Exploring customer switching intentions through relationship marketing paradigm

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of customer switching and the reasons that underlie customer‐switching intentions. The paper aims to focus on the various factors on account of which a customer may or may not switch a particular bank. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 800 bank customers were selected randomly from a total population of 71,600 and were contacted personally to gather the requisite data. Findings – The paper finds that the model reveals significant effect of quality, satisfaction and trust on predicting switching barriers. Of these relationships, satisfaction emerged as the strongest factor which influences switching barriers. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to Indian banks; a larger empirical study would be useful to replicate the results in the banking as well as other services. Practical implications – In order to ensure loyalty among bank customers, increased value addition in the banking services and wide‐ranging relationships with customers can make the switching process more complex. Originality/value – The preliminary work in this paper demonstrates the impact of various relationship marketing factors, namely, service quality, customer value, satisfaction, trust, commitment, loyalty, switching costs and barriers on customers' switching intentions.