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Online complaint handling practices: Company strategies and their effects upon post-complaint satisfaction

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  • Pierre-Nicolas Schwab

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine (1) the nature of firms’ complaint-handling practices in an online double-deviation context, and (2) the relationship between complaint-handling practices on the one hand and customer post-complaint satisfaction on the other. Predictions were derived from justice theory and existing research and practice concerning the attributes of effective organizational complaint-handling. 523 naturally occurring exchanges between complainants and 179 firms were coded and content analyzed. Descriptive analyses showed that best practices for complaint-handling were infrequent, and that poor complaint-handling practices occurred in comparable proportions to best practices. Findings from a multinomial regression analysis demonstrated that the practice most strongly associated with post-complaint satisfaction related to the provision of evidence that the complainant’s problem had been, or was about to be, solved. Moreover, of the four (marginally) significant relationships between pre-established attributes of perceived justice and customer satisfaction, three pertained to practices that destroy customer-seller relationships. The implications of the findings for research and practice are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre-Nicolas Schwab, 2015. "Online complaint handling practices: Company strategies and their effects upon post-complaint satisfaction," Working Papers CEB 15-005, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/192612
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab & Sandra Rothenberger, 2015. "Online Complaint Handling: The Effects of Politeness and Grammaticality upon Perceived Professionalism and Loyalty," Working Papers CEB 15-015, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    complaint-handling; online; double-deviation; perceived justice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

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