Effects of digital banking channels on customer experience within microfinance institutions in Kenya
Date
2024
Authors
Mulili, F. M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Customer experience remains a key success factor for financial institutions. With the current digital evolution, which has seen an increase in the number of customers, financial institutions have been pushed to re-design their products to adapt to the expectations of the growing digital customers. In a bid to avoid losing out to FinTech companies, banks have moved from their domain to design financial products fitting digital customer opportunities. Some customers prefer to undertake banking and pay bills from the comfort of their homes and transact on 24-hour basis. As a result, the trustworthiness of the banking applications, their ease of use, accessibility, assurance of customer privacy, availability of quality network and web interface is vital for speedy, convenient and reliable offering of satisfactory banking services leading to customer loyalty and positive referrals to their friends. However, Digital banking has also come with several risks including loss of funds and increasing cases of money laundering. Some customers also prefer hard cash because of illiteracy, lack of proper governing regulations and inadequate technological infrastructure. Even with the introduction of mobile, internet banking and electronic banking cards, some of the micro finance institutions customers are reluctant in utilizing the channels. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of digital banking on customers’ experience among microfinance bank institutions in Kenya. The conceptual framework in this study was based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and expectancy disconfirmation theory. For this purpose, the study used descriptive research design and a sample of 400 digital banking customers were selected. Further, primary data was relied upon and was collected using structured questionnaires. A quantitative approach was used to analyze data through SPPS software and the results interpreted and presented using tables and figures. Pearson correlation techniques were used to establish the nature of relationship between the independent and the dependent variables while regression technique was used to determine the effect of digital banking channels on customer experience among microfinance institutions in Kenya. The study concluded that mobile banking, internet banking and electronic card banking in the microfinance institutions are significant determinants of the customer experience among digital banking customers of microfinance institutions in Kenya. The study recommended that the microfinance institutions in Kenya ought to tap on the benefits of the digital banking channels to enhance the experience of their customers. However, the adoption of digital channels comes with its package of challenges including cyber-attacks. The security of the technology systems ought to be enhanced to avoid loss of customer funds and information. The study was limited to digital banking customers in microfinance sector only leaving out customer experiences from other financial sectors including Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCO), insurance companies, commercial banks and credit unions.
Keywords: Mobile banking, internet banking, electronic card banking, customer experience and microfinance.
Description
Full - text thesis
Keywords
Citation
Mulili, F. M. (2024). Effects of digital banking channels on customer experience within microfinance institutions in Kenya [Strathmore University]. http://hdl.handle.net/11071/15499