Service Differentiation and Customer Patronage of Deposit Money Banks in Port Harcourt

This study explored service differentiation and customer patronage of deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. The study adopted the correlational survey research design. The population of the study consisted of twenty-two (22) licensed deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. A sample size of 159 respondents were drawn from the population of 264 top level managers of the 22 licensed deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. The sample size was determined using the Taro Yamene’s formula while the simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample for the study. The main instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed statistically while the hypotheses were tested using Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient (rho). The analysis was done with the aid of the SPSS version 22.0. The findings revealed that service quality has a positive and significant relationship with customer patronage (customer preference and customer loyalty) of deposit money banks. The study also found a positive and significant relationship between strong network connection and customer patronage (customer preference and customer loyalty) of deposit money banks. This study equally revealed that a positive and significant relationship exists between value added service and (customer preference and customer loyalty) of deposit money banks. Based on these findings, it was concluded that service differentiation significantly enhance customer patronage of deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. Based on the findings and conclusion, it was recommended that deposit money banks in Port Harcourt especially those that are experiencing low customer patronage should adopt service differentiation strategies as it would increase their level of customer patronage.