Physical Evidence and Customer Patronage: An Empirical Study of Nigeria Banking Sector

This study examines the impact of physical evidence on customer patronage of quoted Banks in south-south zone of Nigeria. 14 quoted Banks at the Nigeria Stock Exchange Market were used for the study. The research considered firm level of analysis and top managers unit of analysis. Customers of the chosen banks were also used. By this arrangement, 42 managers and 7 customers randomly selected constituted our respondents for the study. Descriptively, the study variables were presented and inferentially, the Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient was used in testing the various hypotheses. In addition, we employed the Pearson Partial Correlation to ascertain the extent to which the organizational factors mediate the relationship between physical evidence and customer patronage. The result of the analysis showed that there is a strong positive and significant correlation between physical evidence and customer patronage. The study specifically revealed that efficient design of work place ambience; physical architecture and signs significantly impact on sales volume, profit margin and customer retention. It was further found that organization size and information technology capability strongly mediated the relationship between the predictor and criterion variable. The study therefore concluded that physical evidence significantly affects customer patronage. Hence, it was recommended that the panacea to poor customer patronage is predicated on the bank’s ability to efficiently adopt physical evidence dimensions used for the study as significant conditioning factors of the business environment.