Journal
JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE
Volume 33, Issue 2, Pages 169-183Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1177/0092070304269111
Keywords
service quality; loyalty; customer expertise; switching costs
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
As customer-organization relationships deepen, consumers increase their expertise in the firm's product line and industry and develop increased switching costs. This study investigates the effects of customer investment expertise and perceived switching costs on the relationships between technical and functional service quality and customer loyalty.. Technical service quality, is hypothesized to be a more important determinant of customer loyalty than functional service quality as expertise increases. Both technical and functional service quality are hypothesized to have a reduced relationship with customer loyalty as perceived switching costs increase. Three-way interactions between the main effects of service quality, customer expertise, and perceived switching costs yield additional insight into the change in relative importance of technical and functional service quality, in customers decision to be loyal. Six of eight hypotheses receive support. Implications are discussed for customer relationship management over the relationship life cycle.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available