Marketing and Customer Retention in the Nigerian Telecommunications Industry

Abstract:

The Nigerian Telecommunications Industry is classified as the fastest-growing and most competitive Telecommunications industry in the world. It has the largest subscriber base in Africa with over 150 million subscribers. Due to the increased competitiveness in the telecommunication industry in Nigeria, customer retention has become the focus of telecommunication providers. It is in this light that this paper is built. Hence, the general objective of the paper is to determine the effect of experience marketing on customer retention in the Nigerian Telecommunications industry. The study made use of primary data gotten through a validated set of structured questionnaires which was distributed to a selected sample of 402 respondents within the six states of the south-south geo-political zone of the Niger Delta Area of Nigeria, which are Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Calabar, Edo, Delta and River States. The paper adopted correlation and regression analysis to test the formulated research questions and hypotheses. After the analysis, it was discovered that there was a strong and positive effect of experience marketing on customer retention in the Nigerian Telecommunications industry. The study, therefore, concluded that Customer Service Quality, Customer Brand Relationship, and Customer Emotional Experience are good indicators and dimensions of Experience Marketing that could increase the degree to which customer retention is enhanced in Telecommunication Firms in Nigeria. Hence, it was recommended, among others, that Telecommunication operators in Nigeria must switch from the traditional marketing approach to an experience-based marketing strategy if they want to remain relevant and competitive in the globalised telecommunication industry.