The Effects Of Customer Satisfaction and Switching Costs On Customer Loyalty In Health Care

Abstract

In recent years, the increasing number of private hospitals and the change in service quality and service requirements offered to patients in our country has led to an increase in competition for patients. Because of higher competition in healtcare sector, hospitals change their approach and focus more first on retention and then new patient acquisition. As a result, the relationship between satisfaction, trust, loyalty and switching costs as well as factors that affect these variables gain stratejik importance for hospital managements. Therefore, in this study, the relationship between satisfaction, loyalty and switching costs are investigated for university hospitals. Results show that satisfaction and direct effect of switching costs are important for loyalty. However, moderating effects of switching costs are not too strong.