Service industries require rapid innovations in their service portfolios to gain and maintain competitive advantages. Service elimination is a potential tool for portfolio renewal, though it might threaten increased defection rates. To contribute to both service elimination and customer defection literature, this paper proposes a model of customer responses to service elimination, with practical implications for decision-makers in rapidly innovating telecommunication markets.

In particular, the main study, conducted in the context of Hungary’s telecommunications sector, reveals that customers’ tenure, usage intensity, and age reduce the negative effects of a price increase on their defection; the price increase, degree to which customers interact with service providers, customer defection, and competitive effects in turn increase post–service elimination usage intensity.

These findings suggest implementation strategies that can reduce customer defection following price increase due to service elimination, by focusing on new customers, light users, and the quality of customer interactions.

服务行业需要对其服务组合进行快速创新，以获得并保持竞争优势。服务消除是投资组合更新的潜在工具，尽管它可能会增加缺陷率。为了对服务消除和客户流失文献做出贡献，本文提出了一个客户对服务消除的反应模型，对快速创新电信市场的决策者具有实际意义。

特别是，在匈牙利电信部门的背景下进行的主要研究表明，客户的任期、使用强度和年龄降低了价格上涨对其叛逃的负面影响；价格上涨、客户与服务提供商互动的程度、客户流失和竞争效应反过来会增加服务后淘汰的使用强度。

这些发现提出了实施策略，通过关注新客户、轻度用户和客户交互质量，可以减少因服务取消而导致价格上涨后的客户流失。