Switching Service Providers: Who Will the Consumer Switch To?

Abstract There has been a recent interest in understanding the reasons behind why customers switch service providers. However, there is no study to date that investigates who the customers will switch to. This paper proposes that customers will switch to that service provider whose service is perceived to have the best quality. The paper proposes using a new construct, “perceived expected service quality” (pre-consumption attitude), to measure the quality of service that will be provided by a service provider whose service has never been consumed by the customer. The paper reports the findings of a study that surveyed students in a university who had decided to transfer/switch to another university. The results support the proposition that students will switch to that university whose “perceived expected performance” comes closest to the “expectation” of the prospective student (switcher).