The influence of quality and switching costs in loyalty

a study in a services company

Abstract

Nowadays, the commercial competition is very intense. Companies need to equip themselves with tools that allow them to retain the customers in order to achieve competitive advantage. The service sector is thriving, becoming, thus, an adequate subject to such investigation. Knowing the customers better, their choices, what their needs and desires are, is fundamental to enable an ongoing and lasting relationship with them. In this context, this article aims to evaluate a model that presents the quality and the switching costs as loyalty background. To do so, a conclusive, descriptive survey was conducted, by means of questionnaires applied to customers of a break parts service provider company from Contagem/MG. The sample was composed of 63 companies, representing 42% of this service universe. Aiming to evaluate the research hypotheses, a multiple regression model was used. With the analysis it was possible to conclude that only quality was significant to predict loyalty, under the aspect of reliability and empathy. Regarding the switching costs, no relations with loyalty were identified in this research.