No Man is an Island: the Effect of Social Presence on Negative Word of Mouth Intention in Service Failures

Purpose This paper aims to describe the results of four studies that examine the interaction effects between locus of causality and social presence on consumers’ emotional response to a service failure and how they subsequently cope with the negative emotional experiences through support-seeking or vindictive negative word-of-mouth (NWOM). Design/methodology/approach To evaluate the research hypotheses, one online content analysis study and three experiments were conducted. Findings The results of the four studies show that when locus of causality information is not available (Studies 1 and 2), consumers are more likely to engage in support-seeking NWOM when there is social presence (versus no social presence). When a service failure is externally/internally attributed, social presence leads to less/more vindictive NWOM (Studies 3 and 4). The results clarify the underlying affective processes (frustration, anger and embarrassment) that account for the unique interaction effects involving locus of causality and social presence on NWOM. Originality/value Despite promising progress in both social presence and service failure research, scholarly attempts aiming to draw the theoretical linkages between these two streams are relatively scarce, and it remains unknown regarding whether and how social presence influences NWOM in the event of service failure. Against this backdrop, this research examines the effects of social presence on consumer NWOM in service failure. The authors further contribute to both research streams by testing the effects of an important set of emotions as mediators, as well by exploring the conditions under which a particular emotion is more predictive of its corresponding outcomes. These findings offer important insights that help service managers effectively mitigate customer NWOM at the point of service delivery.

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Bad Intentions: Customers’ Negative Reactions to Intentional Failures and Mitigating Conditions

Journal of Travel Research ◽

10.1177/00472875211044221 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 004728752110442

Author(s):

Amin Nazifi ◽

Holger Roschk ◽

Francisco Villarroel Ordenes ◽

Ben Marder

Keyword(s):

Attribution Theory ◽

Word Of Mouth ◽

Online Reviews ◽

Negative Word ◽

Firm Level ◽

Service Failures ◽

Monetary Compensation ◽

Multi Method Approach ◽

Method Approach

Intentional service failures (e.g., overbooking or overcharging) have received little scholarly attention, despite their regular occurrence and immense costs. Using a multi-method approach combining experimental and field data from online reviews, it was found that intentional (vs. unintentional) failures lead to greater negative word of mouth (nWOM) and patronage reduction. This research extends these findings by demonstrating that intentional failures are less harmful when the failure is reversible (vs. irreversible) and occurs at an employee (vs. firm) level. Further, while either psychological (e.g., apology) or monetary compensation is effective in mitigating the consequences of intentional failures at an employee level, a combined service recovery (psychological and monetary) is the best solution when the failure is at a firm level. Drawing on attribution theory, the article unveils the key role of trust (as opposed to justice) as the mechanism to explain the effects of intentionality on customers’ nWOM and patronage reduction.

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How does an Intelligence Chatbot Affect Customers Compared with Self-Service Technology for Sustainable Services?

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12125119 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (12) ◽

pp. 5119 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Taehyee Um ◽

Taekyung Kim ◽

Namho Chung

Keyword(s):

Word Of Mouth ◽

Service Failure ◽

Service Innovation ◽

Negative Word ◽

Competitive Advantages ◽

Communication Interface ◽

Service Failures ◽

Self Service ◽

Sustainable Services ◽

Self Service Technology

To gain competitive advantages and sustainable service innovation, hotels are considering artificial intelligence technologies (AI), including robots, kiosks for service automation and chatbots. However, due to the change of the service process and unfamiliar communication interface, hotel customers may have difficulties in adopting the new change. In this paper, we tried to find out if the failure of AI-based services would affect customers’ perception. For this, we designed the experiment by separating AI (i.e., chatbot) services and self-service technology (SST, i.e., pad) services and service failures and successful cases, respectively. As a result, SST showed more positive perceptions and revisit intention in the successful service situation. The service failure situation showed no differences between chatbot and SST. In addition, novelty and the need for interaction characteristics of customers showed significant differences between groups in terms of service success and failure, respectively. Additionally, we explored negative word-of-mouth (WOM) to learn further effects by service failures and successes.

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When AI-based services fail: examining the effect of the self-AI connection on willingness to share negative word-of-mouth after service failures

Service Industries Journal ◽

10.1080/02642069.2020.1748014 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

Bo Huang ◽

Matthew Philp

Keyword(s):

Word Of Mouth ◽

Negative Word ◽

The Self ◽

Service Failures

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An Empirical Investigation into Personal Characteristics' Effect on Choosing Complaint Channels

Journal of Service Management Research ◽

10.15358/2511-8676-2019-4-195 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (4) ◽

pp. 195-208

Author(s):

Hannes Boepple ◽

Janine Göttling ◽

Marie-Christin Papen ◽

Florian U. Siems

Keyword(s):

Word Of Mouth ◽

Empirical Investigation ◽

Personal Characteristics ◽

Negative Word ◽

Channel Choice ◽

Valuable Customer ◽

Word Of Mouth Communication ◽

Customer Reaction ◽

Managerial Perspective ◽

Selection Of

For companies, complaints are a valuable customer reaction to dissatisfaction. They enable the company to respond to customer issues to prevent them from changing supplier or spreading negative word-of-mouth communication. Previous research identified various influencing factors of complaint behaviour. However, it has been scarcely considered which aspects influence the selection of the complaint channel (e. g. telephone, social media). Therefore, a 1x2 experimental study (n = 244) was conducted. Results reveal effects of personal characteristics (aggressiveness, argumentativeness and social anxiety) on complaint channel choice. A moderating effect of failure severity was also partially found. From a managerial perspective, it is recommended to provide various complaint options. This would allow the disappointed consumer to choose an adequate complaint channel depending on his or her personality.

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Crisis Communication Preparedness Practices Among U.S. Charitable Organizations: Results From a National Survey

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/21582440211014516 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 215824402110145

Author(s):

Ryan P. Fuller ◽

Antonio La Sala

Keyword(s):

Nonprofit Organizations ◽

Crisis Management ◽

Crisis Communication ◽

Online Survey ◽

Word Of Mouth ◽

Negative Word ◽

Organizational Crisis ◽

Crisis Planning ◽

Charitable Organizations ◽

Major Stakeholder

Organizations should prepare for crises, through identifying crisis concerns, having written crisis communication plans, and designating teams for crisis planning and response, for example. Nonprofit organizations, which represent an important sector of U.S. society, are no different in needing to prepare, but to date, a review of their crisis communication preparedness is lacking. Therefore, a national online survey of 2,005 U.S. charitable organizations was administered to determine nonprofit organizations’ adoption of an anticipatory perspective of crisis management. The anticipatory perspective shifts the organization’s focus from reaction to crises to anticipation of them. According to the survey, 75% of organizations reported at least one organizational crisis in the 24 months prior to taking the survey (circa 2017–2019). Loss of a major stakeholder was the most common organizational crisis that had occurred and the greatest future concern. Most nonprofits (97.5%) reported implementing some crisis communication preparedness tactics. Importantly, charitable organizations can enact communication preparedness tactics without significantly detracting from program delivery. Moreover, given the general concerns within the sector, nonprofit organizations should prepare specifically for loss of a major stakeholder and technologically created crises such as data breaches and negative word of mouth on social media.

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Severe service failures and online vindictive word of mouth: The effect of coping strategies

International Journal of Hospitality Management ◽

10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.102911 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 95 ◽

pp. 102911

Author(s):

Dahlia El-Manstrly ◽

Faizan Ali ◽

Nathan Line

Keyword(s):

Coping Strategies ◽

Word Of Mouth ◽

Service Failures

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EXPRESS: Religious Belief, Religious Priming, and Negative Word-of-Mouth in Everyday Service Failure Encounters

Journal of Marketing Research ◽

10.1177/00222437211011196 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002224372110111

Author(s):

Riza Casidy ◽

Adam Duhachek ◽

Vishal Singh ◽

Ali Tamaddoni

Keyword(s):

Social Exchange ◽

Religious Belief ◽

Word Of Mouth ◽

Service Failure ◽

Online Reviews ◽

Negative Word ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Fairness Norms ◽

Strategic Variable

This research examines the effects of religious belief and religious priming on negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) behavior. Drawing on social exchange and norm paradigms, we theorize and find evidence of the unique effects of religious belief and religious priming on NWOM in everyday service failure encounters. Specifically, we find that religious belief is associated with higher NWOM, driven by a greater sensitivity to violations of fairness norms, which in turn reduces forgiveness. However, exposure to religious priming attenuates NWOM among more religious consumers by reducing sensitivity to violations of fairness norms, which in turn enhances forgiveness. A field study involving over 1.2 million online reviews of actual restaurant experiences, in addition to four lab studies, provides support for our theorized effects. Our study sheds light on the religion–forgiveness discrepancy by establishing the mediating role of sensitivity to fairness violations on the relationship between religion and forgiveness in the NWOM context. Further, our results demonstrate the importance of religion as a strategic variable in the management of service failure experiences, providing theoretical implications for the literature on the effects of religion on consumer behavior.

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