The Linkages Between Customer Satisfaction and Four Loyalty Behaviors in the Presence of Moderators

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of moderators on the relationship between customer satisfaction and four common loyalty behaviors: (1) repurchase intentions, (2) positive word-of-mouth, (3) negative word-of-mouth, and (4) share-of-wallet. This evaluation is performed across three service industries and for two moderators—switching costs and variety seeking. The former is thought to be most relevant at low satisfaction levels whereas the latter is thought to be most relevant at high satisfaction levels. Eight hypotheses are formulated and tested. The data were collected from about 150 customers of cell phone services, restaurant services, and banking services, each. The three services differ in their potential to invite switching costs and variety seeking behavior. The survey consisted of questions assessing overall satisfaction, repurchase intentions, positive word-of-mouth, negative word-of-mouth, variety seeking, and switching cost. One questions assessed the share-of-wallet loyalty behavior. Published scales were used. An inspection of the Cronbach coefficients revealed very good scale reliabilities with alpha score mostly well above 0.85 (Nunnally 1978). Following Hayes (2013), the hypotheses were tested using regression-based moderator analysis. The analysis produced mixed results at α