Customer Retention Strategies: A Panacea to Reducing Attrition in the Zimbabwean Airline Industry

Abstract

In order to form long-term relationships with customers, and reap the ensuing benefits of increased profitability, trust, loyalty, the paradigm of relationship marketing calls for organizations to view their customers and other stakeholders as partners and invest in retention strategies. The authors took a post-positivism approach in order to uncover the truth about the effectiveness of customer retention strategies in reducing attrition in the Zimbabwean Airline industry. A sample size of 200 business class travellers on the Harare/Johannesburg/Harare route and 40 employees from four airlines was used. Simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques were used as authors took advantage of respondents conveniently located and willing to participate in the survey. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used as research instruments. Findings revealed that customer retention strategies if fully implemented, result in effective retention as customers want airlines to provide efficient frequent flyer programs, practice service recovery and fulfil the promises made to customers through reliable schedules and lucrative in-flight services as well as the need to settle claims on time. The industry may continue to take advantage of the current frequent flier retention strategies and also explore other strategies like promise fulfillment and service recovery in maximizing retention.