Customer Communication Strategy for Islamic Banks

Purpose The main goals of this – study are (1) to study the information sources used the most by customers of Islamic banks; and (2) to compare this with conventional bank customers. Research design, data, and methodology – 125 Islamic bank customers and 125 conventional bank customers were surveyed.The study employed two independent sample tests. Additionally, an exploratory study was conducted to support the quantitative analysis. Result – The results show that Islamic bank customers use personal as well as marketing information sources more intensely than conventional bank customers, although the result differences were not significant. Specifically, customers of Islamic banks use certain personal resources (parents and friends) and marketing information (marketers)intensely than conventional bank customers. Conclusion – The study revealed that friends and parents are the most important information sources for the selection of the Islamic bank. In addition, based on the resources used, Islamic banking customers can be classified as traditional and religious communities. Therefore, the most effective customer communications will be through Islamic groups such as Islamic social institutions and Islamic educational institutions.