Developing a deeper understanding of the attributes of effective customer contact employees in personal complaint-handling encounters

Journal of Services Marketing

Volumn 23, Issue 6, 2009, Pages 422-435

  Gruber, Thorsten ^a   Szmigin, Isabelle ^b   Voss, Roediger ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

^c ZURICH UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

Complaints; Customer satisfaction; Customer service management; Customers; Employees

Indexed keywords

EID: 70350311158     PISSN: 08876045     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/08876040910985889     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. Alge, B.J., Gresham, M.T., Heneman, R.L., Fox, J. and McMasters, R. (2003), Measuring customer service orientation using a measure of interpersonal skills: a preliminary test in a public service organization, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 467-76.
2. Andreassen, T.W. (2001), From disgust to delight: do customers hold a grudge?, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 39-49.
3. Bagozzi, R.P. and Dabholkar, P.A. (1994), Consumer recycling goals and their effect on decisions to recycle: a means-end chain analysis, Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 313-40.
4. Banister, P., Burman, E., Parker, I., Taylor, M. and Tindall, C. (1994), Qualitative Methods in Psychology - A Research Guide, Open University Press, Maidenhead.
5. Bech-Larsen, T. and Nielsen, N.A. (1999), A comparison of five elicitation techniques for elicitation of attributes of low involvement products, Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 20, pp. 315-41.
6. Becker, W.S. and Wellins, R.S. (1990), Customer service perceptions and reality, Training and Development Journal, Vol. 44 No. 3, pp. 49-51.
7. Bell, S.J. and Luddington, J.A. (2006), Coping with customer complaints, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 192-204.
8. Best, A. and Andreasen, A.R. (1977), Consumer responses to unsatisfactory purchases: a survey of perceiving defects, voicing complaints and obtaining redress, Law and Society Review, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 701-42.
9. Bitner, M.J., Booms, B. and Mohr, L.A. (1994), Critical service encounters: the employee's viewpoint, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 4, pp. 95-106.
10. Bitner, M.J., Booms, B.H. and Tetreault, M.S. (1990), The service encounter: diagnosing favorable and unfavorable incidents, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 54 No. 1, pp. 71-84.
11. Bitner, M.J., Brown, S.W. and Meuter, M.L. (2000), Technology infusion in service encounters, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 138-49.
12. Blodgett, J.G., Wakefield, K.L. and Barnes, J.H. (1995), The effects of customer service on consumer complaining behavior, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 31-42.
13. Bodey, K. and Grace, D. (2006), Segmenting service complainers and non-complainers on the basis of consumer characteristics, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 178-87.
14. Boshoff, C. and Allen, J. (2000), The influence of selected antecedents on frontline staff's perceptions of service recovery performance, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 63-90.
15. Botschen, G. and Hemetsberger, A. (1998), Diagnosing means-end structures to determine the degree of potential marketing program standardization, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 151-9.
16. Botschen, G. and Thelen, E.M. (1998), Hard versus soft laddering: implications for appropriate use, in Balderjahn, I., Mennicken, C. and Vernette, E. (Eds), New Developments and Approaches in Consumer Behaviour Research, Schaffer-Poeschel Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 321-39.
17. Botschen, G., Thelen, E.M. and Pieters, R. (1999), Using means-end structures for benefit segmentation, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33 No. 1/2, pp. 38-58.
18. Brown, S.W. (2000), Practicing best-in-class service recovery, Marketing Management, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 8-9.
19. Büdenbender, U. and Strutz, H. (1996), Gabler Lexikon Personal (Gabler Encyclopedia Personnel), Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden.
20. Chebat, J.-C. and Kollias, P. (2000), The impact of empowerment on customer contact employees' roles in service organizations, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 66-81.
21. Chebat, J-C., Davidow, M. and Codjovi, I. (2005), Silent voices. Why some dissatisfied consumers fail to complain, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 328-42.
22. Christensen, G.L. and Olson, J.C. (2002), Mapping consumers' mental models with ZMET, Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 6, pp. 477-502.
23. Chung-Herrera, B.G., Goldschmidt, N. and Hoffman, D.K. (2004), Customer and employee views of critical service incidents, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 241-54.
24. Clopton, S.W., Stoddard, J.E. and Clay, J.W. (2001), Salesperson characteristics affecting consumer complaint responses, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 124-39.
25. Comer, L.B. and Drollinger, T. (1999), Active empathetic listening and selling success: a conceptual framework, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 15-29.
26. Coolen, H. and Hoekstra, J. (2001), Values as determinants of preferences for housing attributes, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Vol. 16 No. 3/4, pp. 285-306.
27. De Ruyter, K. and Wetzels, M. (2000), The impact of perceived listening behavior in voice-to-voice service encounters, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 276-84.
28. Deeter-Schmelz, D.R., Kennedy, K.N. and Goebel, D.J. (2002), Understanding sales manager effectiveness - linking attributes to sales force values, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 31 No. 7, pp. 617-26.
29. Dhar, R. and Glazer, R. (2003), Hedging customers, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 81 No. 5, pp. 86-92.
30. Folkes, V.S. (1984), Consumer reactions to product failure: an attributional approach, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 398-409.
31. Gengler, C.E. and Reynolds, T.J. (1993), LADDERMAP: A Software Tool for Analyzing Laddering Data, Version 5.4 (Computer software).
32. Gengler, C.E. and Reynolds, T.J. (1995), Consumer understanding and advertising strategy: analysis and strategic translation of laddering data, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 35 No. 4, pp. 19-33.
33. Gengler, C.E., Klenosky, D.B. and Mulvey, M.S. (1995), Improving the graphic representation of means-end results, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 245-56.
34. Gengler, C.E., Mulvey, M.S. and Oglethorpe, J.E. (1999), A means-end analysis of mothers' infant feeding choices, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 172-88.
35. Gruber, T., Szmigin, I. and Voss, R. (2006), The desired qualities of customer contact employees in complaint handling encounters, Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 22 No. 5/6, pp. 619-42.
36. Grunert, K.G., Beckmann, S.C. and Sørensen, E. (2001), Means-end chains and laddering: an inventory of problems and an agenda for research, in Reynolds, T.J. and Olson, J.C. (Eds), Understanding Consumer Decision Making - The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 63-90.
37. Gutman, J. (1982), A means-end chain model based on consumer categorization processes, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 46 No. 2, pp. 60-72.
38. Gutman, J. (1997), Means-end chains as goal hierarchies, Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 14 No. 6, pp. 545-60.
39. Hart, C.W.L., Heskett, J.L. and Sasser, W.E. Jr (1990), The profitable art of service recovery, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 68 No. 4, pp. 148-56.
40. Hartline, M.D. and Ferrell, O.C. (1996), The management of customer-contact service employees: an empirical investigation, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60 No. 4, pp. 52-70.
41. Hennig-Thurau, T. (1999), Beschwerdezufriedenheit: Empirische Analyse der Wirkungen und Determinanten: einer Schlusselgroße des Beziehungsmarketing (Analyzing the Determinants and Consequences of Complaint Satisfaction), Jahrbuch der Absatz- und Verbrauchsforschung, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp. 214-40.
42. Hirschman, A.O. (1970), Exit, Voice and Loyalty, Harvard Press, Cambridge, MA.
43. Hocutt, M.A., Bowers, M.R. and Donavan, D.T. (2006), The art of service recovery: fact or fiction?, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 199-207.
44. Hogan, J., Hogan, R. and Busch, C.M. (1984), How to measure service orientation, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 69 No. 1, pp. 67-173.
45. Holloway, B.B. and Beatty, S.E. (2003), Service failure in online retailing - a recovery opportunity, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 92-105.
46. Homburg, C. and Furst, A. (2005), How organizational complaint handling drives customer loyalty: an analysis of the mechanistic and the organic approach, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 69 No. 3, pp. 95-114.
47. Howard, J.A. (1977), Consumer Behavior: Application and Theory, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
48. Jaccard, J., Brinberg, D. and Dittus, P.J. (1989), Couple decision making: individual- and dyadic-level analysis, in Brinberg, D. and Jaccard, J. (Eds), Dyadic Decision Making, Springer, New York, NY, pp. 36-50.
49. Kau, A.K. and Loh, E.W-Y. (2006), The effects of service recovery on consumer satisfaction: a comparison between complainants and non-complainants, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 101-11.
50. Kelly, G.A. (1991/1955), The Psychology of Personal Constructs. 2 Volumes, Routledge, London/New York, NY (Reprint 1991; Original 1955: Norton, New York, NY).
51. Kim, C., Kim, S., Im, S. and Shin, C. (2003), The effect of attitude and perception on consumer complaint intentions, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 4, pp. 352-71.
52. Leonard, M. (2003), in Miller, R.L. and Brewer, J.D. (Eds), The A-Z of Social Research - A Dictionary of Key Social Science Research Concepts, Sage, London, pp. 166-71.
53. Lerman, D. (2006), Consumer politeness and complaining behaviour, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 92-100.
54. Levesque, T.J. and McDougall, G.H.G. (2000), Service problems and recovery strategies: an experiment, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 20-37.
55. Lewis, B.R. and McCann, P. (2004), Service failure and recovery: evidence from the hotel industry, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 6-17.
56. McAlister, D.T. and Erffmeyer, R.C. (2003), A content analysis of outcomes and responsibilities for consumer complaints to third-party organizations, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 56 No. 4, pp. 341-51.
57. McCole, P. (2004), Dealing with complaints in services, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 16 No. 6, pp. 345-54.
58. McCollough, M.A., Berry, L.L. and Yadav, M.S. (2000), An empirical investigation of customer satisfaction after service failure and recovery, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 121-37.
59. Mattila, A.S. (2001), The effectiveness of service recovery in a multi-industry setting, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 15 No. 7, pp. 583-96.
60. Mattila, A.S. and Enz, C.A. (2002), The role of emotions in service encounters, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 268-77.
61. Maxham, J.G. III and Netemeyer, R.G. (2003), Firms reap what they sow: the effects of shared values and perceived organizational justice on customers' evaluations of complaint handling, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 67 No. 1, pp. 46-62.
62. Naylor, G. (2003), The complaining customer: a service provider's best friend?, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 16, pp. 241-8.
63. Norton, J.A. and Reynolds, T.J. (2001), The application of means-end theory in industrial marketing, in Reynolds, T.J. and Olson, J.C. (Eds), Understanding Consumer Decision Making - The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 319-34.
64. Oliver, R.L. (1997), Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
65. Olson, J.C. and Reynolds, T.J. (1983), Understanding consumers' cognitive structures: implications for marketing strategy, in Percy, L. and Woodside, A.G. (Eds), Advertising and Consumer Psychology, Lexington Books, Lexington, MA, pp. 77-90.
66. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Berry, L.L. (1985), A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49 No. 4, pp. 41-50.
67. Peccei, R. and Rosenthal, P. (1997), The antecedents of employee commitment to customer service: evidence from a UK service context, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 66-86.
68. Pieters, R., Baumgartner, H. and Allen, D. (1995), A means-end chain approach to consumer goal structures, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 227-44.
69. Pieters, R., Botschen, G. and Thelen, E.M. (1998), Customer desire expectations about service employees: an analysis of hierarchical relations, Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 15 No. 8, pp. 755-73.
70. Ramsey, R.P. and Sohi, R.S. (1997), Listening to your customers: the impact of perceived salesperson listening behavior on relationship outcomes, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 127-37.
71. Reppel, A., Szmigin, I. and Gruber, T. (2006), The iPod phenomenon: identifying a market leader's secrets through qualitative marketing research, Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 239-49.
72. Reynolds, T.J. and Gutman, J. (1988), Laddering: theory, method, analysis, and interpretation, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 28, February/March, pp. 11-31.
73. Reynolds, T.J. and Rochon, J.P. (2001), in Reynolds, T.J. and Olson, J.C. (Eds), Understanding Consumer Decision Making - The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 283-98.
74. Reynolds, T.J., Gengler, C.E. and Howard, D.J. (1995), A means-end analysis of brand persuasion through advertising, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 257-66.
75. Reynolds, T.J., Dethloff, C. and Westberg, S.J. (2001a), Advances in laddering, in Reynolds, T.J. and Olson, J.C. (Eds), Understanding Consumer Decision Making - The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 91-118.
76. Reynolds, T.J., Rochon, J.P. and Westberg, S.J. (2001b), A means-end chain approach to motivating the sales force: the Mary Kay strategy, in Reynolds, T.J. and Olson, J.C. (Eds), Understanding Consumer Decision Making - The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 269-82.
77. Richins, M.L. (1982), An investigation of consumer attitudes toward complaining, in Mitchell, A. (Ed.), Advances in Consumer Research, Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT, pp. 502-6.
78. Rokeach, M.J. (1973), The Nature of Human Values, Free Press, New York, NY.
79. Schneider, B. and Bowen, D.E. (1995), Winning the Service Game, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
80. Schoefer, K. and Ennew, C. (2005), The impact of perceived justice on consumers' emotional responses to service complaint experiences, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 5, pp. 261-70.
81. Singh, J. (1990), Voice, exit, and negative word-of-mouth behaviors: an investigation across three service categories, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 1-15.
82. Singh, J. and Widing, R.E. II (1991), What occurs once consumers complain? - a theoretical model for understanding satisfaction/dissatisfaction outcomes for complaint responses, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 30-46.
83. Smith, A.K., Bolton, R.N. and Wagner, J. (1999), A model of customer satisfaction with service encounters involving failure and recovery, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 356-72.
84. Stauss, B. (1999), Kundenbindung durch Beschwerdemanagement (Customer retention through complaint management), in Bruhn, M. and Homburg, C. (Eds), Handbuch Kundenbindungsmanagement (The Customer Retention Management Handbook), 2nd edition, Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden, pp. 213-38.
85. Stauss, B. (2002), The dimensions of complaint satisfaction: process and outcome complaint satisfaction versus cold fact and warm act complaint satisfaction, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 173-83.
86. Tax, S.S., Brown, S.W. and Chandrashekaran, M. (1998), Customer evaluations of service complaint experiences: implications for relationship marketing, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 62 No. 2, pp. 60-76.
87. Van Dolen, W., De Ruyter, K. and Lemmink, J. (2004), An empirical assessment of the influence of customer emotions and contact employee performance on encounter and relationship satisfaction, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 57 No. 4, pp. 437-44.
88. Vorhees, C.M. and Brady, M.K. (2005), A service perspective on the drivers of complaint intentions, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 192-204.
89. Voss, R., Gruber, T. and Szmigin, I. (2007), Service quality in higher education: the role of student expectations, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 60 No. 9, pp. 949-59.
90. Walker, B.A. and Olson, J.C. (1991), Means-end chains: connecting products with self, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 111-18.
91. Webster, C. and Sundaram, D.S. (1998), Service consumption criticality in failure recovery, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 153-9.
92. Weun, S., Beatty, S.E. and Jones, M.A. (2004), The impact of service failure severity on service recovery evaluations and post-recovery relationships, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 133-46.
93. Williams, M.R. and Attaway, J.S. (1996), Exploring salespersons' customer orientation as a mediator of organizational culture's influence on buyer-seller relationships, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 33-52.
94. Winsted, K.F. (2000), Service behaviors that lead to satisfied customers, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 3/4, pp. 399-417.
95. Wirtz, J. and Mattila, A.S. (2004), Consumer responses to compensation, speed of recovery and apology after a service failure, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 150-66.
96. Yim, C.K., Gu, F.F., Chan, K.W. and Tse, D.K. (2003), Justice-based service recovery expectations: measurement and antecedents, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 16, pp. 36-52.
97. Young, S. and Feigin, B. (1975), Using the benefit chain for improved strategy formulation, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 No. 3, pp. 72-4.
98. Zeithaml, V.A., Berry, L.L. and Parasuraman, A. (1993), The nature and determinants of customer expectations of services, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 1-12.