Effect of customer-company fit on customer tolerance: The moderating role of gender difference

Abstract

Customer tolerance refers to the forbearing and understanding manner in which customers deal with service failures. In the service industry, where mistakes are inevitable, it is beneficial for businesses to have tolerant customers. For this reason, it is necessary to learn how tolerance occurs in customers. To that end, the article examines the effect of customer-company fit (CC Fit) on customer tolerance based on the idea that customers will be tolerant to businesses that are compatible with their values. We also examine the moderating role of gender in the effect of customer-company fit on tolerance. The relationship between the variables in the research is based on the congruity theory that suggests that customers are oriented towards fit-seeking and, when perceiving congruence, they will exhibit positive attitudes and behaviours. In the study, which has a quantitative design, the data were obtained from 231 customers of restaurants in a province of Turkey, reached by convenience sampling method. The hypotheses were tested using the PROCESS macro for SPSS. The analysis results reveal that СС fit positively affects customer tolerance. Therefore, it can be inferred that when service failures are encountered, customers who perceive fit with the business can tolerate the failure. Another finding of the study is that gender has a moderating role in the effect of customer-company fit on customer tolerance. Accordingly, male customers in particular turned more to tolerance behaviour with the perception of fit.