Mastering Metrics (2201)

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38460063
MASTERING METRICS (2201)

Module Title:

DIPLOMA IN PROFESSIONAL MARKETING

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SIMON PAGE, ACCRA GHANA

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Mastering Metrics (2201)

Membership Number: 38460063

To: The Head of Marketing Management

From: Customer Information Manager
Subject: A review of Opportunity Savings and Loans Company Ltd (OISL) measuring and
classification of customers/users and the utilisation of the different range of marketing metrics
to understand customer behaviour.
Date: 29th June, 2016

This report contains a review of understanding customers in relation to customer retention and
or customer loyalty.
It comprises the evaluation of the various types of customer metrics and the classification of
OISLs customer base and its effectiveness towards the development of targeted range of
marketing activity and the application customer data in terms of customer loyalty and or
retention.
Finally, a briefing paper is prepared for the summarisation and recommendations of an effective
and best way to evaluate and retain a customer with the analysis of how a metric support
strategic decision making and the preposition of some sources of data and future metrics for
OISL.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 UNDERSTANDING AND CLASSIFICATION OF CUSTOMERS...........5
1.1 Key Metrics That Could Be Used For Customer Retention and Customer Loyalty Evaluation within
OISL...5
1.1.1 Customer Satisfaction...5
1.1.2 Customer retention rate..5
1.1.3 Churn Rate..5
1.1.4 The Net Promoter Score (NPS)....5
1.2 HOW OISL CAN BENEFIT FROM UNDERSTAND CUSTOMERS WITH THE IDENTIFIED METRICS....6
1.3 OISLS EVALUATION OF CUSTOMER CLASSIFICATION PROCESSES..........6
1.3.1 Starting-Out Consumers ..7
1.3.2 Dual Earnings with No Kids (DEWNK): ........7
1.3.3 First Time Home Buyers: ....7
1.3.4 Established Households ..7
2.0....8
2.1 ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF RESULT FOR THE APPLICATION OF MARKETING METRICS FOR
CUSTOMER RETENTION/LOYALTY.............8
2.2 MARKETING DASHBOARD....10
2.2.1 Reasons for Using Pie Chart and Bar Graph as a Graphical representation tool........11
2.3 PRIORITIZED METRICS SUITABLE FOR CUSTOMER LOYALTY PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AT
OISL....................................................................................................................................................................12
2.3.1 Net Promoter Score (NPS)
2.3.2 Customer Satisfaction and Retention rate.12
3.0 BRIEFING PAPER: CUSTOMER EVALUATION.14
3.1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION/ABSTRACT14
3.1.1 Aim .........................................................................................................................................................14
3.2 ANALYSIS..14
3.2.1 SWOT Analysis of Opportunity Savings and Loans Company (OISL) ....................14
3.3 MARKETING OBJECTIVE...........14
3.4 PLANNED/STRATEGIC OPTIONS FOR OISL ....15
3.4.1 Ansoff Matrix Growth and Branding Strategy...15
3.5
IMPLEMENTATION...15
3.5.1 Tactics for Marketing Mix........15
3.6
CONTROL ......16
3.7
RECOMMENDATION: SOURCES OF DATA FOR CUSTOMER RETENTION/ CUSTOMER LOYALTY
EVALUATION....15
3.7.1 Surveys and Interview (mail, telephone, and in-person) or repeat visits (sign-in sheets)..............16
3.7.2 Published Electronic Sources (web logs, general website, e-journals, and social media)...16
3.7.3 Published Printed Sources (magazines/newspaper, government publications and policies,
books and reports)...17
3.8 RECOMMENDATIONS OF SOME FUTURE METRICS..17
3.8.1 Product and Pricing Metrics...17
3.8.2 Promotional and Social Media Metrics.17
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3.8.3
3.8.4

Membership Number: 38460063

Conversion Rate...17
Brand Metrics.17

3.9 CONCLUSION.....17
4.0 ORGANIZATION SUMMARY....18
5.0 APPENDICES....19
5.1 APPENDIX 1: Formula for Calculating Some Marketing Metrics......19
5.2 APPENDIX 2: Evaluation of marketing metrics..20
6.0 REFERENCES.............21

List of Tables
Table 1: NPS of OISL Customer base Evaluation......8
Table 2: Churn and Retention rate...14
Table 3: SWOT Analysis

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1.0 UNDERSTANDING AND CLASSIFICATION OF CUSTOMERS

1.1 Key Metrics That Could Be Used For Customer Retention and Customer Loyalty Evaluation within
OISL
Marketing metrics have gained popularity over the years due to its significant role in the measuring and
collection of marketing data in order to make effective marketing decisions for the determination of
lifetime value and tracking customer retention rates and or customer loyalty among other factors.
A metric can be defined as a measuring system that quantifies a trend, dynamic or characteristic (Farris
et al., 2009:1). Given the increasing value of intangible assets, it is clear that marketing investments and
the resulting assets (brands, customers, and channels) play an important role in determining a companys
performance and financial value.
In a speech in South Africa in 1890 Mahatma Gandhi said this in relation to who a customer is:
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent
on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider of our business.
He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the
opportunity to do so.
Apart from the importance of tracking revenue, Opportunity International Savings and Loans Limited
(OISL) can complement its efforts by evaluating customer retention and loyalty, with the following key
metrics as discussed below:
1.1.1 Customer Satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is directly linked to customer expectations. Revenue
will not last if customers are dissatisfied; this metric indicates how long customers stay with an
organization over a given period of time, it also helps understand what products meet customers needs.
OISL could do a survey to find out how satisfied customers are on key elements of the customer service,
time taken for the disbursement of loans etc., the higher the customer satisfaction rates the higher the
loyalty rates will be for OISL as a satisfied customer will stay and also broadcast its services.
1.1.2 Customer retention rate: This metric indicates how long customers stay with an organization over
a given period of time (Appendix 1). Fred Reichheld, author of The Loyalty Effect, says that a 5% increase
in customer retention can lead to a 25-100% increase in profit for any organization (loyaltyrules.com). It is
very important for any marketer to retain customers as well as to attract them as it less expensive
keeping existing clients. Customer retention can be measured using secondary facts such as frequency
with which a customer purchases OISLs products or services. This involves the use of a strong customer
information administration.
1.1.3 Churn Rate: Churn is the rate at which an organization loses customers (Appendix 1). Churn is
measured because its a possible indicator of customer dissatisfaction, cheaper or better offers from the
competition, or more successful sales and marketing by a competitor (Licata, 2014).Since customer
experience is very important to customer retention in the world of small businesses. OISL can track churn
rate by taking all the customers it lose during a time frame, such as a month, and divide it by the total
number of customers it had at the beginning of the month, excluding new sales from that month.
1.1.4 The Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS assesses to what extent a respondent would recommend a
certain company, product or service to his friends, relatives or colleagues (Appendix 1). This metrics
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recognizes that measuring customer satisfaction is not adequate, OISL must understand how loyal their
customers are in order to better gauge how happy they are. The NPS score gives OISL a good indication of
how many customers are advocates. There are three groups of NPS: Promoters are loyal customers
who recommends companies to friends (scores of 9 and 10). Passives are satisfied but unenthusiastic
customers who can be easily wooed by the competition (scores of 7 and 8). Detractors are unhappy
customers who are at risk and spread the majority of the bad word of mouth (scores 6 and below).

1.2. HOW OISL CAN UNDERSTAND CUSTOMERS WITH THE IDENTIFIED METRICS
Reichheld (2004) suggested that Customer satisfaction plays significant role within any Organization. Not
only is it the leading indicator to measure customer loyalty, identify unhappy customers, reduce churn
and increase revenue It is also a key point of differentiation that helps you to attract new customers in
competitive business environments.
In connection with the above the following marketing metrics discussed are with its significant:
Customer Satisfaction and Retention rate provides monitoring of dedicated customers and lost
customers. Monitoring repeat business will help OISL understand how important their product or service
is for their customer base. This helps OISL to know the preferences of the different segments of its
customers by monitoring which customers are using or patronizing different service offerings of OISLs
business with their level of satisfaction. Some researchers have argued that customers should be treated
as renewable resource (Dreze and Bonfrer 2005). OISLs Customers who buy throughout its offerings are
perhaps the companys most important customers to focus on for its retention strategies.
Churn metrics assist in risk reduction by determining with remedies why customers are leaving a
company. Cancellations and returns are comparable to churn. According to Lyon (2010), if an
organization does not know how much customers its losing, it wont be able to understand how much
new customers it will require to stay out of the red. According to a customer satisfaction article by Beard
(2008), price is not the main reason for customer churn It is actually due to the overall poor quality of
customer service; hence by measuring and tracking churn rate, OISL can track issues and areas of
discontent and dissatisfaction amongst its customers. Also studying churn rate might provide patterns in
terms of which customers frequently leave. It also help track activities and products of competitors that
are making customers leave giving an indication of the customer needs OISL is yet to meet.

Net Promoter Score can assist OISL track its customer segments, geographic units or functional groups
with the goals of creating more promoters and fewer detractors. Net Promoter Score systems ask
customers the reasons for their ratings using an unstructured, open-ended question. This provides
employees throughout the organization the opportunity to hear comments from customers every day in
their own words. In view of the fact that OISL can track customers happiness using NPS from one survey
period to the next, OISL can be able to see if the strategies it is implementing have improved customer
satisfaction or had a negative impact. For example, OISL can use to determine if customers will return or
not and how loyal they are to the companys brand.
1.3 OISLS EVALUATION OF CUSTOMER CLASSIFICATION PROCESSES
OISL having established a commanding market share within the microfinance industry of Ghana with
different range of products and services offerings, and since customers have different reasons for
purchasing, different habits as customers, different values, and different reasons why they are loyal.
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These differences go beyond customer demographics. When evaluating potential market opportunities
and customers, OISLs classification process is based on what the company understands of customers
with common characteristics such as Demographic (i.e., Age, Income, Geographic, and Occupation),
Psychographic (i.e., Brand Preferences, Lifestyle, Service Preferences, and Influenced by Peers) among
others.
As Microfinance Company, providing financial services and or products, OISL have four processes by
which it currently uses to classify its customers, as discussed below the concept of the family life cycle is
used. Family life cycle is the stages that an individual typically goes through over time in their life as they
move in/out of relationship and probably start a family.
1.3.1 Starting-Out Consumers: This group of customers, while generally providing a very low profit
contribution for OISL, they do provide some potential to be migrated into a medium-value customer of
the company with competitive and customer friendly programs and services or products. This section
consists of patrons who are usually grown-up youth who are starting-out on their vocation. At this phase
of their life, their only need is comparatively simple monetary products, such as savings and Susu
account and possibly a credit card. The challenge OISL faces with this classification is the ability to
convince these risk adverse customers to be willing to place most or all of their financial business with the
company.
1.3.2 Dual Earnings/income with No Kids (DEWNK): This segment of OISL customer base consists of two
group, thats customer who are engaged or married and perhaps in a serious relationship. This group of
consumers craves to save more money, looking for short-term investments and borrowing larger
amounts to probably acquire a car or go on a major holiday. At this stage of their life, there are no
children in the relationship which means the couple can continue to rent without the emotional pressure
to purchase a house. This classification process has been very effective for OISL due to its ability to track
and woo couples without children for its services and unique tailored products.
1.3.3 First Time Home Buyers: It is when people are about to start a family that their financial needs
significantly change, indeed many of their regular purchases also change significantly. This lifecycle
change is quite important for OISL as the young family is usually more motivated to purchase a home,
which will transform the customer from being a low value customer to a medium or high value customer
through one large loan transaction. This process is less effective due to the high interest rate on home
loans
1.3.4 Established Households: The established Households section has grown-up kids and typically has its
parents working. At this phase of their lives, some wealth are being established and their needs typically
shift from loans and mortgages to savings and investment accounts and perhaps even share investments
and possibly business loans. These family life cycle classification processes used by OISL is highly effective
for helping determine appropriate marketing strategies for each target market. For instance, starting-out
customers typically require relationship marketing tactics, Dual Earnings with No Kids (DEWNK)
segments can be pursued with special offers.

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2.0
2.1 ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF RESULT FOR THE APPLICATION OF MARKETING METRICS FOR
CUSTOMER RETENTION/LOYALTY
Having identified range of metrics that could be used to evaluate customers of OISL, the focus will now be
on the application of these metrics in order for effective classification of OISLs customers, for the
purpose of customer retention and or customer loyalty.
Naturally, a company cannot perfectly predict the cash flows associated with an individual customer, but
it can calculate the expected value of the cash flows (adjusting for risk) associated with an individual
customer conditional on the customers characteristics, the companys planned marketing actions and
environmental factors(Hogan et al. 2002). In connection with the customer classification processes of
OISL, the most retained customers of OISL are those who fall between the category of Medium- worth
Customers and High- worth Customers.
The application of Net Promoter Score recommendation question has played a major role in classifying
OISLs customer base in terms of customer retention. Considering some of the products range of OISL, for
example Savings Products, (i.e. Agro Saver Account for farmers, current account for businessmen and
women, and Susu Deposit for petty traders), Loan Products (Home loans for individuals who want to own
a house, Edufund for students who need financial assistant, group loans and business loan for
entrepreneurs) and other services such as Opportunity Mobile Bank to meet the dynamic needs of the
various identify segments of the OISL customer base has been able to capture the various segment of the
market with the following level of satisfaction using a scale of 0-10 to answer a single question: Are you
likely to recommend OISL and its products to others? In order to ascertain the loyalty level of the
companys customers, respondents of the OISL are classify as follows with data collected from 960
respondents about a year ago:
Table 1: NPS of OISL Customer base Evaluation
NPS
Promoters
Passives
Detractors

Starting-Out e.g.
(Students)
14.3%
8.5%
5.3%

Dual Earnings/Income
with No Kids
11.9%
17.3%
5%

First Time Home

Buyers
6.8%
3.9%
2.7

Established
Families
9.8%
11.7%
5.8

Total
39.8%
41.4%
18.8%

The following analysis are presented in lieu of the above table 1.

Promoters (score 9-10) are trustworthy and satisfied customer who share their unflinching relationship
with the company and are willing to recommend the brand of OISL to others where the need be. 39.8% of
OISLs customer base happens to be its promoters of which 14.3% are Starting-Out Consumers, 11.9%
Dual Earnings with No Kids Customers, 6.8% First Time Home Buyers and 9.8% of which are Established
Families. According data acknowledged, most of OISLs promoters are determine to remain loyal to the
company, due to the ability of the company to meet their satisfaction level. For instance, according to
OISLs Performance Review Report of 2015, due to the low interest rate on loans, OISLs loan clients
increased from 57,865 in December 2011 to 72,608 in December 2014, an increase of
14,743(opportunity.com) Loan clients as a result promoters satisfaction and positive word of mouth.
Passives (score 7-8), are 41.4% of OISL customers are pleased and satisfied with OISL however,
unimpressed customers who are susceptible to competitive offerings. Despite being satisfied with OISLs
products, they easily get influence by other service offerings of competitors. This group of people are
made up of 8.5% of Starting-Out Customers e.g. (Students), 17.3% of Dual Earnings with No Kids
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Customers and 3.9% are first time home buyers who need special attention and loyalty program in order
to reduce the churn rate and 11.7% of Established Households/families. Being able to predict churn
within specific segments is not enough if OISL cannot determine marketing offers that should be
delivered to each individual customer. OISL need to be far more precise and make it offers very targeted
and personalized to see a sizable reduction in churn.
Detractors (score 0-6) are the 18.8% of dissatisfied and unhappy customers of OISL can also be grouped
into 5.3% starting-out consumers, 5% Dual Earnings with No Kids, 2.7% of first time home buyers and
5.8% of Established families phase are detractors who may damage the trade name and hinder growth
through negative word-of-mouth as communicated via a survey conducted and collected from an
outsource company.
Table 2: Churn and Retention rate
Customer Classification/segment
Starting-Out
Dual Earnings with No Kids (DEWNK):
First Time Home Buyers
Established Households/Families
Total

Churn Rate
0.4%
6.6%
3.7%
4.4%
15.1%

Retention Rate
31%
21%
9%
13%
74%

Customer Satisfaction and Retention rate: It costs significantly more to acquire new customers than
retain existing ones and it costs far more to re-acquire defected customers. From table 2, the total churn
rate recorded in OISL for the past three years is 18.60% comprising of 0.4% students churn rate, 6.6%
Farmers and 11.6% businessmen churn rate. The ability to track customer sentiment will give OISL early
indicators into customer service issues or pricing issues. It will also allow OISL to be proactive in improving
the customer experience, their engagement with the brand, and saves significant downstream costs and
revenues loss. OISL can gauge customer retention rates on monthly, quarterly or annually.
A customer retention rate is a great indicator of customer loyalty and effectiveness of customer service.
As shown it table 2, the total retention rate is 66% showing a significant gain for OISL in terms of its ability
of retaining customers.

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PROMOTERS

PASSIVES

Starting-Out Customer

DETRACTORS
Dual Earnings with No Kids

6.60%

0.40%

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

CHURN RATES FOR OISL

0.40%

Net Promoter Score for OISL

OISL'S AVERAGE YEARLY CHURN RATE %

2.2 MARKETING DASHBOARD FOR OISL ON MARKETING METRICS

Medium
Low-Worth
Starting-out
Level
Customers
Consumers Customers,
(Students)
eg. Farmers
Implied average
Customer life Yrs

0.40%

6.60%

0.40%

AVERAGE YEARLY CHURN RATES = ( BEGINNING

CUSTOMERS + GROSS CUSTOMER ADDS)
OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL SAVINGS & LOANS
COMPANY (OISL)

First Time Home Buyes

OISL Cumulative Retention rate

Starting-Out Consumers

9, 15%

31, 51%
21, 34%

Active Profitable
Customers

Dual Earnings with No

Kids (DEWNK)

20%
First Time Home Buyers

Information from the pie chart has three portions which

represent
Starting-Out Consumers - 15%,
Dual Earnings with No Kids - 34% and
First Time Home Buyers - 15% of the retention rate
recorded in the past 3 years now

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CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE OF OISL

20%

60%

Very Active
Profitable
customers

Incative
Nonprofitable
Customers

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2.2.1 Reasons for Using the Above Graphical representation tool

2.2.2 Pie Charts are used in this presentation because it helps to:

Show every data group in a frequency distribution

Show comparative numbers or quantities of multiple categories
Analysis a large data set in visual form
Clarify trends better than do tables
Simply implicit due to widespread use in business and the media

A pie chart for example gives a graphic description of the share sizes per individual segment

2.2.3 Bar Graph

It's easy to compare sets of data between different collections at a glance.

The association of the data between the x and y axes is easy to see.
They are effective in presenting trends or changes over time

2.3 PRIORITIZED METRICS SUITABLE FOR CUSTOMER LOYALTY PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AT

OISL
Using available marketing metrics data, OISL can predict its customer retention level and customer loyalty
as well as which customers are likely to churn in the near term and can then design efforts to retain them.
Its important to know how each churn reduction effort will affect other parts of the organization.
Customer loyalty is the degree to which customers experience positive feelings for and engage in positive
behaviors toward a company/brand Bob Hayes (2013).
Although there are so many metrics for measuring loyalty, the following, metrics are best suited for OISL
in helping it to run an effective loyalty program
2.3.1 Net Promoter Score (NPS)
According to (Sanghi, 2016), Net Promoter Score is the industry-wide standard metric to track customer
loyalty. Hence the inability of any company to track this metric is likely to be kept in the dark about
customer expectations and needs. To avoid all this from happening, here are some reasons OISL should
be tracking its NPS
a.

Net Promoter Score will give OISL an indication of who their passive customers are, this should help
OISL to create a loyalty program that is targeted at moving the passive into loyal enthusiasts, also a
measure of the percentage promoters in the course of the loyalty campaign will give an idea as to
whether or not the campaign is successful so you need to make the connection between the metric
and how the metric helps in structuring and running an effective loyalty program. For instance, if
OISLs NPS is 61, but its industry average is 70, it implies that, comparative to its competition, OISL
have work to do. Likewise, if OISL score is 70, but all its competitors have scores in the low 60s, then,
that implies that OISL rating pretty high with customers. Finding out about OISLs NPS is one of the
best ways to indicate long-term company growth.

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b. The NPS scheme is easy to use and connected with improved business growth
The illustration assessment question is created around one idea, whether OISLs customers like the
establishment enough to endorse it. NPS investigation questions seek to understand why individuals
or consumers would recommend/would not recommend a companys brand. NPS also helps drive
business growth as the company becomes more focused on improving the score. Being able to
identified customers who are willing to recommend OISLs brand will help it develop loyalty program
around this segment so as to push for the companys brand through positive word-of-mouth.

c. The increasing usage of social media, negative remark can spread very hurriedly. This can lead to
substantial harm to OISL brand. Aside the NPS exposing the level of customer satisfaction and who
loyal customers are, it also echoes their feedback directly. When customers recognize that OISL are
getting their complaints, they might be less likely to take their frustrations to social media. Hence
using NPS as a metric to ascertain the level of customer satisfaction via social media in connection to
developing loyalty program can be effective if well monitored and managed to know why customers
do what they do.
2.3.2 Customer Satisfaction and Retention rate
Customer retention is extremely significant for growing a sustainable business. According to the Harvard
Business School, increasing customer retention rates by 5 percent increases profits by 25 percent to 95
percent (helpscout.net)
Customer retention metric provides an indication of a customers states of satisfaction in connection to
what products and or services customers patronized frequently and so as to tailor a loyalty program of
which its rewards will be towards their delights in order to encourage customers to participate in OISL
loyalty program.
in addition, an enhanced customer retention rate as a result of an implementation of a loyalty program
may point to a successful loyal programme
Customer Retention is the drive which inspires an organizations marketing/selling in order to decrease
buyer defections. Effective customer retention metrics is one of the most appropriate metrics for OISL to
use because customer satisfaction and retention starts with the first contact an organization has with a
customer and continues throughout the entire lifetime of a relationship, hence a well satisfied customer
will continue to do business with OISL should they be provided with their required needs.
Generating customer loyalty places Client worth rather than exploiting profits and shareholder value at
the center of business strategy. Customer retention metrics is more than giving the customer what they
expect, its about exceeding their expectations so that they become loyal advocates for your brand.
OISL has over the years increase its customers base with significant programs, It's more important for
OISL to collect satisfaction data early and often by using several sources of data (existing customers,
former customers and 3rd party reports) and different points in time to understand how its product or
service is perceived. Measuring the difference in customer retention between database members and
non-database members is one of the best ways to determine if your loyalty program is effective. Ensuring
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that a client is satisfied with every point of interaction is a process that leads to customer retention and
loyalty.
However, OISL may face some challenges applying these metrics because data obtained using some
metrics could be insufficient and not adequate for OISL to take decisions based on that. There may also
be analysis Paralysis and inaccurate Data that could hinder the implementation of some of the metrics
effectively.

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3.0 BRIEFING PAPER

TITLE: CUSTOMER EVALUATION
PREPARED BY: JEROME ADZAH
DATE: 24TH JUNE, 2O16
3.1
BACKGROUND INFORMATION/ABSTRACT
The use of marketing metric plays a very fundamental role in exploring measures of customer lifetime
value, satisfaction, awareness, attitude, and usage major factors in the decision-making process by which
customers select one brand over another.
Davis (2014) describes that Marketing plans must align with overall corporate business strategy while
also providing specific information about customer needs. In strategic decision making, marketing metric
are simply a standard of measurements to determine whether an organization is progressing or
weakening in its efforts.
3.1.1
Aim
a) To examine how metric can support strategic decision in OISL for Customer retention and loyalty
b) To recommend at least three alternative sources of data for customer retention and or loyalty
c) To propose future metrics for an informed decision making
3.2 ANALYSIS
3.2.1 SWOT Analysis of Opportunity Savings and Loans Company (OISL): SWOT analysis is used to
evaluate situation of OISL because it helps identify if the OISL is healthy or not, so as to develop strategies
for both the external and internal growth of the company.
Table 3: SWOT Analysis
Location of Factor

Favourable

Unfavourable

Strengths
Weaknesses
1. Well dedicated and highly skilled and 1. Undifferentiated products
motivated employees
with competitors
Internal

External

2. Customer focus with commitment and 2. Slow adoptability to change

faster approval of loan with local board
3. Bureaucratic organizational
3. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) culture
projects
Opportunities
Threats
1. Increasing living standards of customers 1. Intense competition
can be seen as a sign of optimistic future.
2. Lawsuits against the company
2. Growing number of people saving and
3. Currency fluctuations
applying for loans

3.3 MARKETING OBJECTIVE: To become a trusted and secure financial advisor with an increase in customer
retention rate by 10% by the end of March 2019.
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3.4 PLANNED/STRATEGIC OPTIONS FOR OISL

3.4.1 Ansoff Matrix Growth and Branding Strategy: This strategy includes an attempt to retain existing
customers and to expand market share within existing industries, either by selling more product to and
services established customers or by finding new customers within these markets typically by adapting
the Promotion element of the Marketing Mix.
Product Development (Existing Market, New Product): With a limited number of products and service
offerings by OISL, the company can develop new products for existing markets .For instance, OISL would
need to improve both product quality, levels of service with an additional modification to OISLs range of
products and services such as the Savings Products, Loan Products and Other Services such as
Opportunity Biometric Identification, Opportunity Mobile Bank, and etc.
Market Penetration (Existing Market, Existing Product): OISL with its current reputation within the
microfinance industry can utilize market penetration on an annual basis by creating an association
between OISL and Trade Union Cooperation (TUC) day and farmers day through its Corporate Social
Responsibilities (CSR), which can helped boost sales during the period.
Corporate Communications and Public Relations Strategy: This strategy ensures that there is a steady
flow of positive, brand-strengthening stories circulated around the media to build strong links between
the OISL and the public. The public relations function ranges from, Press relations, Product publicity,
Public affairs, Special events, company magazines/newsletters; audiovisual materials, corporate identity
materials (i.e., including logos and signage etc).
3.5 IMPLEMENTATION: In order for OISL to shape and deliver on its brand by maximizing customer
satisfaction and increasing the companys market share the following implementation tactics will be
observe:
3.5.1 Tactics for Marketing Mix
Product: OISL offers mainly banking services, but there are many financial products which it can offers
along with banking. Introduction of additional products and or services such as Family Wealth Account,
Car Loans, Risk management and business loan among others can be employed.
Place: OISLs delivery need not to be limited through ATMs or branches, but also has to expand through
an excellent net-banking service, phone banking, mobile banking and SMS banking. OISL will ensure that
it has a presence so that it can concentrate on its huge commercial clientele along with being present for
its retail clients.
Promotion: OISL should attempts to communicate with the customer through quality assurance of the
products, colorful packages, written messages, pictures and symbols, attractive ambience and efficient
salesmanship. OISL have to communicate with their existing customer as well as potential customer
about what they are doing and what they are planning to do in near future through Personal selling, word
of mouth promotion, advertisement, PR and direct marketing. For example, event and Television
Sponsorship of Social and Entrepreneurial programs; adverts will be placed throughout the vantage social
centres such as stadium, major roads and streets and the market centres using billboards, vendor posters
and promotion items (i.e., cart umbrella and point-of-sales displays, will be distributed to supermarkets
and other vendors with onsite service delivery of opening accounts and processing registration for savings
and loans).

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People: Improve on customers services by training both top management staff and subordinates to be
customer-centric. People are a common factor in every service. Good people mean good performance for
an effective service delivery. Bad performers deliver bad services, that is why it also essential that OISL
equip their employees to be well skilled, motivated and train to deliver their very best in terms of
productivity.
3.6 CONTROL: To scrutinize the effectiveness and the application of these metrics, it is necessary for OISL
to compare its actual performance with plan objectives. To facilitate this analysis, the following
monitoring and Control procedures should be developed for the various activities required to bring OISLs
marketing objectives to fruition. These procedures include, but must not be limited, the following:
A project management concept will be used to evaluate the implementation of the marketing plan by
establishing time requirements, human resource needs, and financial or budgetary expenditures. A
standardized reporting form i.e., Monthly report, Quarterly report and Annual Report will be developed
and provided by the marketing director after the initial implementation phase.
3.7 RECOMMENDATION: SOURCES OF DATA FOR CUSTOMER RETENTION/ CUSTOMER LOYALTY
EVALUATION
Any business establishments routine activities are full of data. Data can be facts, images, or sounds that
could or could not be relevant or useful for a particular task. The following examples demonstrate the
varied sources of data that can be used to track customer retention and or customer loyalty among other
performance indicators.
3.7.1 Surveys and Interview (mail, telephone, and in-person) or repeat visits (sign-in sheets): Interview
and surveys typically entail several questions that have structured response categories and may include
some that are open-ended. The survey may be administered through the mail, telephone, on-line, or by
personal interview. Surveying is the preferred method of data collection for a researcher who wants to
obtain a small amount of information from a large number of subjects. For OISL to be efficient with its
strategies by applying marketing metrics to further evaluate the companys customer retention and or
customer loyalty, it is highly recommended that the OISL use surveys and interviews by engaging
customers, suppliers, competitors, salespersons and other shareholders for an effective marketing
decision by determining the level of customer satisfaction for an effective loyalty program.
The strengths of any interview process are the ability to get large amounts of data, the ability to gather a
wide variety of information, the ability to obtain immediate follow-up and clarification. The limitations
and weaknesses of interviewing include the ability to obtain cooperation from the interview subjects to
properly convey the interview topics, the ability to obtain truthful responses and the increased difficulty
of recording and classifying non-standard responses among other challenges.
3.7.2 Published Electronic Sources (web logs, general website, e-journals, and social media): Weblog
material by well-known professional researchers writing within their field may be usable as a source of
data although it may not reliable. For instance, consumers complain via social media through the webbased consumers opinion platform (e.g., opinions.com, Facebook, twitter, etc.), the internet enables
customers to share their opinions on, and experiences with, goods and services with a multitude of other
consumers. The wealth of information available online to a marketer can be use to enhance marketing
strategies. For instance, Facebook has the largest number of social community members giving its APIs
(application program interface) a high value among social media marketers.

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3.7.3 Published Printed Sources (magazines/newspaper, government publications and policies, books
and reports): Journals, magazines, and newspapers are serial publications that are published on an
ongoing basis. For instance the regulatory authorities in Ghana such as Bank of Ghana (BoF), National
Communication among others provides the platform where consumers send their complaints for
appropriate sanctions which is the communicated via the newspapers. Government publications are an
essential source of data, policy documents and reports to ascertain the changing behaviours of
consumers and action policies to protect both businesses and individual customers.
3.8 RECOMMENDATIONS OF SOME FUTURE METRICS
Below are some metrics that OISL must consider for tracking in the future for effective decision making
towards customer related issues. These metrics will help guide OISL to improved customer loyalty and
greater market share among others.
3.8.1 Product and Pricing Metrics; prices play a vital function for customer satisfaction and profitability,
particularly in the current situation characterize by cost pressure and changing customer expectations,
pricing is therefore of particular importance to both consumers and business. It presents microfinance
companies and banks with challenges, but at the same time opportunities for an effective sales and
marketing. Prices for bank products play a central role in the consideration to switch banks. The
application of product and pricing metric is very paramount for the future growth of OISL since customers
recognize pricing as an area where they seek to see improvements and regard these as a suitable means
of increasing satisfaction with OISL.
3.8.2 Promotional and Social Media Metrics; emerging of social media makes measuring a companys
promotional activities in the social world to appear as blurred, and marketers information struggling to
demonstrate the impact on their businesses of their social media efforts. If OISL apply its marketing effort
with promotional and social media metrics, the company will be in a better position to increase its loyalty
rate and customer service.
3.8.3 Conversion Rate; the conversion rate is the percentage of prospective customers who observes an
organizations offer and subsequently purchases a product. The application of this metric helps to
understand how much is being spend on customer s before they are finally converted.
3.8.4 Brand Metrics: Kohler et al. (1999) described a brand as a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a
combination of these, that identifies the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and
differentiates them from the competition. Brand metric could help provide OISL with an understanding
of the complexities of brand valuation. Brand image and position is an example of a brand metric. This is
measured as the customers perception of the brand compared with that of competitors. Being able to
understand customers behaviour towards a brand is obviously important when considering the changes
to the product or brand proposition.
3.9 CONCLUSION
Although, these marketing metrics are great for tracking the success of specific marketing programs,
customer behaviour and content promotion campaigns, a very thoughtful and a well structure strategies
be put in place to execute the metrics. This metrics are also supportive in evaluating the performance of
each marketing channel and tracking progress toward any organizations marketing objectives. With the
application of the right metrics and a good method for tracking them, OISL will be in a better position to
understand what's working and what is not working for a customer retention and or loyalty rate of the
company.
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4.0 Organization Summary

Opportunity International Savings & Loans Limited (OISL)
Type of Organization
Opportunity International Savings and Loans Limited (OISL) is a Ghanaian based profit making non-bank
financial institution licensed by the Central Bank of Ghana (BoG) in June 2004. OISL is a Limited Liability
Company.
Size of Organization
At year-end 2005, OISL stated capital stood at GH 2.8 million (US$3.1 million) and 496 employees with
fortunes of a low turnover rate (3.9%). OISL is a member of the Opportunity International Network-a
global coalition of organizations dedicated to providing opportunities to people in less developed
countries. The Network is made up of forty seven (47) partners in the world. As at September 2014, the
institution has about 400,000 clients of whom 78,000 are loan clients. With a loan portfolio of nearly GHS
75, 100.00, OISL is one of the largest savings and loans companies in the Ghanaian economy. It has won
several awards including Best Social Performance management. OISL offer is among the smallest initial
loan sizes of any formal financial institution in Ghana. A four month loan from OISL can start at only GH
70 (about US$77).
Products and Service
With its mission of providing financial solutions and training to micro and small entrepreneurs, the
company deals in the following range of products namely; Savings Products, (i.e. Agro Saver Account,
current account, and Susu Deposit), Loan Products (Home loans, church loans, Edufund, group loans and
business loan) and other services such as Opportunity Mobile Bank.
Customer Base
The customer base for OISL comprises of both mainly 79% B2C-focused (hairdressers, dressmakers,
beauticians, farmers, traders, individuals, etc.) and 21% B2B focused (Small & Medium-Scale businesses).
OISL serves a variety of clients, mainly women, who are engaged in sectors such as trading, services, small
scale manufacturing, and agriculture ASME small and medium enterprises.
Competitors
OISLs main competitors are Best Point Savings and Loans Ltd (BPSL), Bayport Financial Service, Beige
Capital, Ideal Finance, AFB another Microfinance company engaged in similar services of providing
financial services. Minor competitors of OISL are over 216 registered Non-banking financial services in the
Ghanaian financial industry, examples are Advans Ghana, ASA savings and Loans Company Limited, among
others.

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5.0 APPENDICES
5.1 APPENDIX 1: Formula for Calculating Some Marketing Metrics
1. Net Promoter Score

2. Churn Rate

3. Customer Lifetime Value (CVL)

4. Retention Rate

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5.2 APPENDIX 2: EVALUATION OF MARKETING METRICS

Table 3: Evaluation of marketing metrics
Metric
Advantages
Customer
Aids in racking changes in
Satisfaction Feedback as it enables it
OISL to focus on customer
trends through regularly
scheduled online surveys
or email surveys, and
receive instant customer
feedback.

Shortcomings
Because of insecurity of
releasing private
information, customers
are hesitant in giving
out information that
may lead to more junk
email and unwanted
calls

Retention

It helps:
Improve revenue
Lower customer
acquisition costs
Increased referrals

It demands continuous
engagement and loyalty
programmes to retain
existing clients

Net
Promoter
Score
(NPS):

Easy to measure over

time, giving your on-going
updates of your customer
loyalty levels

NPS does not

communicate
management teams
what's working and
what needs change. It
says little about what
motivates individual
purchasing choices.

Churn
rates

Churn rate has a direct

impact on the ability to
grow a company and
helps in tracking changes
in churn rate so as to
identify if what a
company is doing is
improving customer
churn or having a
negative impact.

Customer churn is
difficult to predict
accurately.

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Appraisal
It takes continuous effort to
maintain high customer
satisfaction levels. As markets
shrink, companies are scrambling
to boost customer satisfaction and
keep their current customers
rather than devoting additional
resources to chase potential new
customers
Although it is less expensive to
keep existing customers than to
acquire new customers, it is
recommended that an
organization provide all the
necessary resources needed to
make existing customers happy so
as to stay loyal.
Companies are encouraged to
follow the recommend question
with an open-ended request for
soliciting the reasons for a
customer's rating of that company
or product. It is also calculated
based on responses to a single
question: How likely is it that you
would recommend our company
and its products to colleagues?
Churn rate can be minimized by
creating obstacles which
discourage customers to change
suppliers (contractual binding
periods, use of proprietary
technology, value-added services,
unique business models, etc.), or
through retention activities such as
loyalty programs.

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6.0 REFERENCES
AMBLER, T. (2003) Marketing and the Bottom Line. Harlow: Prentice Hall
Bendle, N., Farris, P., Pfeifer, P., & Reibstein, D. (2010). Metrics That Matter to Marketing Managers.
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KOTLER, P. and KELLER, K. (2006) Marketing Management. 12th Ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
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Sanghi, M. (2016) 10 Reasons Why Your Business Should Be Tracking Net Promoter Score, Cloud Cherry,
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Sinha, S. (2012) Market Segmentation Example for
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Bank.

[Online]

Available

at: