Valor percebido, reputação, confiança e custos de troca como determinantes da retenção de clientes

Abstract

In service firms, the maintenance and expansion of relational exchanges strengthen customer retention as a differential among the competitors. In order to qualify companies to adopt strategies of customer retention, it is essential that they know the process by which their customer goes through in service encounters, identifying the various constructs that encourage achievement and customer retention. To develop this research, a Theoretical Model was developed and tested considering the following constructs: Perceived Value, Reputation of Service Provider, Reliability and Cost of Exchange, as antecedents of Customer Retention, considering their respective hypotheses. Posteriorly, it was conducted a descriptive study of the literature that makes an approach in Customer Retention, as well as the understanding and analysis of the constructs that precede and affect strategically the competitiveness of a service provider. Later, the study was continued using a descriptive quantitative research, by means of a survey. The analysis of the results was made using multivariate statistics, using the Structural Equation Modeling to observe and analyze the elements of the phenomenon under study. The sample consisted of 269 client companies of the business health plan groups in the region of Caxias do Sul. The results of the research show that the Theorical Re-Specified Model presented satisfactory values, yet considering being unedited. Furthermore, it was verified the moderation time of the clients, through Hierarchical Regression, and this did not confirmed the relationship between switching costs and customer retention. The most important contributions are related to the evidences that prove that the perceived value positively influences the reputation of the service provider; the reputation of the service provider direct impacton trust and cost changes; the costs of trade showed a huge positive influence on customer retention; furthermore, the customer retention is a relation that’s positively influenced by the service provider reputation, in a relational context.