Customer Anger Research Articles

Self-determination theory and customer revenge behavior: explaining how customers regulate their anger and revenge behavior

PurposeThis study aims to explore and empirically examine an integrative model of the customer revenge process by linking two well-established theories of self-determination theory (SDT) and appraisal theory.Design/methodology/approachA survey of 901 respondents, followed by a post-hoc survey of 712 individuals, was conducted to examine the autonomous versus controlled orientations for revenge motivation.FindingsThe results show that customers’ orientation of motivation (OM) can regulate their revenge behavior (direct versus indirect) in case of service failures. Specifically, the interaction of OM components (i.e. autonomy, relatedness and competence) can play a significant role in the relationship between revenge predictors and revenge behavior. Implications for research and practice are discussed.Originality/valueThis paper offers a novel conceptual framework to explain the moderating effects of OM on the relationship between revenge predictors and revenge behavior. This study extends the application of SDT to the context of customer anger and revenge.

The mediating role of both reducing customer anger and decreasing hatred of brands in the relationship between entrepreneurial marketing and the intention to re-deal with international fast-food restaurants in Egypt

The mediating role of both reducing customer anger and decreasing hatred of brands in the relationship between entrepreneurial marketing and the intention to re-deal with international fast-food restaurants in Egypt

Examining the impact of service robot communication styles on customer intimacy following service failure

With the growing use of robots in the service industry, service failures have increased. This study applies the Communication Accommodation Theory to examine how robot employees' communication style can foster perceived intimacy, reducing customer anger and negative word-of-mouth. The study also tests if this relationship varies based on failure severity. Results show that an informal communication style significantly reduces negative word-of-mouth through intimacy, but only for low severity failures. These findings offer valuable insights for service providers using robots, emphasizing the need to adapt communication styles based on failure severity to effectively manage negative customer experiences.

Effect of AI Chatbot’s Interactivity on Consumers’ Negative Word-of-Mouth Intention: Mediating Role of Perceived Empathy and Anger

Although much research has examined chatbot interactivity as one of the most human-like qualities, replicating a conversation norm in human-to-human dialogue, far less has examined the "native state" of two-way communication between humans and chatbots. This study fills the gap by substantiating a synchronous two-way conversation between users and chatbots and testing how chatbot interactivity shapes the users’ perceived empathy. Guided by the computers-are-social-actors (CASA) paradigm, like skilled customer service representatives interacting with customers during product failures, this study designs a between-subject experiment (N = 300) to embody the warm and competent types of human conversation and suggests two versions of chatbot interactivities: social interactivity (high/low) and message interactivity (high/low). We further investigate whether a chatbot’s warm or competent persona manifested in its interaction with consumers elicits empathic responses from consumers, such as calming down their anger in line with social response theory. As a result, both social and message interactivity in chatbots effectively elicit users’ perception of empathy, alleviating customer anger and reducing adverse word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions. The findings provide empirical evidence that supports the explanatory framework of social response theory. This research demonstrates how technological features, particularly interactivity, contribute to creating experiential value for customers. Specifically, it elucidates how customers perceive empathy displayed by chatbots, which subsequently influences their level of anger and inclination to engage in negative word-of-mouth communication. Notably, these results offer novel insights into the roles of chatbot interactivity and empathy as psychological mechanisms that enable consumers to express their dissatisfaction by interacting with chatbot service agents, particularly in situations involving product failures. The implications of this study extend to the practical realm, providing valuable guidance on the design and implementation of empathetic chatbots in frontline consumer service contexts.

“If only…”: customer counterfactual thinking in failed recovery

Purpose This paper aims to examine counterfactual thinking as a key mediator of the effects of failed recovery (vs. failed delivery) on negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). The authors further investigate the effectiveness of using recovery co-creation in minimizing customers’ counterfactual thinking. Design/methodology/approach This research includes textual analysis of online reviews (Study 1) and three scenario-based experiments (Studies 2, 3a and 3b). In addition to using item-response scales, the authors analyze negative online reviews and participants’ open-ended responses to capture their counterfactual thinking. Findings Failed recovery (vs failed delivery) increases counterfactual thinking, which, in turn, increases negative eWOM. These mediating effects of counterfactual thinking are consistent across textual analyses and experimental studies, as well as across different measures of counterfactual thinking. Counterfactual thinking also impacts customer anger in experiments; however, anger alone does not explain the effects of failed recovery on negative eWOM. Counterfactual thinking can be minimized by co-created recovery, especially when it is used proactively. Practical implications The findings demonstrate the detrimental effects of counterfactual thinking and offer managerial insights into co-creation as a strategy to minimize customers’ counterfactual thinking. The authors also highlight the importance and ways of tracking counterfactual thinking in digital outlets. Originality/value The authors contribute to counterfactual thinking and service recovery research by demonstrating the effects of failed recovery on counterfactual thinking that, in turn, impacts negative eWOM and offering a novel way to measure its expression in online narratives. The authors provide guidance on how to use co-creation in the service recovery process to minimize counterfactual thinking.

ROLE OF CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES IN FAST FOOD INDUSTRY

This study examines the behavior of consumer in fast food industry. The customer psychology strongly effected from other customer’s word of mouth, review’s and pricing policy of a company. In this study, we examine the consumer psychology with three factors (referent price, referent deservingness and fair pricing). The three factors become a cause to reduce the anger of consumer and due to this customer satisfy from the operations of fast food industry. We distribute more than 300 questionnaire for analyze our research hypothesis. After analyze we conclude that referent price does not impact on customer anger but it impact on satisfaction of customer. The referent deservingness and price fairness has significant impact on anger of customer and satisfaction of customer. This study provides useful information to fast food sector regarding customer psychology.

Uncovering the relationship between customer anger and frontline employees’ recovery performance in the service encounter

PurposeRegarding the interpersonal influence of customer anger on frontline employees (FLEs) in service encounters, existing findings remain mixed. Building on emotion as a social information model and appraisal theory, this study aims to focus on two dimensions of customer anger – intensity and relevance with FLEs and examined their divergent effects on FLEs’ immediate recovery performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a questionnaire survey of 366 Chinese FLEs in the hospitality and tourism industries. Hierarchical regressions and bootstrap analysis for nonlinear mediated relationships were used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results suggested a U-shaped curvilinear relationship between the intensity of customer anger and FLEs’ recovery performance and a positive linear relationship between relevance with FLEs of customer anger and FLEs’ recovery performance. Moreover, the mediating effects of FLEs’ emotional anger and cognitive perceived threat were confirmed.Practical implicationsService managers should improve FLEs’ awareness of unconscious emotional contagion and encourage them to shoulder responsibility actively even if customer anger is not related to them. In addition, complaining customers can learn how to strategically express anger to get good remedies.Originality/valueThis paper examines the divergent effects of two dimensions of customer anger on FLEs, advancing the understanding of customer anger in the service interaction. It is also the first to suggest the U-shaped nonlinear effect of customer anger intensity on employees’ service outcomes and its underlying mechanisms, reconciling mixed findings.

The influence of customer race on perceived discrimination, anger and coping strategies following subtle degradation of restaurant service

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how customer race (Black vs White) influences the extent to which customers attribute an ambiguous service failure (i.e. subtle degradation of service) to discrimination and how perceived discrimination relates to customer anger and on-site coping behaviors (vindictive complaining, problem-solving complaining and avoidance). This study further investigated how customer race affects the strength of relationships among perceived discrimination, anger and these three coping behaviors. Design/methodology/approach This study used a video-based simulation in which participants watched a subtle service failure from the customer’s viewpoint before completing a survey. A total of 421 participants – 210 Blacks and 211 Whites – were recruited through Qualtrics. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was used to test hypotheses. Findings Compared with White customers, Black customers were more likely to attribute a service failure to discrimination and exhibited a stronger relationship between perceived discrimination and anger. In addition, increasing anger in White customers tended to lead to more active coping strategies (i.e. vindictive complaining, problem-solving complaining). For Black customers, increasing anger tended to lead to vindictive complaining at a similar level to White customers. However, the impact of anger on problem-solving complaining – known to be a more beneficial coping strategy – was stronger among White customers than among Black customers. Practical implications This study advances hospitality practitioners’ understanding of how customers respond on-site to a service failure that can be interpreted as discrimination. The varying effects of race on customer-coping behavior are also identified. In addition, this study offers practical advice to develop organizational strategies to dissuade customers from attributing service failure to discrimination and to respond effectively to customer-coping behaviors. Originality/value Complementing and extending past research documenting the prevalence and causes of racial discrimination in service settings, the present study advances prior work by developing and testing a comprehensive structural model linking race with coping responses via perceived discrimination and anger, and by exploring how race affects the strength of relationships among perceived discrimination, anger and coping strategies.

Buffering the service failure-induced effect of anger on revenge

PurposeThis paper aims to increase understanding of how the strength of the relationship between service failure-induced customer anger and revenge intentions might be influenced by attitudinal moderators that are both within and outside the realm of the service firm’s control. Drawing on past research, the authors hypothesize that customers’ perceptions of the corporate reputation and silent endurance constitute boundary conditions of the relationship between service failure-related customer anger and revenge intentions.Design/methodology/approachIn line with past service failure research, the authors test the hypotheses using a scenario-based online experiment with 243 participants.FindingsThis research reaffirms the positive relationship between anger and revenge intentions and finds support for the hypothesized boundary conditions; customers with better corporate reputation perceptions and higher levels of silent endurance express weaker revenge intentions than those with poor corporate reputation perceptions and lower levels of silent endurance.Originality/valueThis research offers unique insights into how service organizations can buffer the detrimental effects of service failure-induced customer anger.

The Perils of Service Contract Divestment: When and Why Customers Seek Revenge and How It Can Be Attenuated

Profitability considerations lead service providers to divest from customer service contracts, either by service contract demotion (cutting back services) or by service contract termination (ending service provision). Such initiatives have been associated with customer revenge. The pressing question for practitioners is which divestment approach has a stronger or weaker effect on customer revenge. Drawing on justice and appraisal theories, the authors suggest that the answer depends on customers’ predivestment satisfaction and on the provision of financial compensation or apology. Three experiments and a critical incident study reveal that for previously satisfied customers, service termination entails a stronger effect on customer revenge, while for previously dissatisfied customers, service demotion entails a stronger effect. The findings further demonstrate that offering financial compensation or an apology can mitigate or exacerbate the effect, highlighting the need to align these divestment handling instruments with the divestment approach chosen and customers’ predivestment satisfaction. The findings also show that the effect can be explained by customer anger. Overall, this article provides guidance on how to divest whom in order to mitigate detrimental effects.

The effects of employee burnout on customers: An experimental approach

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the different effects of employee burnout dimensions (depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion) on customer service perceptions. We hypothesised that customers who interact with depersonalising employees will feel angry and hostile, which, in turn, should be related to low service perceptions. Emotional exhaustion was hypothesised to attenuate this effect because customers might perceive exhaustion as a reason for the depersonalising behaviour and may be affected less negatively. Each of the 156 study participants read 12 vignettes in which university employees displayed depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion symptoms. Multilevel analysis showed that employee depersonalisation negatively affected customer perceptions towards employee service and organisation service. Customer anger and hostility mediated this effect. Employee emotional exhaustion moderated the indirect effect such that depersonalisation had the strongest effect on customer service perceptions via anger and hostility when the employee did not display emotional exhaustion. Findings highlight the importance of studying the effects of depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion separately, and taking into account customer affective processes.

Helping to reduce fights before flights: How environmental stressors in organizations shape customer emotions and customer–employee interactions

AbstractPrevious examinations of environmental stressors in organizations have mostly emphasized their dysfunctional effects on individuals’ emotions and behaviors. Extending this work by drawing from the social functional perspective on emotion, we propose that customers’ negative emotional responses to environmental stressors in organizations can exert both dysfunctional and functional effects on customer–employee interactions. Specifically, we theorize that situational and physiological forms of environmental stressors can be dysfunctional by incurring customer anger, precipitating customer aggression, and diminishing employee helpfulness. We further theorize that situational relative to physiological stressors can exert functional effects in inducing customer fear that elicits empathy and helpfulness from employees. We test our model via an archival, observational, and critical incident yoked experimental study set in the airport context. This research contributes to stress theory and its organizational application by integrating theory from the social functional approach to emotion with appraisal‐based theories of stress in organizations.

Prices and Supply Disruptions during Natural Disasters

We study the daily behavior of supermarket prices and product availability following two recent natural disasters: the 2010 earthquake in Chile and the 2011 earthquake in Japan. In both cases there was an immediate and persistent effect on product availability. The number of goods available for sale fell 32 percent in Chile and 17 percent in Japan from the day of the disaster to its lowest point, which occurred 61 and 18 days after the earthquakes, respectively. Product availability recovered slowly, and a significant share of goods remained out of stock after six months. By contrast, prices were relatively stable and did not increase for months after the earthquakes, even for goods that were experiencing severe stockouts. These trends are present at all levels of aggregation, but appear strongly in non‐perishable goods and emergency products. Our findings shed light into the determinants of sticky prices in conditions where traditional adjustment costs are less important. In particular, we look at the frequency and magnitudes of price changes in both countries and find that the results in Chile are consistent with pricing models where retailers have fear of “customer anger”. In Japan, by contrast, the evidence suggests a bigger role for supply disruptions that restricted the ability of retailers to re‐stock goods after the earthquake.

Customer Anger Process by Brand Failure and Moderating Effect of Brand Reputation

Customer Anger Process by Brand Failure and Moderating Effect of Brand Reputation

When do customers offer firms a “second chance” following a double deviation? The impact of inferred firm motives on customer revenge and reconciliation

The present research develops and tests a theory explaining how customers respond to failed service recoveries (i.e., double deviations). This work offers three novel and important conclusions. First, inferences about a firm's motive (negative vs. positive) mediate the impact of perceptions of the double deviation (i.e., severity, blame, and fairness) on resulting outcomes (i.e., customer anger, desire for revenge, and desire for reconciliation). Second, when inferred motive is positive, desire for reconciliation overwhelms desire for revenge, leading customers to choose more reparatory than retaliatory behaviors. Third, following a double deviation, firms that both compensate and apologize to customers can change customers’ inferred motives from negative to positive, leading customers to desire more reconciliation than revenge, and engage in more reparatory than retaliatory behaviors. These studies demonstrate that, contrary to common wisdom, customers do not always respond negatively to a double deviation, and firms still have a “second chance” following a failed recovery.

The Way a Salesperson Manages Service Providers Influences Customers’ Anger About Problems

Reprimands are a way for a salesperson to fulfill managerial responsibilities for quality control. Two experiments investigate the effect of a salesperson’s reprimand of an employee on customers’ feelings of anger after a service infraction. Study 1, which involved 77 undergraduate students in a between-subjects design, shows that compared to no reprimand, a reprimand by a salesperson of an offending employee reduces consumers’ anger toward the firm as well as consumers’ desire for revenge against the firm. We observe these effects because reprimands acknowledge that the customer has been harmed and move blame for the infraction away from the manager. Consistent with this interpretation, Study 2 shows that whereas a reprimand decreases the customer’s anger directed at the reprimanding manager, it fails to decrease anger directed at the offending employee. The exception to decreased customer anger at the manager is when the manager’s reprimand fails to acknowledge harm to the customer. Study 2 involved 91 undergraduate students in a between-subjects design. The experiments’ results have pragmatic implications for ways salespeople should manage subordinates while at the same time managing service recovery.

It’s Unfair

Employees sometimes engage in uncivil behavior in the workplace. We ask (a) How commonly do customers witness an employee behaving uncivilly? (b) What negative effects does customers' witnessing of an employee’s uncivil behavior have on customers and firms? (c) Why do these effects occur? The results of three studies suggest that it is not uncommon for customers to witness an employee behaving in an uncivil manner. It occurs in many industries. Moreover, witnessing such behavior makes customers angry and creates desires to get back at the uncivil perpetrator and the firm. These effects occur even when a manager’s uncivil comment is aimed at correcting a subordinate’s job-related offense and even when it is delivered offstage, outside of the customer servicescape. Finally, we demonstrate that these effects are driven by customers' concerns about deontic injustice from incivility (reaction to a wrongful misconduct that violates fairness standards). These results contribute to the literature on workplace incivility and customer reactions to service encounters as well as the burgeoning literature on customer anger and revenge. We suggest that organizations invest in training programs focusing on employee civility. Managers should receive training in coaching to mitigate against the detrimental effects of incivility.

Itts Unfair: Why Customers Who Merely Observe an Uncivil Employee Abandon the Company

Employees sometimes engage in uncivil behavior in the workplace. We ask (1) How commonly do customers witness an employee behaving uncivilly? (2) What negative effects does customers’ witnessing of an employee’s uncivil behavior have on customers and firms? (3) Why do these effects occur? The results of three studies suggest that it is not uncommon for customers to witness an employee behaving in an uncivil manner. It occurs in many industries. Moreover, witnessing such behavior makes customers angry and creates desires to get back at the uncivil perpetrator and the firm. These effects occur even when a manager’s uncivil comment is aimed at correcting a subordinate’s job-related offense and even when it is delivered offstage, outside of the customer servicescape. Finally, we demonstrate that these effects are driven by customers’ concerns about deontic injustice from incivility (reaction to a wrongful misconduct that violates fairness standards). These results contribute to the literature on workplace incivility and customer reactions to service encounters as well as the burgeoning literature on customer anger and revenge. We suggest that organizations invest in training programs focusing on employee civility. Managers should receive training in coaching to mitigate against the detrimental effects of incivility.

서비스접점에서 고객의 화에 대한 반응: 판매원 대 다른 고객의 관점

Customer misbehavior can affect dissatisfaction and negative behavioral responses of other customers at the service encounter. This study explored other customer and retail employee reponses to customer anger and aggressive behaviors at the service encounter by examining the perceived wrongness of such behaviors under different situations and comparing the two perspectives of retail employees and consumers. Three scenarios were developed representing different situations including firm's responsibility, both of customer and employee responsibilities, and uncontrollable one. Data were collected from individual interviews with 222 retail employees and 149 consumers. The results showed that the consumers' perceived wrongness of customer aggressions were higher comparing to that of employees. The reasons of perceived wrongness were different by three situations implying that responsibility and controllability affected the perceived wrongness. The study further discusses implications.

The Role of Egoism in Customer Anger - A Not-for-Profit Service Failure Context

Despite considerable effort to make customers happy, things sometimes go wrong. When service failure occurs, the customers often experience negative emotion such as anger, outrage or sadness. Understanding customers’ negative emotions facilitates service providers to handle difficult situations, creating customers’ positive word of mouth and customer retention after the service failure. In a not-for-profit context, when service failure occurs, customers also experience negative emotions. However, whether customers are more sensitive to service failures in a not-for-profit context compared to those in a profit context has yet to be investigated. This paper examines differences between the determinants of customer anger towards service failures in a not-for-profit service failure setting. Amongst the negative emotions, anger is the one of the most extreme, potentially evoking aggressive customer reactions (Ekman, Levenson, & Friesen, 1983; Levenson, Ekman, & Friesen, 1990; Scherer, 1984). Applying the conceptual framework of customer anger proposed by Nguyen and McColl-Kennedy (2003a), this paper uses theories of cognitive appraisal and attribution to explain why and how the determinants of customer anger differentiate indifferent profit service settings (profit vs. not for profit service). This paper will: (1) review relevant literature – service failure typology, attribution theory and cognitive appraisal theory; (2) propose, test and analyse, using Bayesian Network analysis, a conceptual model; and (3) discuss the implications of the findings on not-for profit service settings.