In
the business environment today, loyal customers are considered to be the pivot
behind the success of many service businesses especially the banking sector of
Nigeria; this goes to other organization under the service sector like the
insurance, hospitality industry etc.

The
assumption is that with customer satisfaction; loyalty, retention and
profitability will automatically follow. The current thinking is that the
relationship between satisfaction and loyalty is more complex than was
originally proposed, however. As commoditization of many service offerings
continues, new sources of competitive differentiation/advantage will come from
focusing on the management of customer experiences. Because loyalty is so very
important to the survival and profitable growth of a company, measuring it
becomes all the more important. Existing approaches to the measurement of
loyalty have not proved to be very effective in this   task.

For any organization, loyalty is considered as the key of
success and which ultimately becomes the reason for the survival of that
organization (Pullman. and Gross, 2003;Rahman, 2006). And a minor change in the
number of loyal customers affects the growth and the over-all profitability of
the organization ( Heskett et al., 2000;Rahman, 2006)

 The ultimate outcome of creating the loyalty is something
that is to develop the brand, advocates that brand and repeat patronage for the
brand. It has been generally identified that customer achieves low level of
satisfaction in this sector. Hence the quality of service and customer
satisfaction can become frontier to attain the competitive advantage in the
banking sector (Rayport et al. (2004); Jones and Farquhar (2003); Knights et
al. (2004);Rahman (2006)

Realizing customers
as experience creators, organizations should find out various ways to enhance
customer experience. Knowing about customer experiences, whether favourable or
otherwise, could help the firms in achieving customer satisfaction, and with
satisfaction come loyalty, retention and profitability (Rahman,
2006). The customer as
an experience creator could also assist the firm in developing and customising
its offerings; tailored according to the nature of the customer.

Satisfied and loyal
customers tend to spend more money and purchase repeatedly, are less price
sensitive, have higher intention to refer others, and are more economical to
maintain (Duncan and Moriaty, 2008;Reichheld and Sasser, 2000;Yin, 2009).

Hence, loyal
customers are vital to the survival and success of many service industries,
especially in the hospitality, insurance, and financial sectors (Rahman,
2005). A slight change in
the percentage of loyal customers is said to bring about a huge change in
profits and also the overall value of the company (Rahman, 2005). 

Hence, loyal customers
are vital to the survival and success of many service industries, especially in
the hospitality, insurance, and financial sectors (Rahman, 2005). A slight
change in the percentage of loyal customers is said to bring about a huge
change in profits and also the overall value of the company (Rahman,
2005). Marketers are
hence eager to understand the key to building strong, long-lasting customer
relationships. 

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

The
study on customer experience management and loyalty in the banking industry came
about as a result of challenges and obstacle an organization face while trying
to impact on the delivery of a positive customer experience.  Finally, most of the research has been carried
out on customer experience management but not even a single research has been
done on customer experience management and loyalty in the b banking industry.

1.3     
AIMS
AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY