ABSTRACT

In the advent of competitive and globalized business environment, financial institutions have been triggered to come up with unique strategies that enable them to achieve competitive advantage. Several studies have been carried out on customer service and its impact on bank performance, but few have exploited on the customer service strategies which were used in this study. Hence this study examined customer service strategies effect on bank performance. The specific objectives of the study were: To determine effect of human resource management strategies on performance of commercial banks; To evaluate effect of technological strategies on performance of commercial banks and last but not least to examine effect of service delivery environment on performance of commercial banks. This study was guided by Resource-based view theory, Information Technology alignment model and Attribute quality service model. A survey was conducted on all the 26 commercial banks operating in Eldoret town. The study employed descriptive survey research design, while the target population was 146 employees of commercial banks namely; retail and banking managers, corporate managers, ICT managers, branch managers and customer experience managers. Systematic sampling was used to select the required sample size of 73. Data was collected using structured questionnaires, and self-administered to the respondents. Quantitative technique was used to analyze the data. Data was analyzed using quantitative analysis of descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptively the data was analyzed using frequencies and percentages while inferentially the data was analyzed using multiple regression model to determine relationship between variables. The study results indicated that there was a significant relationship between human resource management strategies and performance of commercial banks (β=0.226, p=0.153); there was a significant relationship between technological strategies and performance of commercial banks (β= 0.586, p = 0.000) whereas there was a significant relationship between service delivery environmental strategies and performance of commercial banks (β=0.206, p=0.016). The study concluded that human resource management strategies affect performance of commercial banks, since proper communication channel enhances effectiveness between management and employees in commercial banks. The results also revealed that, technological strategies affects performance of commercial banks since internet banking has low maintenance costs leading to high levels of returns in the bank where you can withdraw or deposit money through the phone than the customer coming to the bank. In addition, the study found out that service delivery environmental strategies affects performance of commercial banks since the quality of service the bank offers, is designed to serve every customer depending on his or her request such as enquiries, account opening and other services. The study therefore, recommends that the management should implement proper human resource management strategies, adopt improved technological strategies and last but not least, to enhance proper service delivery environmental strategies in order to achieve their goal. The study also recommended other studies to be carried out on the same in order to improve the quality of the findings.