Debt Collector Behavior and Customer Satisfaction in Banks in Somalia

Abstract

Though banks endeavor to serve their customers the best way possible, situations arise when they have to enforce debt collection procedures due to unpaid amount. In the context of strategic management, customer satisfaction is considered as an essential operational strategy for the sustainability of each organization in this competitive age. On the other hand, debt collection strategy is vital for the sustainability of financial institutions and that the approach to debt collection may lead to dissatisfaction of customers and impair performance. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between debt collector strategy, specifically, behavior and customer satisfaction. Through a cross-sectional survey correlation analysis we find that debt collector behavior has significant relationship with customer satisfaction (loyalty, trust and intention to purchase). The strongest relationship was between debt collector behavior and customer loyalty (r = 0.900, p < 0.001) while the relationship between trust and debt collector behavior, and between intention to repurchase and debt collector behaviour were equally strong (r = 0.859, p < 0.001). There is a very strong and significant positive relationship between debt collector behavior and customer satisfaction (Loyalty: r = 0.900, p < 0.001; Trust: r = r = 0.859, p < 0.001; Intention to repurchase: r = 0.859, p < 0.001). In this regard, the debtor collector behaviour needs to be improved to enable improvement of customer satisfaction hence retention and repurchase. This finding has imperative practical implications. Banks in Somalia should consider the importance and improvement of debt collector behavior before and during debt collection in order to improve customer satisfaction hence financial performance.