No abstract

A service failure and its negative effects can involve multiple customers at the same time, which suggests the need to understand the psychological mechanisms that underlie differential perceptions of group service failures (GSFs) versus individual service failures (ISFs) as well as their related outcomes. With an attributional framework, this article reports on two experiments that varied in their blame-attribution ambiguity. The results reveal that customers experience greater anger and show higher negative word-of-mouth and complaint intentions after a GSF versus an ISF. These differential effects are mediated by blame attributions, such that GSFs cause customers to blame the service provider more than ISFs. Customer entitlement also moderates the effect of the failure context (GSF vs. ISF) on blame attribution, contingent on perceptions of whether the service provider or customer violated an existing rule. Thus, we find that customers respond differently to service failures depending on the context. Managerial implications include separating customers from each other when GSFs are likely to take place, using techniques to redirect customer's blame attributions to sources other than the service provider after a GSF and using customer scripts to minimize the occurrence of customer-induced service failures.

Two experimental studies reveal that customers' reactions to different levels of recovery compensation differ between a recovery that occurs at the group level (such that every customer knows that every other affected customer receives the same compensation) and one that occurs at the individual level (such that the individual does not know if and how much compensation other affected customers receive). In both cases, recovery compensation exhibits diminishing returns on compensation size in terms of recovery satisfaction. However, at the group level, the rate at which the returns on compensation diminish is greater and satisfaction reaches a plateau at lower compensation levels than at the individual level. The salient social comparison made during a group service recovery, as evidenced by the mediating role of distributive justice, explains these effects. Finally, we note that at mid-range compensation levels, GSR and ISR did not lead to different levels of recovery satisfaction, suggesting a zone of tolerance or indifference at these levels. Further, our findings yield important managerial implications for the efficient allocation of service recovery resources after a group service failure.

This study examined the nature of the relationship between adolescents' subjective age (how old they feel) and chronological age, and explored whether dating, sex, and substance use predicted increases in adolescents' subjective age across a two-year period. The participants were 570 adolescents who were interviewed when they were first ages 12—19 and again two years later (ages 14—21). Results were that a quadratic function characterized the relationship between chronological and subjective age: subjective age increased from age 14 to 18.25 years, and then declined. Adolescents who dated, reported having sex, used alcohol, and used drugs at time 1 experienced an increased subjective age, that is, they felt older than less experienced adolescents by time 2. An older subjective age at time 1 did not predict increases in dating, sex, and substance use behaviors, with one exception: smoking. The results are consistent with theories assuming that self-perceptions of maturity may arise from engaging in “adult-like” behaviors.

This research investigates the influence that social sources in the service environment exert on customer unfriendliness. Drawing on social norms theory, the authors demonstrate that descriptive norms (i.e., what most people are perceived to be doing in a certain situation), in the form of unfriendliness by service employees and fellow customers, predicts customers' unfriendliness toward employees. Injunctive norms (i.e., beliefs about which behaviors are approved by important others) and identification with fellow customers exert moderating effects. Specifically, strong injunctive norms can buffer the effect of descriptive norms. Furthermore, fellow customers influence a customer's unfriendliness only if he or she identifies either very strongly or very weakly with them. By clarifying the role of norms in service encounters, this study provides insights on when unfriendly customer behavior is likely to occur. Managerial implications for companies who want to diminish customer unfriendliness are discussed.