Key Factors Driving Customers' Word-of-Mouth Intentions in Full-Service Restaurants: The Moderating Role of Switching Costs

To date, little empirical study has tested the effects of service encounter performance, satisfaction, trust, commitment, and switching costs on word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions in a single framework. To fill this gap, this study attempted to investigate the roles that these variables play in determining WOM intentions of customers in a full-service restaurant by considering monetary and nonmonetary switching costs as moderators in WOM intentions, along with satisfaction, trust, and commitment. The results of the structural equation modeling showed that encounter performance, satisfaction, trust, and commitment had essential roles in generating WOM intentions, whereas satisfaction, trust, and commitment were found to act as partial or complete mediators in the proposed framework. Last, the tests verified the moderating effects of monetary and nonmonetary switching costs on the bonds linking encounter performance and satisfaction to WOM intentions. However, the paths from trust and commitment to WOM intentions were not moderated by switching costs. A key finding was that the perception of high switching costs may diminish customers' intent to share word of mouth. Rather than attempt to create high switching costs, however, restaurateurs may improve WOM and reduce defections by paying careful attention to service excellence and meeting guests' needs and desires.