The scope of an integrated analysis of trust, switching barriers, customer satisfaction, and loyalty

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of service quality, intimacy, trust, and playfulness on customer loyalty. The integrated variables were investigated alongside their effect on customer loyalty. Variance-based structural equation modeling with PLS (PLS-SEM) was selected to assess the proposed hypotheses, with the analysis sample of the study including 627 questionnaires distributed to the sampled subjects. The positive effect of service quality, playfulness, intimacy, trust, and satisfaction was found, and a statistically significant impact was shown of switching barriers and trust on customer loyalty. Contrastingly, the results found no significant effect of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty. Our study offers a deeper understanding of some of the most important factors concerning customer satisfaction and loyalty and the effect of these factors on increasing market share and competitive advantage. The research goal of this paper is to examine the impact of service quality on business competitiveness. Enterprises need to understand what service quality is and how it will help provide a great competitive advantage, e.g. how service quality models could allow managers to identify where problems with quality lie. This will help managers determine where to improve the efficiency and profitability of the overall performance of the enterprise. For service industries, service quality increases competitive advantage and long-term profitability. Service quality will help organizations compete efficiently and differentiate themselves from other enterprises striving to achieve the same goals. For this and other reasons, service quality should be seen as critically important for businesses.