Corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty in floricultural companies in Uganda: A case study of Wagagai Company Limited

Abstract

This study was about the Corporate Social Responsibility and Customer Loyalty of Floricultural Companies in Uganda: A case study of Wagagai Company Limited and it was guided by the following objectives: To find out whether Wagagai Company limited environmental friendliness promotes customer loyalty, to examine the contribution of community support to customer loyalty and to find out whether treating employees fairly promotes customer loyalty.

The study used a cross sectional study design and this was because the researcher wanted to gather data once over a period of time in order to answer the research questions. The study population was 57 with a sample size of 50 respondents which was determined using the slovin;s formula. Simple random, purposive and census sampling techniques were used to select the sample. Self-administered questionnaire and the interview guide were the main data collection instrument.

The study revealed that environmental friendliness contributes to customer loyalty in the following ways: encouraging customer associations with the company, making customers feel part of the company’s operations and encourage close interaction between customers and employees. The study also found that community support contributes to customer loyalty by building goodwill with support products, encouraging customer patronization and relating customers’ value with the company’s value. However, the study revealed that community support does not promote price evaluation and the study discovered that treating employees fairly contributes to customer Loyalty by promoting customer satisfaction and making employees work hard towards customer loyalty. However, the study revealed that treating employees fairly does not provide betterment of customers neither fulfilling both company and customers’ objectives. The study concluded that, corporate social responsibility contributes up to 56.3% to customer loyalty in Wagagai Company Limited. This means the remaining percentage (43.7%) is contributed by other factors The study recommended that, management of Wagagai Company Limited should get ways of promoting price evaluation since community support has failed to contribute 100% to customer loyalty. Management of Wagagai Company Limited should strengthen its environment such as inviting suggestions from the community, getting more lines of customer care, extending customer care services closer to the community. And there is need for the management to come up with strategies that fulfils both company and customer objectives and this can be done by consulting customers before company strategies are formulated. The study also came up with areas of further study which include: Corporate social responsibility and performance of Wagagai Company Limited Uganda. Corporate social strategies and the growth of horticulture industry in Uganda. The effect of corporate social responsibilities to the organizational effectiveness