What drives consumers to complain illegitimately ?
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2020-05-18
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en
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Service recovery is becoming increasingly important in companies. Due to the rapid growth of social media, complaints are spread faster, and it has become easier for consumers to complain. Because companies want the best possible reputation, they do everything they can to keep their customers happy. However, having a too flexible service recovery also has a downside: consumers know this policy and might abuse it, but what prompts consumers to this behavior, and how often it occurs has not been researched extensively to this day. Joosten has researched this topic and noticed that there are several drivers that result in complaining behavior.
These drivers have been demonstrated in his research and are re-examined in this thesis. Joosten has also expected that there are certain neutralization techniques that consumers use to justify their own behavior. Furthermore, the complaints procedure influences the relationship that a consumer feels toward a company after a complaint has been settled. All this results in the main question: Is it possible to distinguish three types of illegitimate complainers (clusters: have, want, and must) based on the drivers of illegitimate complaining, and how are these clusters linked to the neutralization techniques and relationship variables?
After analyzing the data through regression analysis, the following drivers were found to be significant in our data: internal attribution, financial greed, opportunism, the halo effect, the social norm toward complaining, and distributive injustice. These drivers do not match those found by Joosten, but for this research, the decision was made to continue with the clusters of complainers constructed by Joosten. These clusters or clusters of complainers were tested on their variance on neutralization techniques and perceived relationship variables.
These clusters are interesting for companies and managers because it demonstrates that certain drivers reinforce each other and encourage illegitimate complaints and that due to the behavior of a company, consumers also find it normal to complain illegitimately. The results indicate that customers are influenced by the way a complaint is handled and how they, from then on, perceive the company. The results are encouraging, but further research into the precise drivers of this complaining behavior is needed.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen