Abstract
PurposeThis paper analyses how the purchase channel and customer complaint goals affect the sequential choice of post–purchase complaint channels when customers experience a service failure followed by a service recovery failure (double deviation).Design/methodology/approachAn online survey involving a scenario manipulation was conducted with 577 apparel shoppers. The study employs multi-group latent class analysis to estimate latent customer segments within both online and offline groups of shoppers and compare latent classes between the two groups.FindingsThe results show that the purchase channel has a lock-in effect on the complaint channel, which is stronger for offline buyers. Moreover, there is evidence of channel synergy effects in the case of having to complain twice: shoppers who complain in store in the first attempt turn to online channels in the second complaint attempt, and vice versa. Complaint goals shape the choice of complaint channels and define different shopper segments.Originality/valueThe present study is the first to adopt a cross-stage approach that analyses the dependencies between the purchase channel and the complaint channel used on two subsequent occasions: the first complaint after a service failure and the second following a service recovery failure.
Highlights
Nowadays, consumers are increasingly willing to take action and complain when they experience dissatisfaction with a company (Melancon and Dalakas, 2018)
To determine the optimal number of clusters, we considered model fit criteria, the bootstrap likelihood ratio test (BLRT), and the interpretability of results based on previous studies (Collins and Lanza, 2009b; Dziak et al, 2012; De Keyser et al, 2015)
Discussion of results Theoretical implications This study has investigated the cross-stage dependencies between the purchase channel, the channel used to complain in the case of a service failure, and the subsequent complaint channel chosen when a service recovery failure occurs, adopting the perspective of goal theory to explore the roles of a variety of customer complaint goals
Summary
Consumers are increasingly willing to take action and complain when they experience dissatisfaction with a company (Melancon and Dalakas, 2018). Customers react differently based on whether they purchase through offline or online channels (Chang and Chin, 2011). The rate of customer complaining is higher in e-commerce than in traditional offline retailing (Sengupta et al, 2018). The digital era offers customers new complaint channels through which to communicate their dissatisfaction, such as social media (Peeroo et al, 2017). When complaints are made through online channels, the negative comments may rapidly spread to a large audience, which can seriously damage a firm’s. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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