Service recovery following dysfunctional consumer participation

Abstract

This article introduces the notion of dysfunctional consumer participation. It advances a theoretical model of service recovery for contexts in which the smooth functioning of a service has been disrupted by consumers' dysfunctional contributions, founded on justice theory and cognitive appraisal theory. The model presents perceived justice as the core element of the evaluation of service recovery encounters. Stressful appraisal evokes emotions in consumers and influences the cooperative or resistant nature of consumer participation in service recovery processes directly and indirectly via its impact on consumers' emotions. Dysfunctional consumer participation is represented as an interactional process in which resistant consumer participation in service recovery provokes an adaptive response from service providers. Outcomes of the service recovery process for consumers and organisations are outlined. The contribution of this work lies in the domain of transformative consumer research, and our proposed framework enables managers with commercial (e.g., customer retention, sales) and social responsibilities (e.g., staff stress, consumer welfare) to analyse situations in which consumers' actions have disrupted the smooth functioning of services and consider strategies to restore workable relationships with them.

The impact of the package opening process on product returns

“…In the context of service failures, the type and degree of a service failure, in tandem with the offered remedial measures, can sway consumers' emotions. In line with the Appraisal-Tendency framework (Scherer et al 2001), these affective responses can then influence consumers' post-purchase decisions (e.g., loss or maintenance of access to goods/services) and ultimately their satisfaction (Hibbert et al 2012) and loyalty (DeWitt et al 2008). Specifically, when consumers have more negative emotions towards a service failure or are more aware of it, they are less likely to be satisfied and might not maintain their purchase decisions (Choi and Mattila 2008).…”

The importance of perceived fairness in product customization settings

“…Becker, 1976). In addition, customers require a range of resources, such as knowledge, skills, and social connections, to take a participative role (Hibbert et al, 2012). In mass customization research, Schnurr and Scholl-Grissemann (2015) find that customers equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary for customization enjoy the process more, particularly if there are many options to customize aesthetic attributes (e.g.…”

“…If the customer regards the company's contribution as disproportionately less than his or hers, leading to a loss of time resources or delays for the customer, he or she will sense unfair treatment (Katz et al, 1991). The perceived fairness of a service directly affects company evaluations, such as customer loyalty and satisfaction (Hibbert et al, 2012;Oliver, 1977;Roggeveen et al, 2012), so a customer's overall fairness perception should contribute considerably to his or her assessment of the customization process, as well as customer evaluations of the service company. It is thus important to determine whether customers who believe they are being treated unfairly are less satisfied with the company than customers who sense the fairness of the customization process.…”

Consumer vulnerability and complaint handling: Challenges, opportunities and dispute system design

“…Recently, ombudsman organizations, particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom, have also started to pay attention to the issue of unreasonable complainant conduct and it appears that there is evidence that some of this is associated with querulent individuals who may also be suffering from some form of mental health disorder (Mullen & Lester, ). This presents some very difficult challenges for dispute resolution schemes both in terms of the disproportionate burden of handling these complaints but also because there are real reputational risks to failing to respond effectively, particularly where the complainants may be perceived to be vulnerable (Hibbert, Piacentini, & Hogg, ). These developments suggest that additional frameworks, models, strategies, policies and processes are required to assist organizations to meet the needs of vulnerable consumers.…”