Toward a conceptualization of perceived complaint handling quality in social media and traditional service channels

Sugathan, Praveen; Rossmann, Alexander; Ranjan, Kumar Rakesh

doi:10.1108/ejm-04-2016-0228

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 156 publications

(155 reference statements)

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“…Service recovery refers to any actions a service provider takes to resolve customer complaints and restore dissatisfied customers to a state of satisfaction (Gronroos, 1988). Reviews of service recovery strategies used by service providers in a social media setting identify that firms mostly use traditional service recovery approaches, which are typically based on the framework of distributional, procedural and interactional justice also common in face-to-face service encounters (Einwiller and Steilen, 2015; Hogreve et al , 2013; Sugathan et al , 2018). A few recent studies have considered the very public nature of social media to propose and empirically test updated service recovery strategies.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The bright and dark sides of humorous response to online customer complaint

Shin

Larson

2020

EJM

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Purpose Displaying a sense of humour provides various interpersonal benefits including reducing tension and promoting conflict resolution, but should a firm use humour in response to publicly viewable online customer complaints after a service failure? The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that a firm’s use of humour in response to negative online consumer reviews has both positive and negative effects on perceptions of corporate image from a customer-as-onlooker perspective. Design/methodology/approach Three experimental studies are conducted and analysis of variance is used to empirically test the hypotheses. Findings Although humorous responses have an unfavourable influence on perceived trustworthiness of the firm, they have a favourable influence on perceived excitingness of the firm. The former influence is tied to lower perceived firm sincerity, whereas the latter is tied to higher perceived firm innovativeness and coolness. Furthermore, humour within the customer complaint itself is shown to moderate the influence of humorous responses on perceptions of the firm. Finally, regardless of the type of humour used (i.e. affiliative or aggressive humour) in the humorous response, the positive effect of humorous response remains strong, although aggressive humour further aggravates the negative impact of humorous response on trustworthiness. Research limitations/implications The experimental set-up may limit external validity of the study, and the research is limited to the variables examined. Practical implications Humorous response is identified as a non-traditional approach to online customer complaints that poses a double-edged sword for managers of service organizations. Firms should avoid using humour in online service recovery if perceptions of trustworthiness are critical or if complaints are written in a neutral tone. However, such responses may be successfully used when a firm wants to position itself as exciting and if complaints are also humorous. Finally, firms are advised to avoid aggressive humour. Originality/value The present research represents one of the few studies in marketing to examine the potential of injecting humour into complaint management and service recovery. In addition, this study considers the consumer-as-onlooker perspective inherent in social media.

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Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The bright and dark sides of humorous response to online customer complaint

Shin

Larson

2020

EJM

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“…Whilst the literature recommends that managers train employees in techniques to manage the misbehaviour of fellow consumers (Colm et al , 2017), there is scant research investigating strategies for managing VPOs on social media. Sugathan et al (2018) found that personalisation aids engagement and reciprocal relationships between consumers and employees and recommend that the employee should address the VPO with a personalised comment. Further, findings within the complaint literature indicate that when employees use an accommodative approach (including taking responsibility for the service failure, being apologetic and/or attempting to correct the service failure) customer satisfaction is positively affected (Einwiller and Steilen, 2015).…”

Section: General Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The presence of supportive VPOs has been shown to give the complainant greater perceived power, as collective public outrage is sometimes considered a motivational force for positive corporate change, in that, “[w]ithout outrage, companies are far less likely to clean up their acts” (Champoux et al , 2012, p. 22). Supportive VPOs may even assist in the complaint process by offering “resolution to doubts and queries” (Sugathan et al , 2018, p. 985).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

For all to see: social risk and observable complaining on Facebook

Armstrong¹,

Kulczynski²,

Brennan³

2021

EJM

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Purpose Online consumer complaint behaviour that is observable to other consumers provides the firm with an opportunity to demonstrate transparency and service quality to the public eye. The purpose of this paper is to assist practitioners with a strategy to increase perceived accommodativeness in complaint management on social media and reduce the social risk associated with online consumer complaint behaviour using a social exchange theory perspective. Design/methodology/approach Six online experiments with 1,350 US Facebook users were conducted to investigate the effect of supportive and non-supportive virtually present others, and employee intervention on a consumer’s choice to complain, likelihood to make an observable complaint (on the Facebook page) and likelihood to make a non-observable complaint (via Facebook Messenger). The mediating role of perceived accommodativeness and subsequent social risk is also examined. Findings Supportive comments made to the complainant by virtually present others were found to influence participants’ decision to complain, heighten participants’ likelihood to complain about the Facebook page and reduce their likelihood to complain via Facebook Messenger. This effect was reversed in the presence of non-supportive virtually present others and was explained by perceived social risk. Further, a participant’s likelihood to complain about the Facebook page was increased when an employee intervention was directed at a non-supportive comment made to a complainant, by a virtually present other. This effect was explained by the perceived accommodativeness of the employee interaction. Research limitations/implications The findings advance research on online consumer complaint behaviour by investigating how employee intervention can be used to increase the likelihood of an observable complaint. This research is limited in that it does not incorporate individual characteristics, such as introversion/extroversion and propensity to respond to peer pressure, which may affect participant responses. Practical implications This research shows that perceptions of social risk are most effectively reduced by employee intervention directed at a non-supportive comment (made to a complainant) of a virtually present other. Consumer complaint management strategies aimed at minimising perceptions of social risk and encouraging observable online complaint behaviour are proposed. Originality/value This research extends the consumer complaint behaviour taxonomy by introducing the term “observable complaining”, that is, visible complaints made on a Facebook page, and broadens understanding of the organisation’s role in managing non-supportive virtually present others to assuage perceptions of social risk in potential complainants.

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“…With increase in the social media usage for knowledge sharing, the stakeholders of higher education institutions would feel the importance of using the social media platform. The stakeholders’ (students, faculties and other administrative staffs of educational institutions) intention for knowledge sharing through other means, other than through social media platform, would not help them more to gain effective inputs from many other knowledgeable persons who might have previous experience in that issue of discussion (Sugathan et al , 2018; Seitz and Misra, 2020). Hence, the exchange of knowledge through social media appears to have additional advantage over and above other processes of sharing of knowledge, if the social media is trustworthy (Reagans and McEvly, 2003; Charband and Navimipour, 2018).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social media as a tool of knowledge sharing in academia: an empirical study using valance, instrumentality and expectancy (VIE) approach

Chatterjee

Rana

Dwivedi

2020

JKM

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors that determine the knowledge exchange intention and behavioural nature of academics by the help of social media tools in the Indian higher education. Design/methodology/approach This study has used valance–instrumentality–expectancy (VIE) theory to determine the knowledge exchange behaviour of academics. The study has considered the effects of knowledge contributor (KC) and knowledge seeker (KS) as moderators. The model has been validated by using a survey with 320 usable respondents. Findings The results highlight that if the stakeholders of higher education institutions feel the deficits of knowledge exchange, they realize importance of knowledge sharing and use social media to increase effect of knowledge exchange. Besides, perceived usefulness impacts on the use of social media for knowledge exchange by the concerned stakeholders. Moreover, it is observed that experience of the use of social media impacts the use of this tool for knowledge exchange. Research limitations/implications The use and application of VIE theory have successfully been able to interpret the factors affecting use of social media for knowledge exchange in higher educational institutes. The use of VIE theory has also been able to explain the proposed model better as the model could achieve a high explanative power (87%). Practical implications This study has provided meaningful insights to the practitioners and policymakers to realize how the stakeholders of the higher education institutions in India can be motivated to feel the need of sharing of knowledge and how they can use social media with ease for this purpose. Originality/value Not much research has been conducted with regard to the usage of social media as a tool for knowledge sharing in higher education sector in India. In that sense, this study is a novel attempt to undertake such research.

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Toward a conceptualization of perceived complaint handling quality in social media and traditional service channels

Cited by 29 publications

References 156 publications

The bright and dark sides of humorous response to online customer complaint

The bright and dark sides of humorous response to online customer complaint

For all to see: social risk and observable complaining on Facebook

Social media as a tool of knowledge sharing in academia: an empirical study using valance, instrumentality and expectancy (VIE) approach

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