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Finally, customers are in the action loyalty stage when their return intention has been “transformed
into readiness to act” (Oliver, 1999). Once customers develop this deep level of commitment, they
will possess a resistance towards changing to competitors’ offerings and as a result, the switching
behaviours will be minimized. True loyal customers are the customers who hold a positive attitude
toward the mobile service provider (Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001; Matzler et al., 2008; Kiyani et
al., 2012; Lin and Lee, 2012 Bowen & Chen McCain, 2015).

Customer retention is the main strategy for service-oriented industries such as the mobile service
provider industry to stay sustained. Customer retention was defined as how a firm can keep its
customers and maintain its customers' portfolio (Al-Gharaibah, 2020; Gronroos, 2000; Mahmoud et
al., 2018). Previous studies postulated that an increase in customer retention can increase the profit of
companies by 5 folds (Al-Gharaibah, 2020; Hawkin & Hoon, 2019). Customer retention may also
reduce the cost of marketing and operational costs of attracting new customers, which brings more
profitability (Cham et al., 2018; Cham et al., 2019; Cheah et al., 2019; Cheng et al., 2020). In the
mobile service provider industry, customer retention helps companies to retain their customers from
opting out to another service provider. Managers agreed that customer complaints play a significant
role in company performance. However, customer complaints enable the provision of more valuable
information for new development (Y. Hwang & Mattila, 2020). With this valuable information,
companies can formulate new strategies and innovations to build up the switching barrier.

Brand Credibility
According to Rosli et al. (2019), brand reputation is derived from the credibility of source literature.
The definition of brand credibility is based on the early research suggested by Hovland et al., (1953)
relating to the communicator's credibility, and then adapted by Erdem and Swait (1998, 2004), Erdem
et al. (2002), and Swait and Erdem (2002) to the brand background (2007). Brand credibility is
described as a brand's credibility in producing or performing the products and services that have been
promised (Erdem & Swait, 2004; Kiatkawsin & Sutherland, 2020; Rizwan et al., 2014; Rosli et al.,
2019).

An analysis of the literature by Rosli et al. (2019) reveals that three brand reputation components
include trustworthiness, competence (Erdem and Swait, 1998, 2004; Erdem et al., 2006), and
attractiveness (Erdem and Swait, 1998, 2004; Hovland, Janis, and Kelly, 1953; Keller and Aaker,
1997; Maathuis et al., 2004; Sternthal and Craig, 2002;). Trustworthiness refers to the ability of the
company to achieve what it has vowed. It relates to the degree to which an item is deemed an honest
source of knowledge, goods, services, and other matters (Maathuis et al., 2004). As it has been
marketed, it is the expectation for the brand to deliver. Expertise, on the other hand, represents the
ability to deliver the brand to the desired expectations in future service meetings (Baek et al., 2010;
Kiatkawsin & Sutherland, 2020; Rosli et al., 2019). Both trustworthiness and expertise are determined
by the cumulative impact of a brand’s previous marketing strategies and actions (Erdem and Swait,
1998).

Trust
Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, and Camerer (1998) define trust as “a psychological state composing the
intention to accept vulnerability based on expectations of the intentions or behaviour of another” (p.
395). According to Ravald and Gonroos (1996), trust is a higher degree of aggregate assessment than
satisfaction, and that satisfaction is an integral source of trust. In essence, confidence represents the
seller’s belief that they will keep their word and fulfil the promised position obligations (Anderson &
Narus, 1990; Dwyer, Schurr, & Oh., 1987). Long-term relationships are fostered because trust
decreases misunderstanding and the risk of opportunistic actions (Hausman, 2001). In combination,
building consumer trust is regarded as the focal task of service marketers because of the apparent
intrinsic nature of services (Choi & La, 2013; Liljander & Roos, 2002).

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