Determinants of Commercial Bank Customer Base Expansion:An Empirical Study on Commercial Banks Operating At Jimma Town

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate determinants of commercial bank customer base expansion operating at Jimma town. There are 16 commercial banks operating at Jimma town, and CBE takes the lion share by having nine branches on the town. The study had used both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected by a means of self-administered questionnaires from customers who have saving or current account and also his/her age is 18 years and above. Secondary data was collected from current account or saving account holder register books of those commercial banks under this study. The researcher distributed and collected 384 questioners that have 7 categories with a total of 51 sub variables. Out of total factors six of them are independent variables, namely: service quality, customer satisfaction, customer commitment, customer trust, switching barrier and corporate images. Meanwhile the dependent variables taken on this study is customer loyalty in respect of customer attraction and customer retention.To provide meaning full judgment to the concerned body the data is analyzed using descriptive, correlation and regression analysis. Cronbach Alpha and Klomogrov Simrov test were used to test the reliability and normality of the data respectively prior to the analysis was start. As a result of the study it was found that service quality, customer satisfaction, switching barrier, customer trust and corporate image positively and significantly affect customer base expansion of commercial banks operating at Jimma town. Meanwhile customer commitment medium but positive relationship and significantly affect customer base expansion of commercial banks operating at Jimma town. Finally the researcher had recommended that management of commercial banks operating at Jimma town should consider those six factors on their marketing strategy of expanding their customer base.