When people experience dissatisfaction or frustration, they often express their feelings through complaining. However, very little is known about everyday complaints. In order to understand how people make complaints, this project proposed a two-factor model of complaint expression, with the factors of certainty and emotional involvement. There were two primary goals for this project. First, this project examined how people make complaints with different expectations, particularly in language use. Second, this project explored whether listeners understand individuals' expectations behind complaints. Four major complaint expectations were identified by content analysis in the pilot study (N = 276). Computerized text analysis was used to examine the relationships between language markers and the four complaint expectations. The factor of certainty was assessed by personal pronoun use and certainty words, whereas the factor of emotional involvement was assessed by the use of negative emotion words. Study 1 (N = 272) used multiple-choice questions to measure complaint expectations and replicated the language findings from the pilot study. Study 2 (N = 247) manipulated complaint expectations by experimental instructions to investigate language usage. The results suggested weak associations between manipulated expectations and language use. Study 3 (N = 204) focused on listeners and examined if they could identify the accurate expectations behind complaints. The results confirmed previous findings about the overconfidence effect in social behavior. An additional analysis examined the accuracy rate of computerized detection methods and then compared the computer's performance to human judges' accuracy. The results showed that the accuracy rate from the computerized text analysis was around 25% to 30%. Human judges performed slightly better than computerized text analysis with a 30% to 35% of accuracy rate. This is one of the first research projects that has attempted to detect and recognize human intentions surrounding complaining using language modeling. / text

Many services fail. Failures are those encounters during which the user assesses the service as flawed (Maxham & Netemeyer, 2003; Palmer, Beggs, & Keown-McMullan, 2000), or improper (Maxham, 2001). An emergent service failure literature has determined that such failures play an important role in user perceptions and subsequent behaviours. The present study sought to discover the ways in which possible users responded to an ambiguous service failure. The purpose of the study was to twofold: (a) to understand the situational, emotional, and dispositional factors which influence users??? likelihood of complaining behaviours; (b) to develop connections between these factors and users??? preferences for service recovery. We were guided by several research questions including: RQ1: When the cause of the failure is ambiguous, to what/whom do users attribute blame? RQ2: How well do attribution of blame and perceived failure severity predict negative emotions? RQ3: What is the relative influence of each negative emotion in predicting the likelihood of each complaining behavior? RQ4: Does user disposition intervene in the relationship between emotion and complaining? RQ5: What is the role of appraisals and emotion in determining service recovery preferences? Borrowing from the service quality, consumer behaviour, health, and therapy literatures, we develop a conceptual framework for answering our questions. Consistent with recent research, we conceptualized that negative emotions following service failures were dependent on users??? appraisals of the situation. Specifically, we looked at the effects of failure severity and attribution of blame on anger, frustration, shame, guilt, regret, and dissatisfaction. We then conceptualized complaining behaviour as a coping mechanism for these negative emotions, and preferences for service recovery as manifestations of immediate desires users would have to address their emotions. To test our theory, an experiment with hypothetical scenarios and a survey instrument was developed. We manipulated two conditions (time lost and money lost) at different points in the survey while participants while self-selected into an attribution of blame condition (Self, provider, other). Undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo (n=288) served as the sample. The questionnaire assessed such variables as attitudes towards complaining, locus of control, tendency for avoidance, emotional response, complaining behaviours, and preferences for service recovery. Results from multivariate analyses confirmed that appraisals help predict negative emotions, and that negative emotions influence complaining behaviours. Results also demonstrated that appraisals and emotions do begin to explain variance in service recovery preferences. Contrary to the interactionist approach, results failed to support the notion that personal dispositions (such as attitudes and personality traits) moderate the relationship between situational factors and behaviour. Finally, conclusions for the study are made, and implications for future research and the design of service recovery strategies are discussed.

The aim of the current study was to develop and test a methodology that could be applied to the evaluation of the complaints processes of regulatory bodies of health professionals in Australia including mental health regulatory bodies such as the board that the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) are planning to set up to regulate the psychology profession. The methodology was applied to the evaluation of the complaints process at the Office of the Health Services Commissioner of Victoria (HSC). There were four main research questions. The first research question related to the extent to which the methodology was able to determine how well the HSC was performing in their role of resolving health complaints. The second research question explored the implications of the findings of the evaluation of the HSC complaints process for the management of health complaints in general. The third research question related to the strengths and limitations of the methodology when applied in a practical setting and the final research question related to further improvement of the methodology for future applications. Questionnaires and telephone interviews were used to examine the experiences of 133 providers and 150 complainants whose complaints had been reviewed and closed in one year. The methodology proved successful in assessing the performance of the complaints process at the HSC. The findings of the evaluation indicated that complainants and providers were generally satisfied with the process by which their complaints were managed. However, they were in general less satisfied with the outcome. In particular the evaluation highlighted the unintended negative consequences that complaints processes can have on the complainants and respondents. It was concluded that these maladaptive behavioural responses to complaints most probably have their origins in the negative emotional overlay attached to health complaints which has the potential to lead to unrealistic expectations of the process and outcomes on the part of complainants, and maladaptive post-complaint practices for health service providers. The findings highlight the importance of providing advocacy and support for the parties involved in health complaints as a means of minimising these maladaptive responses. Finally, it is acknowledged that these findings are specific to Australian health regulatory systems.

Past research on perceived price fairness has examined outcome fairness, or the fairness of an offered price in respect to other prices (e.g., Campbell 1999a; b). In this research consumers’ perceived fairness of the process used by the retailer to set the price, as well as outcome perceived price fairness (PPF), were examined. In the first of two studies, twelve price-setting practices were evaluated on procedural fairness, pervasiveness (i.e., commonness of price-setting practice in the marketplace), and social acceptability within six contexts. Social acceptability was found to be highest when the price-setting practice was both procedurally fair and perceived to be highly pervasive for a given context. An experiment bridged the two concepts of price fairness by detecting the negative effect of using a socially unacceptable price-setting practice on outcome PPF. Also, evidence of multidimensionality (i.e., a cognitive and an affective dimension) of the PPF construct was confirmed in the second study. Cognitive and affective assessments of PPF were found to bring about greater consumer intention to partake in self-protection behaviors such as complaining, and revenge-seeking behaviors such as posting negative online reviews.

While the proliferation of literature on the subject of growing incivility in society demonstrates the increasing importance given to civility by corporate America, there has been little academic investigation of the concept. The limited number of academic studies on civility reveals immense negative consequences for uncivil behavior. One question for marketers of businesses is whether lack of civility among front-end personnel can negatively influence sales. This dissertation is an attempt to fill this research gap by exploring responses to uncivil behavior under the theoretical framework of attribution theory. Using the CDSII scale based on attribution theory, experimental research design was used with current civil and uncivil behavior by the store employees and past experiences (positive, negative, and no-experience) with the store as stimulus. The consumers' perception of civility, attributions and behavioral intentions were measured and used as dependent variables. The results of the experiment showed that when a customer discerns employee behavior to be uncivil, the customer's perception of the level of the ability of the employee to control his own behavior decreases. The results of the study enhance the knowledge of two important consumer behaviors, namely complaining and switching behaviors by empirically studying their antecedents in a particular market interaction context. The results imply that it is important to eliminate or minimize any experience that the customer may construe as negative at a store. If practitioners can work towards eliminating or decreasing certain attributions of consumers, they can reduce the switching behaviors and thus impact customer retention rates and future sales. Though this study contributes to marketing theory and provides vital insights to practitioners, this study is but a starting point for further examination of the role of civility in consumer behavior and decision making.

Unjust customer complaints are increasing, liberal redress policies are becoming more commonplace, and front line employees are expected to smile and just deal with fictitious complaints with redress and a sincere smile.  Is this justly so? This research helps to fill the current gaps in complaint, justice, and emotional labor research by empirically examining employee perceptions of perceived opportunistic versus perceived legitimate complaints.       This research completed one hotel and one restaurant study using  a 2 x 2 between-subjects experimental design to examine complaint type (opportunistic/ legitimate) and perceived organizational support (high/low).   Data was collected from a large reputable market research firm. Results find that employees from both studies experience statistically significantly lower perceptions of procedural, interactional, and distributive justice when dealing with opportunistic as opposed to legitimate complaints.  Perceptions of distributive justice statistically significantly increased employee\'s emotive effort and emotional dissonance.  Additionally, for all of the relationships in the hotel study and with distributive justice in the restaurant study, perceived organizational support had no significant effect on employee perceptions of justice or emotional dissonance or effort.   Managerial implications of employee justice perceptions and customer complaint policies are discussed. / Ph. D.

No description available.

The retail industry is faced with increased customer service demands and a competitive market environment. For retailers to survive in a competitive marketplace, a customer orientation is vital in order to establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers. As the clothing retail industry is characterised as an industry with high human involvement, employee-related service failures are inevitable. Service failures cause the disconfirmation of service expectations which lead to customer dissatisfaction, a motivator of customer complaint behaviour. Given that the resolution of a customer complaint is critical in order to restore customer satisfaction, retailers are providing customers with a variety of innovative complaint channels, such as online complaining. Although online complaint channels have become commonplace, little research has been undertaken regarding the effect of a complaint channel on customers‟ complaint behaviour and customers‟ expectations in the clothing retail industry. South African clothing retailers could therefore benefit from an understanding of customers‟ online complaint intention and ensuing service recovery expectations. Scholars profess that complaint intention correlates positively with service recovery expectations as customers decide to post a complaint when they generally have high recovery expectations. Furthermore, complaint intention and service recovery expectations are increased by a positive attitude towards complaining. Consequently, attitude towards complaining plays a significant role in forecasting complaint behaviour of dissatisfied customers. Moreover, service failure severity has been used to measure how customers assess the intensity of service failures and is said to also influence customers‟ complaint intention and their subsequent service recovery expectation. The primary objective of this study was to uncover customers‟ online complaint intention and subsequent service recovery expectations after experiencing an employee-related service failure in the clothing retail industry. The empirical study was based on a descriptive research design in which a structured, self-administered questionnaire was fielded amongst respondents within the Johannesburg metropolitan area of South Africa. A non-probability, convenience sampling method was used and a total of 400 respondents participated in this study. The results indicate that although the majority of respondents use the Internet daily and exhibit a high propensity to complain, they prefer to complain in-store. After respondents had been presented with a fictional employee-related service failure scenario, they did not indicate a high intention to complain online. Very few differences were uncovered between different groups of respondents pertaining to their attitude towards complaining, online complaint intention, service failure severity perception and strength of service recovery expectation. Finally – with respect to an empirically tested theoretical model – respondents‟ attitude towards complaining in general and their perceptions of the severity of the service failure experienced, significantly and positively influence their strength of service recovery expectations, while no significant positive influences were uncovered for paths linking the aforementioned constructs with online complaint intention. As a result, online complaint intention was omitted from the measurement model seeing that respondents who participated in this study did not indicate a high tendency to complain online. It is recommended that clothing retailers recognise the importance of in-store complaint management programmes and ensure that in-store complaint channels are easily accessible, efficient and pleasant to use. Clothing retailers should actively educate customers regarding alternative mechanisms and channels available for complaining. In order to increase customers‟ online complaint intention, clothing retailers should provide a visible complaint portal on their website and communicate the benefits of online complaining during in-store advertising. Clothing retailers should furthermore provide the appropriate strength of service recovery for particular levels of service failure severity when managing customer complaints. Consequently, it is recommended that clothing retailers provide their employees with sufficient training that will educate them regarding their interaction with customers and the best practice thereof, the difference between minor and major service failures, and the selection of an appropriate service recovery strategy during different service failure severity encounters. It is recommended that this study is extended to other service settings in order to uncover online complaint intention and strength of service recovery expectations of customers in other industries. Finally, seeing that respondents‟ strength of service recovery expectations vary according to the severity of the service failure, scenarios representing different levels of service failure severity can be used as basis to measure the key constructs measured in this study. / MCom (Marketing management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The retail industry is faced with increased customer service demands and a competitive market environment. For retailers to survive in a competitive marketplace, a customer orientation is vital in order to establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers. As the clothing retail industry is characterised as an industry with high human involvement, employee-related service failures are inevitable. Service failures cause the disconfirmation of service expectations which lead to customer dissatisfaction, a motivator of customer complaint behaviour. Given that the resolution of a customer complaint is critical in order to restore customer satisfaction, retailers are providing customers with a variety of innovative complaint channels, such as online complaining. Although online complaint channels have become commonplace, little research has been undertaken regarding the effect of a complaint channel on customers‟ complaint behaviour and customers‟ expectations in the clothing retail industry. South African clothing retailers could therefore benefit from an understanding of customers‟ online complaint intention and ensuing service recovery expectations. Scholars profess that complaint intention correlates positively with service recovery expectations as customers decide to post a complaint when they generally have high recovery expectations. Furthermore, complaint intention and service recovery expectations are increased by a positive attitude towards complaining. Consequently, attitude towards complaining plays a significant role in forecasting complaint behaviour of dissatisfied customers. Moreover, service failure severity has been used to measure how customers assess the intensity of service failures and is said to also influence customers‟ complaint intention and their subsequent service recovery expectation. The primary objective of this study was to uncover customers‟ online complaint intention and subsequent service recovery expectations after experiencing an employee-related service failure in the clothing retail industry. The empirical study was based on a descriptive research design in which a structured, self-administered questionnaire was fielded amongst respondents within the Johannesburg metropolitan area of South Africa. A non-probability, convenience sampling method was used and a total of 400 respondents participated in this study. The results indicate that although the majority of respondents use the Internet daily and exhibit a high propensity to complain, they prefer to complain in-store. After respondents had been presented with a fictional employee-related service failure scenario, they did not indicate a high intention to complain online. Very few differences were uncovered between different groups of respondents pertaining to their attitude towards complaining, online complaint intention, service failure severity perception and strength of service recovery expectation. Finally – with respect to an empirically tested theoretical model – respondents‟ attitude towards complaining in general and their perceptions of the severity of the service failure experienced, significantly and positively influence their strength of service recovery expectations, while no significant positive influences were uncovered for paths linking the aforementioned constructs with online complaint intention. As a result, online complaint intention was omitted from the measurement model seeing that respondents who participated in this study did not indicate a high tendency to complain online. It is recommended that clothing retailers recognise the importance of in-store complaint management programmes and ensure that in-store complaint channels are easily accessible, efficient and pleasant to use. Clothing retailers should actively educate customers regarding alternative mechanisms and channels available for complaining. In order to increase customers‟ online complaint intention, clothing retailers should provide a visible complaint portal on their website and communicate the benefits of online complaining during in-store advertising. Clothing retailers should furthermore provide the appropriate strength of service recovery for particular levels of service failure severity when managing customer complaints. Consequently, it is recommended that clothing retailers provide their employees with sufficient training that will educate them regarding their interaction with customers and the best practice thereof, the difference between minor and major service failures, and the selection of an appropriate service recovery strategy during different service failure severity encounters. It is recommended that this study is extended to other service settings in order to uncover online complaint intention and strength of service recovery expectations of customers in other industries. Finally, seeing that respondents‟ strength of service recovery expectations vary according to the severity of the service failure, scenarios representing different levels of service failure severity can be used as basis to measure the key constructs measured in this study. / MCom (Marketing management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Globalisation and stiff competition have changed the landscape of doing business. Decrease in customer loyalty and increase in customer expectations have challenged businesses to come up with unique methods of enhancing their quality of service. The same is true for airlines industry too. As a result, many airlines have transformed their marketing strategies, especially with regard to service quality, in order to compete efficiently in the global market. The marketing literature has introduced models of service quality, e.g.: SERVQUAL and AIRQUAL to help organisations measure and enhance customer experiences. SERVQUAL has been extensively researched and applied in many industries. Similarly, AIRQUAL, a model for the airline industry, has been developed but applied only in Cyprus. Moreover, the AIRQUAL scale lacks validity, as its development process is incomplete. This research, therefore, adapted 30-items of AIRQUAL and assessed and validated this revised scale. The validated scale was then applied to the airline industry of Saudi Arabia. Further, a comprehensive model is proposed, where the impact of the validated scale of service quality is tested with its impact on customer satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty, word of mouth, repurchase intentions and complaining behaviour. The assessment and validation process is divided into two main stages: first, qualitative; where four focus group interviews were undertaken that generated 46 items for the adapted scale. These items describe the perceptions of airline customers regarding service quality and were classified on the bases of the scheme proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1988). Second, a three-phase two sample, quantitative, research was performed to derive a validated 30-item scale comprising five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Further, the improved scale was tested in a new market (Saudi market) in order to assess the service quality of Saudi Airlines. A total of 500 self-administered questionnaires were distributed among airline customers. The returned questionnaires underwent thorough screening and cleaning. The reliability of the scale was tested through Cronbach’s Alpha, followed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which emerged with five dimensions. The content, convergent and discriminant validities were established. Further scale confirmation was conducted on a sample of US airline passengers. Finally, the proposed model with nine hypotheses was tested, which resulted in statistically significant results for all the proposed hypotheses.