Cumulative experience plays an important role when customers evaluate consumption experience. Since service is evaluated by quality of experience, satisfied experience of service is stored in long-term memory and thereby future evaluation is influence...
Cumulative experience plays an important role when customers evaluate consumption experience. Since service is evaluated by quality of experience, satisfied experience of service is stored in long-term memory and thereby future evaluation is influenced(Mattila 2003). On the other hand, trivial mistakes and little attention of service provider may cause customers to attribute service failures to the service provider and to form possible feeling of betrayal(Weun et al. 2004). In many service industries, service firms differentiate services and provide better service to more profitable segment of customers. In the meanwhile, customers make social comparisons between segments and may suffer damage in their self-esteem and feel jealousy(e.g., Mikulincer 1989).
These negative emotions act as important variables that can cause customer behavioral responses to service failures. Attribution process of identifying causes of service failures(service provider vs. customer) can affect critical negative emotions and behavioral responses.
In the study, the focus falls on the psychological process of customers who experience service failures: attribution, antecedents of attribution and negative emotions, and behavioral responses as consequences. Negative emotions are analyzed in two dimensions: absolute emotion of regret, relative emotions of jealousy and betrayal. As antecedents, cumulative satisfaction of experience and need for social comparison are examined as customer characteristics, while severity of service failures is examined as service characteristic. These antecedents are expected to affect the negative emotions either directly or indirectly through attribution process. Furthermore, the negative emotions are expected to influence behavioral responses such as switching, complaint, and word of mouth. The integrated conceptual framework is derived from the study of comprehensive review of existing literature, and is empirically tested by the sample of 232 customers who experience service failures in a bank.
The study extends existing literature by adding jealousy and betrayal as well as regret and disappointment that are much studied. The study also introduces moderating variables such as attitude toward risk, locus, stability, and controllability in attribution. Type of customers, PB customer vs. ordinary customer, and gender(women vs. man)are also examined to check possible differences between the two groups. One of the different aspect in the study is to delete customer satisfaction as a mediator to behavioral responses.
The key results of the study can be summarized as follows. Negative emotions such as regret, jealousy and betrayal have effect on customer behavior. Thus attribution and negative emotions act as mediators in the integrated model. Severity of service failures affects locus of attribution. External attribution influences betrayal while internal attribution affects regret and jealousy. Customers who attribute failures to service provider tend to feel jealousy and betrayal rather than regret. On the other hand, customers who attribute failures to themselves because of lack of information or capability tend to feel regret and jealousy rather than betrayal. In case of low cumulative satisfaction, the more severe the service failures, customers tend to make external attribution. Customers with higher need for social comparison tend to make internal attribution. Different results are obtained between PB customers and ordinary customers, and also between men and women. The study makes additional analysis of moderating effects of attribution in terms of locus, stability, and controllability, and also risk attitude. The results of the analysis show that moderating effects of attribution exist in locus, stability, and controllability, and that moderating effects of risk attitude partially exist in some paths. Finally the effects of negative emotions on behavioral responses are discussed. Regret affects switching, jealousy affects word of mouth, and betrayal influences complaints.