Customer Relationship Management and Customer Loyalty in Uganda’s Telecommunication Industry: A Case Study of Orange Uganda Limited.

Abstract

NDAGIRE HAWA KAJUMBA (2010-M102-20056) Customer Relationship Management and Customer Loyalty in Uganda’s Telecommunication Industry: A Case Study of Orange Uganda Limited Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is believed to be a vital concept towards the effective execution of business in today’s business world. It is further believed to be an effective tool for organisations to build and develop good relationships with customers. The effect of Customer Relationship Management on Customer Loyalty in Uganda’s Telecommunication industry was of keen interest to the researcher in order to ascertain if there is a relationship between these variables as considered in the conceptual framework. Orange Uganda Limited as the fifth entrant into the telecommunications market in Uganda was considered to be the case study for this research because the researcher wanted to study the marketing tactics applied by this operator in order to succeed in this market. Despite having been one of the last entrants into the telecommunications market in Uganda, Orange Uganda Limited has been able to grow and retain their share of corporate customers from the premium and self-employed customer segments as well as the overall customer base in the telecommunications industry in Uganda. The Customer relationship management (CRM) concept in this research was studied in relation to the performance of Orange Uganda Limited. Performance was studied in relation to the Balanced score card framework with four generic perspectives of customers, financial, internal business processes and people and organisational capacity. These were used as the Key performance indicators at Orange Uganda Limited and presented in the recommendations to be consideration for implementation by the management of Orange Uganda Limited. Each perspective was measured in relation to Customer Relationship Management and Customer Loyalty at Orange Uganda Limited. The hypothesis adopted for this research was found to be relevant to the study and it can be concluded that yes indeed the implementation of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) improves Customer Loyalty and service quality in a business, therefore, translating into profits. The research applied illustrative examples based on multiple data sources with self-administered questionnaires as the credible techniques of data collection, supplemented with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for analysis of the findings. The findings of the research concluded that Orange Uganda Limited had a practical application of the Customer Relationship Management concept best practices and that the concept is well-established in its business processes, procedures and systems. Furthermore, most customers believed that the application of Customer Relationship Management strategies influences their relationship with Orange Uganda Limited as their telecommunication service provider. Key words: Customer, Management, Loyalty, Telecommunication