IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sol/wpaper/2013-199719.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Influence of the Communication Channel on the Forms of Impoliteness in Company-Customer Interactions

Author

Listed:
  • Pierre-Nicolas Schwab
  • Laurence Rosier

Abstract

The present study aims to examine verbal violence in companies’ answers sent in response to customers’ complaints through two different channels: online (on a public forum) vs. offline (by postal mail). We draw on a recent body of marketing literature pertaining to employees’ dysfunctional behaviors, as well as on conceptualizations of impoliteness, to analyze which role the communication method plays on the forms of impoliteness taken in those interactions.The online dataset of impolite answers was selected from 936 naturally occurring exchanges between complainants and 179 firms on a French public forum. Exchanges were coded and content analyzed, and answers selected based on the face-threatening-acts they contained. The offline dataset was collected through a field experiment carried out with a representative sample of 2325 firms in Belgium. Each firm received a fictitious complaint, and postal answers received were analyzed and selected the same way as the online dataset.Findings from a discourse analysis of impolite answers show that impoliteness takes different forms depending on the communication channel. Unlike predicted by theory, the most violent forms were found in the private postal correspondence. Frequent references to the channel used by the complainant indicate that postal mail enhances conflict and is a catalyst of violence, hence leading firms to return the complainant’s letter and to cover with scribbles. This allows us to add a non-verbal dimension to the current conceptualizations of impoliteness.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre-Nicolas Schwab & Laurence Rosier, 2015. "Influence of the Communication Channel on the Forms of Impoliteness in Company-Customer Interactions," Working Papers CEB 15-019, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
  • Handle: RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/199719
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/199719/1/wp15019.pdf
    File Function: wp15019
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Johnston & Adrian Fern, 1999. "Service Recovery Strategies for Single and Double Deviation Scenarios," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 69-82, April.
    2. Manant, Matthieu & Pajak, Serge & Soulié, Nicolas, 2014. "Do recruiters 'like' it? Online social networks and privacy in hiring: a pseudo-randomized experiment," MPRA Paper 56845, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Goodwin, Cathy & Ross, Ivan, 1992. "Consumer responses to service failures: Influence of procedural and interactional fairness perceptions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 149-163, September.
    4. del Río-Lanza, Ana Belén & Vázquez-Casielles, Rodolfo & Díaz-Martín, Ana M, 2009. "Satisfaction with service recovery: Perceived justice and emotional responses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(8), pages 775-781, August.
    5. Goodwin, Cathy & Verhage, Bronislaw J., 1989. "Role perceptions of services: A cross-cultural comparison with behavioral implications," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 543-558.
    6. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab & Laurence Rosier, 2013. "Politeness strategies in firms’ answers to customer complaints," Working Papers CEB 13-023, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. 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.
    2. Rodolfo Vázquez-Casielles & Víctor Iglesias & Concepción Varela-Neira, 2010. "Service recovery, satisfaction and behaviour intentions: analysis of compensation and social comparison communication strategies," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 83-103, July.
    3. Oznur Ozkan Tektas, 2017. "Perceived justice and post-recovery satisfaction in banking service failures: Do commitment types matter?," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 11(4), pages 851-870, December.
    4. Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Rabeson, Landisoa, 2015. "Determining adequate tangible compensation in service recovery processes for developed and developing countries: The role of severity and responsibility," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 117-127.
    5. Sharifi, Seyed Shahin & Aghazadeh, Hashem, 2016. "Discount reference moderates customers' reactions to discount frames after online service failure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4074-4080.
    6. Kuo, Ying-Feng & Wu, Chi-Ming, 2012. "Satisfaction and post-purchase intentions with service recovery of online shopping websites: Perspectives on perceived justice and emotions," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 127-138.
    7. 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.
    8. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab & Laurence Rosier & Sandra Rothenberger, 2015. "Politeness matters: The antecedents and consequences of politeness in a complaint handling setting," Working Papers CEB 15-011, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    9. Gohary, Ali & Hamzelu, Bahman & Alizadeh, Hamid, 2016. "Please explain why it happened! How perceived justice and customer involvement affect post co-recovery evaluations: A study of Iranian online shoppers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 127-142.
    10. Gohary, Ali & Hamzelu, Bahman & Pourazizi, Lida & Hanzaee, Kambiz Heidarzadeh, 2016. "Understanding effects of co-creation on cognitive, affective and behavioral evaluations in service recovery: An ethnocultural analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 182-198.
    11. Harrison-Walker, L. Jean, 2019. "The critical role of customer forgiveness in successful service recovery," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 376-391.
    12. Yingzi Xu & Bård Tronvoll & Bo Edvardsson, 2014. "Recovering service failure through resource integration," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(16), pages 1253-1271, December.
    13. Vikas Gautam, 2011. "Investigating the Moderating Role of Corporate Image in the Relationship between Perceived Justice and Recovery Satisfaction: Evidence from Indian Aviation Industry," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 1(4), pages 74-85.
    14. Wen-Chin Tsao & Yu-Shan Lin & Yu-Chen Liu & Qi-Xin Chen & Shu-Fen Li, 2020. "How Can Service Failures Be Recovered? Start with Star Ratings, Personnel Rank, and Failure Severity," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(7), pages 1-56, July.
    15. Jung, Na Young & Seock, Yoo-Kyoung, 2017. "Effect of service recovery on customers’ perceived justice, satisfaction, and word-of-mouth intentions on online shopping websites," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 23-30.
    16. Azzam Rifi & Rania B. Mostafa, 2022. "Brand credibility and customer-based brand equity: a service recovery perspective," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(1), pages 1-16, March.
    17. Pierre-Nicolas Schwab & Laurence Rosier, 2013. "Politeness strategies in firms’ answers to customer complaints," Working Papers CEB 13-023, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    18. Ozkan-Tektas, Oznur & Basgoze, Pinar, 2017. "Pre-recovery emotions and satisfaction: A moderated mediation model of service recovery and reputation in the banking sector," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 388-395.
    19. Hubert Chan & E. Ngai, 2010. "What Makes Customers Discontent with Service Providers? An Empirical Analysis of Complaint Handling in Information and Communication Technology Services," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 73-110, February.
    20. Shuyue Huang & Lena Jingen Liang & Hwansuk Chris Choi, 2022. "How We Failed in Context: A Text-Mining Approach to Understanding Hotel Service Failures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    impoliteness; dysfunctional behaviour; complaints; Computer-mediated communication;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/199719. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Benoit Pauwels (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cebulbe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.