Paper Details

Name: Thaseen Sultana
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Volume No: 13, Issue: 1, Year: 2026
Page Number: 364-378
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22840887

Service quality occupies a central position in contemporary theories of competitive advantage within the service sector, where the intangible, heterogeneous and simultaneously produced and consumed nature of offerings makes customer perception the effective arbiter of value. This paper examines the relationship between service quality and customer retention, drawing upon established conceptual frameworks, most notably the SERVQUAL instrument and the underlying Gaps Model of service quality, in order to identify the dimensions of service quality that most strongly condition a customer's decision to sustain a relationship with a service provider. The paper reviews the accumulated literature on the five canonical dimensions of service quality, namely reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles, and evaluates the manner in which each dimension contributes to customer satisfaction, perceived value, trust, commitment and, ultimately, retention. Drawing on Expectancy–Disconfirmation Theory, the Gaps Model, the Commitment–Trust Theory of relationship marketing and Social Exchange Theory, an integrated conceptual framework is proposed in which service quality influences retention not directly but through a sequence of evaluative and psychological mediating mechanisms, the operation of which is bounded by contextual moderators such as switching costs, competitive intensity, relationship duration and the increasing digitalisation of service delivery. The paper argues that retention outcomes achieved through structural lock-in are qualitatively different from, and strategically more fragile than, retention grounded in genuine satisfaction and relational commitment, and that the two should not be conflated in either measurement or managerial interpretation. The discussion highlights practical implications for service organisations seeking to reduce churn and to build durable customer relationships, and concludes with an agenda for future empirical research. The central contention advanced is that consistent, high-quality service delivery constitutes not merely a source of differentiation but a prerequisite for sustainable customer retention in increasingly competitive and increasingly digitally mediated service markets.

Keywords: Service Quality, Customer Retention, SERVQUAL, Customer Satisfaction, Perceived Value, Customer Loyalty, Service Sector, Relationship Marketing, Switching Costs, Service Recovery