The mediating effects of switching costs on the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty: A study in retail banking industry in Vietnam
This paper develops and empirically tests the mediating role of switching costs in service quality loyalty and satisfaction loyalty relationships. Especially, different types of switching costs are tested separately providing more insights into their roles. A research model about the interrelationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, switching costs and customer loyalty is developed. Based on this model, a survey is conducted with retail banking customers, with and 261valid respondents. The hypotheses are then proposed and tested using Structural equation modeling technique (SEM) The analysis reveals that: positive switching cost is a significant mediator for both service quality loyalty and satisfaction loyalty relationships, while negative switching cost only mediates the service quality loyalty relationship. These findings suggest that building and managing switching costs are necessary following up steps after customer satisfaction for achieving long term customer loyalty.