Evaluation of Customer Experience Management in the Nigerian Retail Banking Sector

Customer experience management has become a strategic differentiator in Nigeria's competitive retail banking sector, and professional evaluation of its practice quality and business outcomes provides evidence for service excellence investment. This study evaluated customer experience management practices and their outcomes across 12 Nigerian retail banks with operations spanning all geopolitical zones, using a combination of mystery shopping audits, customer satisfaction surveys, and management interviews. Customer experience was assessed across in-branch, mobile banking, internet banking, and call centre channels. Mystery shopping audits (n = 240 visits) evaluated service standard compliance, waiting time, digital transaction ease, and staff professionalism. Customer satisfaction was measured through an adapted NPS and CSAT survey of 600 bank customers. Management interviews (n = 30) explored experience strategy, customer journey mapping practices, and experience measurement systems. Results showed that mobile banking channel experience scores were significantly higher than in-branch scores across all 12 banks (mean: 4.1 vs. 3.2 out of 5). Banks with formal customer journey mapping processes achieved NPS scores 18 points above those without. Mystery shopping compliance with service standards averaged 67%, with the largest gaps in waiting time management (45% compliance). Staff empathy scores were the strongest predictor of overall experience satisfaction (beta = 0.53, p < 0.001). The study recommends mandatory customer journey mapping for all customer-facing touchpoints and monthly mystery shopping programmes as standard practice in Nigerian retail banking. Keywords: customer experience management, retail banking, Nigeria, mystery shopping, customer satisfaction