Customer Service Retention – A Behavioural Perspective of the UK Mobile Market

Abstract

Abstract


Customer retention is essential for firms in the service sector and will subsequently receive a great deal of attention in the coming years. A large majority of firms are losing their current customers at a significant rate. UK operators lose over a third of their subscribers every year in spite of incurring large customer acquisition and retention expenditures. A study of customer retention from a variety of angles, including economic, behavioural and psychological perspectives, was rigorously carried out. It has been found that a majority of scholars explain customer retention from a behavioural perspective by using unrelated or indirect factors such as trust and commitment, price terms, and loyalty terms. It has also been noted that previous studies lack a clear theoretical background and a solid empirical proof to support their findings of customer operant retention behaviour.

This study approaches the customer retention problem in the mobile phone sector from a behavioural perspective, applying the Behavioural Perspective Model as the main analytical framework. The model includes a set of pre-behaviour and post-behaviour factors to study consumer choice and explains its relevant drivers in a viable and comprehensive way, grounded in radical behaviourism. Many data collection methods were used to collect data from the study sample, including mobile contracts content analysis techniques, customer focus groups, and, principally, a customer survey supported by interviews with a number of managers. The data were analysed using different regression measurements to test the study model, and the propositions were constructed and tested quantitatively and discussed qualitatively. Analysis revealed that a customer will buy a mobile telecommunication package and engage in a long-term relationship with a supplier whom he or she believes will honour the relationship’s functional and emotional benefits; the consumer will be expecting to obtain such benefits when he/she buys, consumes, and has a positive experience of both the purchased object and the seller.