In a highly competitive world, it is imperative to understand why customers switch, as switching has a significant impact on a firm's performance. Just as satisfied customers are not necessarily loyal, dissatisfied customers do not always exit (Yanamandram & White, 2006). Even then much attention has been diverted towards growing relationships as compared to ending of the same (Akerlund, 2005; Halinen & Tahtinen, 2002). This study aimed at predicting customer switching through various relational and switching factors, viz., quality, value, satisfaction, trust, commitment, loyalty, switching costs and barriers, particularly in the context of Indian private banking. Further, the study investigated those traits of the customers, which would facilitate bank managers in formulating different retention strategies. The main findings of the study are: Majority of respondents have no intentions to switch their prime bank, but at the same time these respondents cannot be classified as true loyals. There exist two groups of respondents, i.e., ‘loyal stayers’ and ‘spurious stayers’. A direct relationship exists between ‘customer switching intentions’ on the one hand and ‘quick and effective responses to service failures’, ‘core services up to expectations’, ‘reasonable prices’, ‘switching costs’ and ‘switching barriers‘ on the other. Thus, banks need to undertake the following initiatives, which would be useful for increasing customer retention among bank customers: Promote commitment by implementing and demanding higher standards of conduct from the bank employees. Develop schemes/services that provide value to their customers in a sustained way and maintain them overtime in order to generate competitive advantage. Satisfy its customers, which can be implemented only when customers' needs are known. Hence, every bank should have a separate R&D department, which can pursue market surveys on continual basis. Concentrate on the core service delivery and recovery, so as to seek competitive advantage. Focus on CRM strategies and develop wide-ranging relationships with their customers so as to make it difficult for them to switch their bank. In order to build profitable relationships, firms should not attempt to attract all customers in the market indiscriminately, but focus on those who are more valuable to the company.
Segmentation of Bank Customers by Loyalty and Switching Intentions