Relational benefits, switching barriers and loyalty: A study of airline customers in Taiwan

A model of looking at switching barriers and customer loyalty stemming from customer relational benefits is developed. In-depth interviews with airline customers revealed that, in addition to confidence, social, and special treatment benefits originally identified in the Western cultural context, ‘respect benefits’ surfaced as an additional relational benefit type in Taiwan. The hypotheses were tested using data collected from airline relational customers. Results showed that social benefits and confidence benefits had significant and positive influences on switching barriers and certain relational benefits had a larger effect on switching barriers and customer loyalty than others.