ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of customer relationship management (CRM) on customer retention by agribusinesses in Aba Metropolis of Abia State. To achieve the aim of this study, fourteen agribusiness firms were randomly selected and from each firm, two staff and five customers were randomly selected. A total of 98 respondents were therefore used for the study. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data were collected using a well structured sets of questionnaire designed for the respondents. The data were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) and binary logit regression analyses. The results of the analyses showed that CRM strategies play major role in customer retention, and there are effective CRM strategies agribusiness firms use that are acknowledged by customers that has encouraged their retention in the various firms. More so, the results obtained showed that certain extents of these strategies of CRM were helpful in customer retention; however certain challenges facing these agribusiness firms were identified. Some socioeconomic characteristics of the customers were found as factors that could affect customer retention (p<0.05), on the contrary, the overall effect of the socioeconomic characteristics of customers and firms were found not to have any significant effect on customer retention (p<0.05). The study concludes that effective CRM strategies are valuable tools for customer retention. The incorporation of the findings of this research work in CRM strategies would serve as competitive edge to attract and retain potential customers by agribusiness firms.
