Influence of customer relationship management capabilities on performance of Commercial Banks in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of customer relationship management capabilities on the performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The study aimed to establish whether customer relationship management capabilities such as human resource capabilities, information technology capabilities and business architecture capabilities influence the performance of commercial banks. The performance measures used were non-financial measures which were assessed from the employees’ perspective. The target population was 41 commercial banks regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya. A descriptive and correlational research design was used. Semi-structured questionnaires were distributed to a sample size of 111 employees who work in the 37 commercial banks in Nairobi County. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (Version 16). Regression analysis was used to establish the relationship between customer relationship management capabilities and organizational performance. The findings established that the most dominant customer relationship management capability used by commercial banks was the human resource capability where building relationships with customers was emphasized on. Both the information technology and human resource capabilities had a significant positive effect on organizational performance. Based on these findings, the human resource capabilities should be enhanced by training employees on how to improve their skills and competencies by developing more profitable and sustainable relationships with customers. Additionally, information technology combined with the people skills would further improve the organizations effectiveness in service delivery. This is because the technological innovations provide suitable infrastructure to employees to increase their responsiveness to customer queries, increase their productivity and reduced the amount of time required in dealing with a large pool of customers. The study had its limitations. The use of a descriptive cross-sectional research design reduced the generalizability of the results. Future research should address these limitations by corroborating with a longitudinal research design and increasing the industries with which the study was conducted. Replication of the study to other industries could serve as a useful reference for future research.