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Ignored or Rejected: Retail Exclusion Effects on Construal Levels and Consumer Responses to Compensation

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  • Jayati Sinha
  • Fang-Chi Lu

Abstract

Among the top customer complaints regarding retailers are experiences of exclusionary treatment in the form of explicit condescension or implicit disregard. However, little is known about how consumers respond to different instances of exclusion in retail or service settings. This research focuses on how customers respond cognitively and emotionally when frontline staff reject or ignore them and on how retailers can recover from such service failures. Findings from six studies using exclusion as a hypothetical scenario or a real experience demonstrate that direct negative feedback leads customers to feel rejected and to form concrete low-level mental construals, while a lack of attention leads customers to feel ignored and to form abstract high-level construals. Explicit rejection (implicit ignoring) causes consumers to form more (less) vivid mental imagery of the exclusionary experience and to activate a concrete (abstract) mindset, resulting in preferences for tangible (intangible) and visual (textual) compensation options. Retailers are advised to align their compensation with construal levels to increase post-recovery customer satisfaction, customer reviews, intended loyalty, and brand referral behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Jayati Sinha & Fang-Chi Lu, 2019. "Ignored or Rejected: Retail Exclusion Effects on Construal Levels and Consumer Responses to Compensation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 46(4), pages 791-807.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:46:y:2019:i:4:p:791-807.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jcr/ucz021
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Carter, Kealy & Jayachandran, Satish & Murdock, Mitchel R., 2021. "Building A Sustainable Shelf: The Role of Firm Sustainability Reputation," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(4), pages 507-522.
    2. Alba, George & Slongo, Luiz Antonio, 2020. "Getting a no-reply is also a reply: An investigation of unreplied consumer attributions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    3. Wang, Wangshuai & Yi, Yanxi & Li, Jie & Sun, Gong & Zhang, Mo, 2022. "Lighting up the dark: How the scarcity of childhood resources leads to preferences for bright stimuli," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1155-1164.
    4. Kim, Seeun & Baek, Tae Hyun & Yoon, Sukki, 2020. "The effect of 360-degree rotatable product images on purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    5. Gong, Xiushuang & Wang, Hanwen & Zhang, Xiadan & Tian, Hui, 2022. "Why does service inclusion matter? The effect of service exclusion on customer indirect misbehavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    6. Pantano, Eleonora & Viassone, Milena & Boardman, Rosy & Dennis, Charles, 2022. "Inclusive or exclusive? Investigating how retail technology can reduce old consumers’ barriers to shopping," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    7. Liu, Fu & Wei, Haiying & Zhu, Zhenzhong & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2022. "Warmth or competence: Brand anthropomorphism, social exclusion, and advertisement effectiveness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Chen, Nuoya & Mohanty, Smaraki & Jiao, Jinfeng & Fan, Xiucheng, 2021. "To err is human: Tolerate humans instead of machines in service failure," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).

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