Influence of Entrepreneurial Customer Experience on Savings Mobilization among Micro and Small Enterprises

The study results from various researchers have highlighted mixed findings on the influence of customer experience on savings mobilization among MSEs who mobilize their financial resources in diverse financial institutions at their respective financial institutions, whereas it has generally been argued that satisfying customer experience greatly influences customers repurchase intentions, dissatisfaction has been viewed as the primary reason for customer’s intention to switch to competitors. The current research used mixed research design to conduct the study among 339MSEs who are registered with KNCCI Trans Nzoia county. Stratified sampling was used to categorize MSEs into three strata’s; service manufacturing and commerce or trade, then random sampling used to select the study sample. Pilot study was conducted to test the research instruments reliability and validity and were found to meet the threshold 0.70.The study conducted correlation among customer experience factors which were found to be significant . The main findings of this study showed that customer experience influences savings mobilization among the MSE’s. The financial institutions clients want to feel recognized and valued by the employees of the financial institution when seeking products and services from them. The entrepreneurs expect high quality saving products and services meeting their unique needs, they also need to receive feedback and updates on time from their financial institutions whenever they make enquiries at their respective financial institutions. The competency of the employees in explaining to their clients the features of savings products and services influences savings mobilization as a variety of financial products and services are consumed from the same financial institution. The study also found that bio data’s such as gender, level of education and number of dependents positively affects customer experience which influences savings mobilization among MSEs. The study findings imply that MSEs expect good customer experience from their financial institutions when mobilizing their savings . This research study recommends that for customer experience to affect savings mobilization, conscious efforts should be made by savings mobilization institutions to consider specific social economic conditions and major dominant economic activities in business environment of MSEs, so as to offer them effective and efficient products, services and facilities suiting their peculiarity without compromising on industry policies and procedures rather than using standardized products ,services and facilities which may cause discomfort to certain economically active entrepreneurs. Also the study further recommends that financial institutions to design products and services which takes into consideration gender, level of education and the number of dependents in the entrepreneurs household which influences the decision to mobilize savings with financial institutions