How the response to service incidents change customer–firm relationships (original) (raw)
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EFFECTS OF THE QUALITY OF THE CUSTOMER-COMPANY RELATIONSHIP IN THE CAUSAL ATTRIBUTION PROCESS OF CRITICAL INCIDENTS: The harmonic resonance of emotional, professional and technological intelligence for the promotion of excellence and innovation in the quality of the Customer-Company relationship, 2022
This study proposes to model and quantify the effect of the process of causal attribution of critical, positive and negative incidents, on the quality of the Customer-Company relationship after its occurrence. Using theories from Relationship Marketing, Critical Incident Technique and Theories of Causal Attributions and Balance from Fisher Heider's Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships, this study develops and tests the Relational Balance Model (REM) that proposes the foundations for the longevity and prosperity of quality of the Customer-Company relationship in the context of service provision. Structural equation modeling by the Partial Least Squares – PLS method was used in the analysis of the longitudinal sample to test the proposed conceptual model. The results contribute to the implementation of intelligent strategies in the provision of services, which stimulate the search for relational harmony in a natural, intuitive and common sense way on the part of service consumers, based on positive and benevolent behaviors on the part of the whole Organization. Although the Relationship Marketing literature emphasizes the longevity of the Customer-Company relationship, it directs its studies to service failures and the relationship between loyalty and profitability to the company. Our Relational Balance Model is innovative as it provides valuable information that relates the resonance of consumers' emotional intelligence with excellence and innovation in the performance of service providers' actors, resulting in new perspectives of sustainable loyalty for Customer Relationship Management. -Company, as well as new perspectives on the study of the behavior of service consumers.
The effects of relationship quality on customer retaliation
Marketing Letters, 2006
This research examines the effects of relationship quality (RQ) on customers' desires to retaliate after service failures. We posit that the effects of RQ are contingent upon the attributions customers make about the firm’s controllability over a service failure. Two competing hypotheses are examined and reconciled. The “love is blind” hypothesis posits that when low controllability is inferred, high RQ customers experience a lesser desire for retaliation than low RQ customers. On the other hand, the “love becomes hate” hypothesis specifies that when high controllability is inferred, high RQ customers experience a greater desire for retaliation than low RQ customers. The hypotheses are tested with a survey-based design and a partial least squares (PLS) model that incorporates a multiplicative latent construct.
European Journal of Marketing, 2000
It is commonly acknowledged that service quality can be measured by using attributebased and incident-based measurements. Both methods are distinct in nature, but can be used complementarily. However, in the literature a simultaneous empirical investigation of the power of critical incidents in relation to attribute scores is lacking. In this paper we merge both methods for assessing service quality in a professional services context. Subsequently, both measurements have been used to investigate the effect of service quality on short-term customer satisfaction and longterm trust in the service provider. Results indicate that the combined approach adds value to singlemethod measurement for explaining customer satisfaction. Furthermore, negative incidents are more influential on satisfaction than positive experiences. However, the negative effect of a negative incident on satisfaction can be compensated for by paying attention to particular dimensions of service quality. Critical incidents do not seem to have an impact on the apparently stable construct of trust.
Customer Betrayal and Retaliation: When Your Best Customers Become Your Worst Enemies
After a service failure and a poor recovery, what leads loyal customers to try to punish a firm even if there is no material gain for doing so? We propose and test a justice-based model that incorporates perceived betrayal as the means to understand customer retaliation and the "love becomes hate" effect. The results suggest that betrayal is a key motivational force that leads customers to restore fairness by all means possible, including retaliation. In contrast to the majority of findings in the service literature, we propose and find that relationship quality has unfavorable effects on a customer's response to a service recovery. As a relationship gains in strength, a violation of the fairness norm was found to have a stronger effect on the sense of betrayal experienced by customers. The model was tested on a national sample of airline passengers who complained to a consumer agency after an unsuccessful recovery.
Recovering from Service Failure: Does Satisfaction Fortify Brand Trust?
2014
Most companies across the globe are aware on the impact of service failure towards the reputation and long term profitability of their businesses. However, not all companies are fully prepared for such transgression. As a result of service failure, customers will be dissatisfied and lost trust towards the company’s brand. Therefore, a study on service recovery is critical to investigate its influence in building customer satisfaction and brand trust. Justice theory is one of the most prominent theoretical foundations in service recovery studies. Thus, the three dimensions of justice theory which includes distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice will be employed in this study. It is expected that this conceptual paper will provide platform for practitioners and researchers who are interested to explore the importance of service recovery in retaining customers and increase profitability.
International Business Research
This study aims to investigate, using the structural equation modeling with a partial least square (PLS-SEM) approach, the relationship among service recovery strategies, relationship quality, and customer patronage intentions concerning Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Egypt. Our findings confirmed that some service recovery strategies positively influence on both relationship quality and patronage intentions. As well as, relationship quality has a significant impact on customer patronage intentions. Furthermore, relationship quality has the role of a mediator of the relationship between SR strategies and patronage intention. Moreover, both speeds of recovery and empathy moderate the relationship between some SR strategies and relationship quality. Finally, our study proposed some theoretical and managerial implications.
Respect Your Customers and Earn Their Trust: An Empirical Evidence
Human Resource Management Research, 2013
One of the most effective ways of establishing a quality relat ionship with customers is by respecting them. The purpose of this paper is to thoroughly examine the concept of respect and how it affects customers' trust. Having developed a concrete model, we intend to determine the moderation effect of gender on the whole relationship. The framework of this study is developed from existing literature and emp irical study of customers of service sectors in a few capital cities in Malaysia. Data fro m questionnaire survey of 469 respondents were analysed using Pearson correlation and regression analysis. Hierarchical Mu ltiple Regression was further being used to estimate the importance of each d imension of respect on trust.
Service Failure and Recovery: The Impact of Relationship Factors on Customer Satisfaction
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2003
This research investigated how customers' relationships with a service organization affect their reactions to service failure and recovery. Our conceptual model proposed that customer-organizational relationships help to shape customers' attributions and expectations when service failures occur. The empirical results showed that customers with higher expectations of relationship continuity had lower service recovery expectations after a service failure and also attributed that failure to a less stable cause. Both the lower recovery expectations and the lower stability attributions were associated with greater satisfaction with the service performance after the recovery. These effects appeared to be key processes by which relationships buffer service organizations when service failures occur.
An experimental investigation of customer reactions to service failure and recovery encounters
Journal of Service Research, 1998
University. Her research is in the areas of customer assessments of services, customer satisfaction and retention, service failure and recovery, and customer-service provider relationships. Ruth N. Bolton is Associate Professor of Marketing and the Harvey Sanders Professor of Retailing and Services Marketing at the Maryland Business School, University of Maryland. Her current research focuses on how organizations can grow the value of their customer base by improving service and increasing customer satisfaction. She received her B.Comm. (Hon.) from Queen's University at Kingston, and M.Letters and other leading journals. Abstract Service failure and recovery encounters represent critical •moments of truth• in a service organization's relationship with its customers. Despite a substantial amount of •lip service• given to the importance of service recovery and the dramatic effect that service failures and failed recoveries can have on a firm's ability to satisfy and keep customers, few empirical studies have addressed the influence of service failure/recovery encounters on customers' overall assessments of a service organization. Furthermore, most of the research in this area has been exploratory and non-generalizable. This study develops a simple model which addresses the following questions: (1) How does a customer's satisfaction with a service failure and recovery encounter affect his/her cumulative satisfaction judgments and repatronage intentions? (2) To what extent do a customer's prior assessments of overall satisfaction and repatronage intentions formed before the service failure and recovery encounter ''carry over'' to influence his/her subsequent overall satisfaction and repatronage intentions? (3) Can a highly satisfying service failure and recovery encounter enhance a customer's overall satisfaction with a service organization and increase his/her repatronage intentions? The model is operationalized with data from two experiments conducted in different service settings (restaurants and hotels) in which actual customers experienced a hypothetical service failure and recovery encounter at an organization they had recently patronized.
Effects of positive customer-to-customer service interaction
This research examines how positive Customer-to-Customer (C-to-C) interactions affect customers' perceived roles in service environments, and the effect such role perceptions have on willingness to participate in service processes, perceived quality, and satisfaction. Further, the study examines the moderation effects of interactional justice on relationships between C-to-C and role clarity and role conflict. 427 customers of a Korean hospital were surveyed. Results indicate customer role perceptions mediate C-to-C interactions and customer participation, while customer perceptions of service provider interactional justice affect the relationship between C-to-C interaction and role variables by weakening the positive effect of C-to-C interaction on role clarity. Customer role perceptions directly and indirectly affect customer satisfaction through participation and perceived quality, respectively.