Aganze Bisimwa^1,, Dennis Nuwagaba², Samuel Musigire²

This research studies customer loyalty in the banking sector in a very unstable region of East Democratic Republic of Congo by underlining the mediating role of customer satisfaction. It examines the relationship between perceived service quality, trust, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the banking sector of Bukavu by adopting quantitative cross-sectional research design and using self-administered questionnaires. Convenience sampling helps in collecting data from a sample of 225 respondents. Correlation and hierarchical regression help to test the research hypotheses. Customers perceive a relatively high quality of services they enjoy, their level of trust is relatively high and they are slightly satisfied. Consequently, they are moderately loyal to their respective banks. There are positive and significant relationships between the different couples of variables studied. There is 49.1% of variance explained in customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction positively and fully mediates perceived service quality and customer loyalty relationship and partially mediates trust and customer loyalty. Regular talks between banks and their customers should be privileged; customer satisfaction and loyalty should regularly be assessed and ethical values integrated.

perceived service quality, trust, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, Bukavu