earticle

영어

Retaining customers is known as an effective marketing strategy to maintain revenue in the competitive business environment. The purpose of this study is to find how switching barriers can be used to keep customers from switching to competing firms. Research samples are collected from domestic coffee-shop, fast-food, and restaurant service customers and tested the influences between the variables. Independent-Sample T Test to compare the mean of the sample groups, and the Multiple Regression Analysis to test the effect of influences between variables are used to test the hypothesis. The study found that 1) positive(negative) switching barriers has a positive(negative) influences to satisfaction, 2) the degree of switching cost perceptions is different depending on the degree of contact between customers and service providers, 3) negative switching barriers as well as positive one has an positive influences on customer retentions. It is noticeable that even the negative switching barriers, causing customer dis-satisfaction, can be an effective marketing tool to retain customers in the food service industry. The results of the study will be applicable to food service-outlets to overcome the COVID-19 difficulties in Korea.