ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to examine the effect of customer services on patronage among customers of selected banks in Umuahia metropolis in Abia State, Nigeria. Four research objectives guided the study. These were to examine the socio-economic profile of the bank customers, analyse the different types of customer services rendered by banks, assess the level of satisfaction derived by the customers from the services of the banks and finally to ascertain the relationship between the level of satisfaction derived from customer services and patronage. Two research hypotheses directed the study, they included 1. The socio-economic profile of customers has no significant effect on patronage 2. There is no significant relationship between level of satisfaction derived from services and patronage. The area of study was Umuahia metropolis of Abia State. Simple random sampling technique was used to select four commercial banks in the township of Umuahia and 120 customers of these banks. The sampling frame was derived from bankers, bank customers and stakeholders in Umuahia. A set of structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The researcher personally administered the questionnaire to the respondents. Data collected from the study was analysed using frequency count, mean and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. Result of the study showed that the bank customers were of different age groups with most of them (25.83 %) in the age bracket of 28 — 37. Also most the bank customers had secondary education as their highest level of education attainment and were men that were married. The major services rendered by banks to their customers was savings account and current account (83.33 and 55.00 percent respectively). Most of the bank customers (42.50 per cent) noted that they were poorly satisfied by the services of the banks. Result of the Pearson product moment correlation analysis showed a positive coefficient (3.225) and was statistically significant at 10% probability level.