Switching barriers and repurchase intentions in services

Abstract

The current study moves beyond satisfaction and proposes that switching barriers are important factors impacting a customer’s decision to remain with a service provider. Switching barriers make customer defection difficult or costly and include interpersonal relationships, perceived switching costs, and the attractiveness of alternatives. We propose and find support for a contingency model between core-service satisfaction and switching barriers. The results indicate that the influence of core-service satisfaction on repurchase intentions decreases under conditions of high switching barriers. Although switching barriers had no influence on repurchase intentions when satisfaction was high, switching barriers positively influenced repurchase intentions when satisfaction was low. Implications of the results are discussed.