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The interplay between digital onboarding and customer experience in the Nigerian banking industry: a post-COVID-19 analysis
The contemporary financial environment has undergone substantial transformation, accelerated by the global COVID-19 pandemic, necessitating replacement of physical banking interactions with digital alternatives. This paper examines relationships between digital onboarding and customer experience in Nigeria’s banking sector through a post-COVID-19 lens, investigating how e-banking registration, service integration, and bank notification services impact customer experience. Grounded in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2), the study employed descriptive survey methodology using structured questionnaires administered to 377 active customers across five major commercial banks (Zenith Bank, Access Bank, First Bank, GTBank, UBA) in Kwara State, Nigeria. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analyzed collected data. Results demonstrated that service integration exerted the greatest impact on customer experience (β = 0.375, t = 11.341, p < 0.001), followed by e-banking registration (β = 0.340, t = 7.023, p < 0.001) and bank notification services (β = 0.245, t = 5.785, p < 0.001). Collectively, these digital onboarding constructs explained 69.4% of customer experience variance (R² = 0.694), highlighting significant predictive power of digital onboarding as a multidimensional strategic resource. The study concludes that digital onboarding critically determines customer experience in Nigerian banking, functioning not merely as operational requirement but as strategic experience catalyst. Nigerian banks should prioritize enhancing digital onboarding through robust service integration infrastructure, simplified e-banking registration procedures, and accurate, timely, personalized notification systems.
Keywords: Digital Onboarding, Customer Experience, Banking Industry, Covid-19, E-Banking Registration, Service Integration, Bank Notification Services, Financial Technology, Digital Transformation, PLS-SEM, Nigeria, UTUAT 2.
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