Abstract:
To obtain the competitive advantage in the dynamic financial industry, banks
always concentrate on fulfilling their customers’ needs and demands. The current
study attempts to find the impact of customer satisfaction on loyalty and intention
to switch in the commercial banking sector in Sri Lanka. The population consists
of customers of banks in Sri Lanka and the target population consists of customers
of banks in the Colombo district. The sample is derived from the simple random
sampling method and a questionnaire is used to collect primary data from 150
commercial bank customers. The dependent variable is intention to switch, the
independent variable is customer satisfaction and the mediator variable is
customer loyalty. The study reveals that customer satisfaction moderately affects
customer loyalty and there is a negative relationship between customer
satisfaction and switching intention. However, there is no impact of customer
satisfaction and customer loyalty on switching intention. Also, other than
customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, there are several other factors
affecting the intention to switch. As per the findings of the study, there is no
statistically significant association of age, gender, occupation, highest education
level and marital status with customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and
intention to switch. Monthly income level of the respondents also does not have a
significant association with customer loyalty and intention to switch but there is
a statistically significant association between income level and customer
satisfaction. Finally, the study identified that customers are switching from the
existing bank due to an external reason such as the existing bank not complying
with some special request or to obtain some exclusive benefits at another bank.
