Customer responses to service failures on social media

Purpose As customers increasingly adopt social media as the primary channel to reach out to companies, voicing is becoming a public act. Adopting a social psychological perspective, this study aims to focus on the social dynamics that drive consumer voice on social media. Design/methodology/approach The research uses three studies. First, a list of metaperceptions about voicing behavior is compiled using the critical incident technique, and then the hypothesized effects are tested with two scenario-based experiments. Findings Metaperceptions mediate the relationship between social anxiety and the intention to voice on social media. Self-construal moderates the effect of metaperceptions, such that in the presence of a negative metaperception, the reluctance to post a direct complaint is attenuated under independent self-construal. Independent self-construal attenuates the positive effect of positive metaperception. An experimental comparison between social media and consumer review sites reveals that metaperceptions are only prevalent in social media and when the complainer construes him or herself as interdependent. Originality/value Since lodging a direct complaint to a service provider has been mainly conceived as a private behavior, the role of social dynamics in the context of voicing remains under-researched. Aiming to fill this gap, the present research empirically examines how the presence of a perceived audience affects voicing behavior.

Power drives consumer voice behavior

PurposeThe active voice behavior of customers is crucial to the development of enterprises, but few studies have examined how to promote customer voice behavior. Does a sense of power drive consumers to provide advice to the companies involved? This paper aims to address the issue.Design/methodology/approachBy conducting three experiments, the authors proved the effect of the sense of power on customer voice behavior. In Study 1, the authors manipulated subjects' sense of power levels (high vs low) through an episodic recall task. Tangible goods were used as experimental material. The authors verified that power had a positive impact on customer voice behavior. In Study 2, the authors changed the experimental materials to intangible service products and used role-playing tasks to manipulate the subjects' sense of power. Study 2 validated the mediating role played by self-confidence in the main effect. In Study 3, the authors validated the moderating role of self-doubt for the power effect.FindingsBased on the approach-inhibition theory of power and the situated focus theory of power, the current research finds that there is a positive effect of consumer's sense of power on their voice behavior. It also further analyzes the mediating role of self-confidence, the mechanism by which power affects customer voice behavior. However, this positive effect does not always occur. Self-doubt plays a moderating role in this relationship. If the individual's self-doubt level is high, the positive effect of power on the individual's self-confidence cannot be observed, which means that self-doubt is a boundary condition for the positive effect of power on individuals' self-confidence.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors discuss the influence of sense of power on customer voice behavior and test the mediating role of self-confidence and its boundary conditions. The results show that consumers are more confident in themselves when they feel a sense of power and are more likely to proactively make suggestions to the company. However, the overall effect is not obvious when consumers have a high level of self-doubt. As a psychological state of consumers that firms can easily manipulate, the effects of power on consumer behavior remain to be explored by the authors.Practical implicationsThe findings of current research suggest that empowering consumers who are less self-doubting can increase their self-confidence, which, in turn, can lead to more active expression and feedback on issues that need improvement in their experience. Thus, companies can enhance consumers' sense of power through some ways, such as using environmental elements to stimulate consumers' sense of power.Originality/valueThere are few studies on how the sense of power affects consumers' voice behavior. Prior work on voice behavior has focused on the perspective of customers' perception of the social exchange relationship between themselves and enterprises. The research explores the strategies suitable for enterprises to promote customer voice behavior from the perspective of the sense of power, and the findings contribute to the research on the sense of power and consumer voice behavior.

Emerging Evidence of the Value of Culturally Specific Organizations: Results of a Delphi and Consumer Voice Study

A set of culturally specific organizations in Portland, Oregon has been generating excellent results for clients and communities of color. Four of them have developed a collective impact initiative to reduce child poverty among communities of color, with backbone support from United Way, and the inclusion of one “culturally responsive” organization. This research seeks to answer, “How do these organizations achieve excellent results with clients of color?” Our answer, through a two-part Delphi and Consumer Voice study, identifies a far-ranging set of assets, only part of which are staffing characteristics. These assets have been affirmed by a statistically significant survey of consumers, encompassing the following nine domains: being community embedded, creating a culture of success, being responsive to community needs, advocating to improve community and client success, being culturally relevant, and providing a comprehensive continuum of services. Delivery attributes include relying heavily on a rich relationship model, being inclusive, and having staff be personally invested in client success. Clients confirmed that all nine domains are important to their lives, and rated their overall satisfaction with the organizations at 92.7%, far above the published national average of 77%. The paper concludes with a synthesis of the study’s relevance for policy makers, funders and practitioners.

Ensuring Consumer Satisfaction of Products in the Quality System of the Enterprise Based on the Application of the “Consumer's Risks” method

The paper deals with the basics of ensuring customer satisfaction as one of the conceptual principles of the quality management system (QMS) of the enterprise, based on "Consumer's risks" method, which is a modification of the well-known "Consumer Voice" method. The paper analyzes scientific approaches to the problem under study. The paper gives ground for the prospects of studying personal risks of consumers in order to anticipate their expectations from the company's products based on the application of "Consumer's risks" method, which allows to extrapolate the risks of interested parties to the product characteristics expressed in professional terminology that is understandable for the manufacturer who can implement it. The authors propose a procedure for transferring consumer’s risks into product characteristics and a statistical justification of the priority of their implementation, which allows to balance the requirements of all interested parties. The expediency of using the developed procedure in order to ensure customer satisfaction and increase the competitiveness of the enterprise is proved.

Application of the "Consumer risks" method in the quality management system of the university

The article discusses the approach to ensuring the satisfaction of consumers of educational services in the quality management system (QMS) of the university in the context of a risk-based approach. The problems connected with identification and resolution of personal risks of the parties interested in educational services are investigated. The analysis of tools for identifying personal risks of consumers and their transformation into the characteristics of educational services is carried out. The expediency of using the proposed «Consumer risks» method, which is a modification of the «Consumer Voice» method known in quality management and allows extrapolating the personal risks of interested parties into the requirements and then into the characteristics of educational services expressed in professional terminology that is understandable for implementation by the university management, is argued. The procedure of statistical substantiation of managerial decision-making on the priority of choosing the implementation of the characteristics of educational services extrapolated from the personal risks of consumers is proposed. The considered approach allows not only to ensure the satisfaction of consumers of educational services, but also to anticipate their expectations.

Sound and Fury: Digital Vigilantism as a Form of Consumer Voice

The authors examine consumer activism as a form of power used by individuals when they experience a perceived failure with organizational service performance. Consumer citizens demonstrate the power of their voices through digital vigilantism consisting of injurious and constructive digital content sharing. The authors use agency theory and power concepts to study an instance in which a public service provider breached consumer performance expectations. They study digital responses to the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally because an independent review found the public service providers culpable. Tweets (n = 73,649) were analyzed utilizing qualitative thematic coding, cluster analysis, and sentiment analysis. Consumer conversations (tweets) during and after the rally yielded five types of digital vigilantism characterized by the following consumer voice clusters: “Shame on them!”, “Hear ye, hear ye…”, “Can you believe this?”, “Let’s get ‘em!”, and “Do the right thing.” The authors also present a new facet of digital vigilantism represented by the pessimistic and optimistic power of consumer voice. Several proactive and reactive responses are presented for policy and practice when responding to digital vigilantism.