Negative emotions and their effect on customer complaint behaviour

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigates pre-complaint situations and has a threefold purpose: (i) to identify a set of negative emotions experienced in unfavourable service experiences, (ii) to examine the patterns of these negative emotions and (iii) to link these negative emotions to complaint behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: To fulfil the threefold purpose previously outlined, the study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. A critical incident technique is applied. The empirical data are derived from 25 in-depth interviews and the results of a questionnaire survey of 3104 respondents. Findings: Twenty observed negative emotions are reduced to a second-order construct with five latent categories of negative emotions: (i) shame, (ii) sadness, (iii) fear, (iv) anger and (v) frustration. These categories coincide with three categories of negative emotions in the agency dimension: (i) other-attributed, (ii) self-attributed and (iii) situational-attributed. The study finds that the negative emotion of frustration is the best predictor for complaint behaviour towards the service provider. Research limitations/implications:The results are limited by the fact that the data are entirely self-reported. Moreover, the generalisabilty of the results is limited by the fact that the findings relate to one service industry in one country. Originality/value: The study provides a comprehensive conceptual understanding of both pre-complaint negative emotions and how these emotions affect customer complaint behaviour.

Customer Engagement and Loyalty: A Comparative Study Between Service Contexts

“…Though customer feedback, particularly complaints, is considered as a manifestation of CE (e.g., Javornik & Mandelli, 2012;Bijmolt et al, 2010), in the high involvement context customers seem to exhibit a noncomplaining behavior. One possible reason is that a sense of dependence and lack of control over the situation, like it may happen in a complex service like health care, can lead customers to avoid complaining in the event of a negative encounter (Tronvoll, 2011;Van Doorn et al, 2010). Conversely, in retailing services, where processes are more standardized and interaction is less personal, customers may nd it less di cult to complain (Nimako & Mensah, 2012).…”

Impacto Da Distância Social Nas Transgressões Entre Empresas E Consumidores

“…As emoções negativas podem ser categorizadas em: atribuídas ao eu, atribuídas ao outro e atribuídas à situação (Tronvoll, 2011). Assim, em uma situação que suscita emoções, a perspectiva visual que o indiví-duo toma (de ator, de observador ou de vítima) para avaliar tal evento influencia a intensidade das emoções que ele vivencia (Hung & Mukhopadhyay, 2012).…”

Construct Validation of Consumer Complaint Behavioral Scale in the Malaysian Mobile Phone Services Industry

“…Day and Landon's (1977) two-level of complaint behavior hierarchical classification (the first level distinguishes action from non-action and the second level distinguishes between private and public action) was employed by several researchers in later years (Ndubisi & Ling, 2005;Matilla & Wirtz, 2004). Tronvoll (2011) suggests that CCB is linked to negative and non-confirmation, which result in low price and performance expectations.…”

“…Adding more definition to the actions, Heung and Lam (2003) defined public actions as seeking redress directly, seeking refund from the seller, complaining to the media, instigating legal actions and taking direct complaint actions to the firm or consumer agency. On the other hand, private actions refer to switching brands and firms, boycotting a firm's products, ceasing to patronize an establishment and negative word-of-mouth communications to friends and relatives (Broadbridge & Marshall, 1995;Kim, Kim, Im, & Shin, 2003;Tronvoll, 2011).…”