ABSTRACT

The study examined the effect of customer orientation on the marketing performance among small and medium scale leather products manufacturers in Abia State Nigeria. The specific objectives were to determine the effect of customer orientation on customer loyalty among leather products manufacturers, to examine the effect of customer orientation on probability among leather products manufacturers in the study area, to evaluate the effect of customer orientation on market share of leather products manufacturers, to ascertain the effect of customer orientation on sales volume of leather products. The population of the study comprised of 4000 small and medium scale leather products manufacturers in Umuahia and Aba in Abia State (SME office, Abia State). The researcher adopted judgmental sampling technique to select 364 small and medium scale leather products manufacturer from 4000. The study were analyzed with descriptive statistics and multiple regression. The findings of the study revealed that closeness to customers, provision of timely information to  customer , attention to customer complain  have positive and significant effect on customer loyalty among  leather products manufacturers in the  study area while  after sales services  has positive and insignificant effect on loyalty among  leather products manufacturers in the  study area. Also, closeness to customers , attention to customer complain ,after sales services  have positive and significant effect on profitability of  leather products manufacturers in the  study area while  after sales services  has positive and insignificant effect on market share  among  leather products manufacturers in the  study area. Closeness to customers,  attention to customer complain  and after sales service have significant effect on profitability among  leather products manufacturers while provision of timely information to customer  has positive and insignificant effect on market share  among  leather products manufacturers in the  study area and that closeness to customers,  attention to customer complain  and after sales service have significant effect on customer sale volume among  leather products manufacturers in the  study area while  provision of timely information to customer  has positive and insignificant effect on sale volume among  leather products manufacturers in the  study area. It was recommended that small and medium scale leather products manufacturers in Aba and Umuahia should continue with closeness to customers, provision of timely information to  customer , given attention to customer complain  and they should look into the issue of after sales services  that h as not enhance loyalty among  leather products manufacturers in the  study area.