Understanding customer value as a driver for customer loyalty: The case of Airtel - Uganda

The value concept has in recent times come to the forefront as many businesses and institutions grapple with how to ensure customers adopt their products, technologies, services and stay loyal without defecting to competitors. Customer value is a key concept in marketing as well as operations management. This case study involves telecom industry where customer loyalty determines the extent of the success and failure of products and services. Therefore, this article focuses on customer value as a driver of customer loyalty and attempts to link product and service attributes, product and service consequences, and customers interests. It further discusses the perceived value hierarchies of Airtel’s services, like for example price, convenience, and on time performance. This study sampled 384 respondents using Disproportionate stratified random sampling method since there were two identifiable subgroups of elements within the population with a composition of Airtel employees and customers. Respondent interviews were used in the data collection process. A Likert scale analysis was undertaken for the first level of descriptive data statistics. Regression analysis of the data was then conducted using multinomial logistic regression techniques to analyze predictors for an unordered group classification within the data. This study dissects customer value as a key driver of customer loyalty, and shows the customer value factors of Functional value and Price value as the most important among other factors examined. The study further shows that telecom employees and telecom subscribers view the factors of functional value, price value, emotional value and customer service value through different lenses.