The Impact of Service Quality and Service Characteristics on Customer Retention: Small Businesses and their Banks in the UK1
Abstract
The recent developments in relationship marketing have increasingly focused attention on the beneficial effects of customer retention. The notion of building relationships and delivering quality service in order to encourage loyalty is perhaps of particular importance in the service sector where it is often argued that customer attraction costs are significantly higher than retention costs. Central to the idea of investment in the development of service quality and customer relationships is the belief that such investments will enhance loyalty, retention and profitability. Empirical evidence on the extent to which such links exist is still partial. This paper explores the relationship between service qualitylcustomer relationships and customer loyalty and retention using evidence from the UK banking sector and its small business customers.
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Customer attraction costs are higher than retention costs in services.
“It is often argued that customer attraction costs are higher than retention costs in services (Eisingerich and Bell 2006; Ennew and Binks 1996).”
From Health insurance policy renewal: an exploration of reputation, performance, and affect to understand customer inertia (2022) · cites this paper as Ennew and Binks 1996
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- Authors
- Ennew, C. T., & Binks, M. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- ORCID
- Ennew, Christine T.
- Venue
- British Journal of Management
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1996-09
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 219-230
- ISSN
- 1045-3172 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8551
- OpenAlex
- W1964725174
- Cited by
- 279
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 12.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- British Journal of Management (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Customer Service Quality and Loyalty
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Customer churn and segmentation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Service and Product Innovation
- Keywords
- service quality, service attributes, customer retention, customer loyalty, relationship marketing, small business, banking sector, bank-customer relationship
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