The relationship between switching costs, customer satisfaction and loyalty in the Norwegian mobile market

Abstract

Few studies in marketing have examined the role of switching costs in regards of both customer satisfaction and loyalty. The presence of switching costs can mean that some seemingly loyal customers are actually dissatisfied but do not defect because of high switching costs. Thus, it is believed that the level of switching costs moderates the link between satisfaction and loyalty. This work seeks to capture consumer attitudes and see how attitude is explained by the three aspects, in example how attitude towards buying and recommending services from an operator is affected by switching costs which exist in the market, and the purpose is to examine the role of switching costs towards customer satisfaction and loyalty, in addition to identify critical dimensions to switching costs by using an empirical example based on the mobile market in Norway. The results indicate that in the relationship between SC, CS and L, mobile operators should still focus primarily on customer satisfaction, as it is believed that the effect of switching costs only apply when satisfaction is low. As for the dimensions of switching costs, the most crucial dimensions identified suggest that in order to use SC’s as means of retaining customers and increasing loyalty, operators should increase awareness of complex features and services, and when attracting new customers prefer the ones with limited experience.