Factors that influence customer switching behavior in the northern region of peninsular Malaysia’s taxi industry

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between pricing, inconvenience, core service failure, service encounter failure, employee responsiveness, attraction by competitors, change in technology, switching cost, word of mouth and customer switching behavior. Consumers who have the experience using taxi service and ride-sharing service in the Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia’s which consist of Perlis, Kedah, Penang and Perak were chosen as respondent for this study. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and 391 were collected back and 387 data is usable. Correlation and multiple regression analysis were chosen as the data analysis methods through Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS-Version 22) software. The findings of this study shows that pricing, inconvenience, core service failure, service encounter failure, employee responsiveness, attraction by competition, switching cost and word of mouth having significant relationship with customer switching behaviors. In conclusion, the findings of this study suggest that taxi industry should improve their pricing, inconvenience, core service failure, service encounter failure, employee responsiveness, attraction by competition, switching cost and word of mouth factors, in order to reduce switching of the customers.