Edinburgh Napier University

  The key contributions of this research span across academic literature, research methodology and professional practice. Literature on loyalty programmes indicate that the practice is common in organisations that are desirous of reducing customer attrition with the ultimate goal of improving business performance and maximizing profits. It is argued that loyalty programmes positively affect sales, engenders satisfaction and helps to retain customers. This notwithstanding, there has been debates as to whether customer loyalty programmes leads to retention and profitability. In recent time, loyalty programmes have become a popular exercise in the Nigerian banking sector as evidenced by its frequency in that sector of the economy. However, although empirical work exist on their impact, limited research work has been done on the programme with specific reference to the Nigerian banking sector. Bearing this in mind, this study explores The Impact of Customer Loyalty Programmes on Customer Retention in Nigerian Banks. Use is made of both loyalty programmes literatures and empirical research to understand this impact with the ultimate aim of developing guidelines for its application in banks. The study was undertaken from an interpretivist stance and employed an exploratory approach. In this research, one hundred and fifty questionnaires were received back as valid from a total of one hundred and eighty given out to respondents (customers) from five banks. The result was instructive and formed the basis for interviews conducted afterwards. Fifteen semi structured interviews were conducted comprising of ten bank executives at strategic management level (two each from the five banks) and five bank customers (one each from the five banks), The interviews focused on elements of loyalty, satisfaction, retention and competition. The research findings reveal to a large extent that customers are satisfied with their banks’ loyalty programmes and are at ease continuing patronage with them, thereby reducing attrition. The key contribution is using the findings to develop model guidelines for establishing and deploying loyalty programmes in Nigerian banks. It is concluded from this study that loyalty programmes in banks are profitable and may engender satisfaction. This is in addition to helping to reduce customer attrition when carefully planned and executed, bearing in mind the developed guidelines.