With the increasing competition on the market, customer loyalty has become a decisive factor for long-term business profits. At its high, customer loyalty connotes the high entry barriers the competitor faces when entering the market, and it contributes significantly to a reduction of marketing costs. To attract new customers, companies are required to invest a lot of time and money which can result in uncertainties and risks over longer periods of time. The number of loyal customers as a sign of market share is more significant than the total number of customers. More loyal customers translate to high profits. Loyal customers will continue to purchase or receive the product or service from the same enterprises, and they will be willing to pay higher prices for the quality products and first-class services, thereby increasing sales revenue. Consequently, the focus of many enterprise managers at this point is on marketing management aspects to improve customer loyalty in order to gain the competitive advantage in the face of fierce competition. The importance of customer loyalty has been identified by many researchers and academics in the past years. This importance is also predominant in the telecommunication industry and, consequently, the Nigerian telecom industry. This book attempts to assess and analyze the variables that influence a mobile phone subscriber?s loyalty and how Nigerian service providers can enhance this loyalty. The study is based on a survey that uses the quantitative approach. A structured questionnaire was developed and personally administered to a sample of University of Ilorin students across four major GSM operators in the country. Four hundred (400) respondents were sampled through a stratified random sampling. Out of this, three hundred and forty-eight (348) copies of the questionnaire, constituting an 87% response rate, could be used for the analysis. Of the eleven (11) operational factors that were used to assess loyalty of customers in the Nigeria Mobile Telecoms industry, all variables except Brand Image and Service Centre Quality were found to be capable of influencing customer loyalty and also considered as the most important loyalty variables in the industry. The unavailability of Mobile Number Portability was found to be a prominent factor in tying consumers down to service providers, while the generally low satisfaction with the present state of service delivery in the industry also plays a role. Therefore, the retention which the service providers were able to enjoy can be described as circumstantial. The given recommendations include that the service providers embark upon drives that will reduce dropped calls to a bare minimum, that they improve call quality, and that they develop SMS delivery standards.

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Communications - Miscellaneous, course: Master of Business Administration, language: English, abstract: ABSTRACT This Master's thesis sought to assess and analyze the variables capable of influencing loyalty of mobile phone subscribers as well as how service providers can enhance loyalty of their customers in Nigeria. The study was basically a survey that used the quantitative approach. A structured questionnaire was developed and personally administered to a sample of University of Ilorin students across four major GSM operators in the country. Four hundred (400) respondents were sampled through a stratified random sampling. Out of this, three hundred and forty-eight (348) copies of the questionnaire constituting 87% response rate were got for analysis. Of the eleven (11) operational factors that were used to assess loyalty of customers in the Nigeria Mobile Telecoms industry, all variables except Brand Image and Service Centre Quality were found to be capable of influencing customer loyalty and also considered as the most important loyalty variables in the industry. The unavailability of Mobile Number Portability was found to be a prominent factor in tying consumers down to service providers while the generally low satisfaction with the present state of service delivery in the industry also plays a role in this direction. Therefore, the retention been enjoyed by the service providers can be described as circumstantial. Part of the recommendations given include the service providers embarking upon drives that will reduce to its barest minimum drop calls, improve call quality and SMS delivery which is likely to make subscribers perceive given quality as high among others

The aim of this study is to investigate the Impact of Brand Image, Service Quality and Trust on Customer Loyalty, Moderating Effect of Perceived Price Fairness and the Mediating Effect of Customer Satisfaction on telecommunication sector of Pakistan. This research is helpful to capture and retain the satisfied and loyal customer and it is useful to identify the factors through which telecommunication sector may improve its performance. The survey research design method was used in this study. It involves a questionnaire for the collection of data from the respondents. Convenience-based Sampling was used in this research data was collected with the help of a questionnaire from 250 customers in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan (Warid, Zong, Mobilink, and Ufone Telenor). Correlation analysis was conducted utilizing SPSS to analyze the data. It is revealed that the correlation between customer loyalty and three independent factors that are quality service, brand image, and trust is very strong and mediator customer satisfaction in this relationship had an effect on customer loyalty. There exists a strong relationship between three dimensions of independent variables and the dependent; we can say that there is a strong effect of a mediator and moderator on these relationships. There is also a very strong correlation between customer loyalty and customer satisfaction.

This book is for those who are interested to know more about the recent trend of service loyalty and service switching among mobile phone service users. This timely and important book is an essential guide for researchers, policy makers, managers, and marketers to develop an insight to better strategize and effectively implement loyalty programs and prevent their customers from switching. The term loyalty is acknowledged as an important indicator of the likely success of a service business, whereas switching costs a service firm the customers future revenue stream. However, recent research revealed that, in many industries, satisfied customers also tend to switch. This book discusses the role of switching cost and consumer innovativeness in explaining consumers switching tendency. Last but not the least, this book offers a richer explanation about loyalty and switching phenomena than past studies that mostly discussed these two constructs in isolation. Nowadays, divided loyalty as well as switching became a common issue, which made it difficult for the company managers to retain their customers for a long time. With no exception, the mobile phone service market is also filled with divided loyal ones as well as switchers. This book presents some depth and breadth strategies for the mobile phone network service providers in order to manage such promiscuous customers.