Digital corporate communication and complaint management

Consumers are regularly confronted with negative experiences such as service failures or improper corporate behaviours (e.g., mass layoffs). While basic psychological reactions such as dissatisfaction remain the same, the way consumers and other stakeholders cope with their frustration differs in the age of digitalization. This chapter provides an overview of how dissatisfied consumers can react to negative experiences online and which circumstances guide their complaining decisions. Furthermore, it provides insights into how companies can counter criticism such that an escalation of the problem can be prevented. When responding to a public online complaint, companies are well-advised to identify the nature of the complaint (e.g., direct vs. indirect) and to consider the various forms of perceived justice (i.e., distributive, interactional, procedural) as well as the social influence of others. The case example of how Gucci responded to an online firestorm, an ugly form of collective complaining, sheds light on complaint handling in practice.