Addressing customer misbehavior contagion in access-based services

Purpose Access-based services (ABSs) provide short-term access to goods, physical facilities, space or labor in exchange for access fees without transferring legal ownership (e.g. bike-sharing). This study aims to investigate what service providers can do to minimize financial losses when customers misbehave with the service providers’ assets in ABSs. The study also examines the effects of product misuse on subsequent customers and what factors may mitigate it. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a scenario-based experiment to test the conceptual model. Findings Injunctive norms reduce the mediating effect of descriptive norms on misbehavior contagion. As generally accepted and approved (injunctive) norms become salient, they override the impact of prevailing (descriptive) norms, thereby breaking the vicious cycle of misbehavior contagion. Customer-company identification (CCI) and reduced interpersonal anonymity mitigate the effects of previous misbehavior on misbehavior contagion. Practical implications ABS firms should strive to mitigate the financial and reputational losses they suffer from customer misbehavior. Such mitigation would be a win-win for the ABS firm (reduced misbehavior) and the customers (improved user experience). Originality/value The research complements prior research highlighting the role of social norms in misbehavior contagion. The study demonstrates the role of boundary conditions by investigating the interactive effects of descriptive and injunctive norms. In addition, it shows the positive impact of CCI and reduced interpersonal anonymity on containing misbehavior contagion.

FairPlay: Detecting and Deterring Online Customer Misbehavior

This study examines how firms can detect and manage customer misbehavior in online brand communities. We first develop a data science approach to detect customer misbehavior on social media and devise intervention strategies to deter it. Our design science approach achieves superior performance, improving detection by 7%–9% compared with traditional methods. We then implement two types of intervention policies based on injunctive (i.e., a punishment policy) and descriptive norms (i.e., a common identity policy) to restrain customer misbehavior. The results of field experiments indicate that punishment considerably reduces customer misbehavior in the short term, but this effect decays over time, whereas common identity has a smaller but more persistent effect on misbehavior reduction. In addition, punishing dysfunctional customers decreases their purchase frequency, whereas imposing a common identity increases it. Our results also show that combining the two policies effectively alleviates the detrimental effect of punishment, especially in the long run.

Beyond Tit-for-Tat: Theorizing Divergent Employee Reactions to Customer Mistreatment

Customer mistreatment is a ubiquitous and pernicious form of interpersonal mistreatment leveled by customers against employees. Service workers’ reactions to customer mistreatment have been traditionally viewed as tit-for-tat reactions in which service workers respond to customers’ aggression with retaliation in kind. However, this tit-for-tat account does not capture the broad range of possible service worker responses to customer misbehavior. We build the case for self-esteem threat as an overarching framework for divergent employee reactions to customer mistreatment, and explain how service workers’ behavioral reactions and emotional labor may systematically vary according to where service workers stake their self-esteem—in performance, in others’ approval, or in status—using contingencies of self-worth theory. Other features of the self-concept are identified as boundary conditions of the process.

Whose fault is it?

Purpose This research paper aims to provide an understanding of how customers evaluate other customers’ misbehavior, considering the attribution of responsibility and how service employees should react in the respective situation. Design/methodology/approach Two sequential studies using written scenarios are conducted, including manipulations for responsibility (deviant customer vs employee) and employee effort (high vs medium). Findings The results show that observing customers perceive misbehavior caused by the deviant customer as more severe and feel more intense negative emotions than when an employee is attributed as being responsible. Employee responsibility, however, elicits higher recovery expectations, which in turn decide the level of employee effort required to ensure observing customers’ satisfaction. Research limitations/implications Due to the exploratory research objective and the use of a restricted sample and written scenarios, the studies may be subject to restrictions. Further studies will ensure generalizability. Practical implications Because different customer expectations arise from the respective responsibility for customer misbehavior, service employees should be encouraged to differentiate their efforts when approaching misbehavior. In case of their own responsibility, employees need to exert higher efforts to restore a functional service encounter, whereas in cases of customer responsibility, medium efforts are sufficient to stop the misbehaving customer. Originality/value This research contributes to understanding of cognitive and emotional responses to customer misbehavior considering the attribution of responsibility and indicates how service employees may handle these situations.

ANALISIS PENGARUH PERILAKU KONSUMEN TERHADAP CUSTOMER MISBEHAVIOR DALAM INDUSTRI RETAIL DI INDONESIA (Studi pada Hypermart)

The retail industry is one of the fastest growing industries in Indonesia, with Hypermart as one of the largest retail companies. As a company engaged in retail then Hypermart provides a variety of consumer goods that the majority of Indonesian people shopping with high frequency at Hypermart. The purpose of this study was to understand the effect of customer behavior in the past and the future customer behavior. In previous studies in various research on consumer behavior, this relationship has not been studied adequately using personality variables were complete. Additional variables used in this study are five variables based on consumer personality is Consumer alienation, Machiavellianism, Sensation seeking, aggressiveness, self-esteem, Past misbehavior, Future misbehavior Furthermore, this study also aimed as a consideration for the managerial or practitioners Hypermart in the decision-making process, in an effort to reduce misbehavior future intentions of customers Hypermart through past efforts to reduce customer misbehavior. The sampling method used in the study to be performed are non-probability sampling. This study used a questionnaire as a major tool in data collection. This research will be used purposive sampling technique. The number of samples in this research are 300 respondents were evaluated, and the data were analyzed using multiple regression with SPSS 16. The results of this study can be used by companies that are facing the problem of customer misbehavior in shaping strategies to reduce customer misbehavior.