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Affective responses to service failure: Anger, regret, and retaliatory versus conciliatory responses

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Abstract

After a service failure, consumers make appraisals or assessments about the characteristics of this failure. These appraisals, in turn, affect how a consumer responds emotionally and behaviorally. Using an appraisal-tendency framework, we predict that two negatively valenced emotions (anger and regret) underlie or mediate the effects of consumers’ appraisals about service failure on post-purchase behaviors. Consistent with the predictions, in a laboratory study, we find that anger plays a powerful role in explaining retaliatory behaviors, and that both anger and regret account for the effect of appraisals on conciliatory behaviors. We extend the same appraisal-tendency framework to predict how changes in emotions underlie the effects of recovery efforts on post-purchase behaviors. Again consistent with predictions, in the laboratory study and in a web-based study, we find that recovery efforts that reduce anger decrease retaliatory behaviors. However, both studies provide less clear-cut evidence about the emotional mediators between recovery efforts and conciliatory behaviors. Because conciliatory behaviors are important behaviors for businesses to promote, future research should explore what other emotions explain recovery effort effects on conciliatory behaviors.

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Notes

  1. In a report, an anonymous consumer posts a comment describing an experience at a specific restaurant. Only one report described an incident which the consumer thought was their fault. As a result, we eliminated this observation, giving us 299 reports, all services failures in which the consumers blamed the service provider.

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Acknowledgments

This work is based on Carolyn Bonifield's dissertation. We thank the members of that committee, especially Irwin Levin and Baba Shiv, for their extensive comments. In addition, we would like to acknowledge the helpful suggestions from the reviewers and editors at Marketing Letters, especially those of Professor Charles B. Weinberg.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business Administration, University of Vermont, Kalkin Hall, 55 Colchester Avenue, Burlington, VT, 05405-0157, USA

    Carolyn Bonifield

  2. Henry B. Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Catherine Cole

Authors
  1. Carolyn Bonifield
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  2. Catherine Cole
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carolyn Bonifield.

Appendix A: Items in anger, regret, and behavioral intention scales

Appendix A: Items in anger, regret, and behavioral intention scales

Anger:

  • I would feel angry about my experience at this restaurant.

  • I would feel very displeased with the service at this restaurant.

  • The more I think about it, the more hostile I would feel towards the waiter/restaurant.

Regret:

  • I would regret choosing the menu item that I chose.

  • I would feel bad about ordering this menu item.

  • Even before I had left the restaurant, I would know that I had made a bad decision in my choice of menu item.

  • In retrospect, I would feel that I could have made a better choice by choosing a different menu item.

  • I would feel sorry for choosing this menu item.

  • I would feel that if I could do it all over, I would choose a different menu item.

Retaliatory post-purchase behaviors:

If this had happened to you…

  • how likely is it that you would complain to the manager of the restaurant?

  • how likely is it that you would make certain that the restaurant manager knew exactly what you thought about the service?

  • how likely is it that you would tell your friends and acquaintances about this experience?

  • how likely is it that you would try to discourage other people from dining at this restaurant?

  • how likely is it that you would insist on a cash refund (cash discount on today's bill)?

Conciliatory post-purchase behaviors:

If this had happened to you…

  • how likely is it that you would recommend this restaurant to your friends and acquaintances?

  • how likely is it that you would be willing to accept a coupon for $5 off the bill at this restaurant the next time you dined there?

  • how satisfied would you be with a coupon for the next time you dined for $5 off the bill?

  • how likely is it that you would return to this restaurant again the next time you dined out?

  • how likely is it that you would ever return to this restaurant again?

  • how likely is it that you would feel sympathy for the waiter?

  • how likely is it that you would feel sympathy for the restaurant manager?

  • what size tip would you leave the waiter?

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Bonifield, C., Cole, C. Affective responses to service failure: Anger, regret, and retaliatory versus conciliatory responses. Market Lett 18, 85–99 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-006-9006-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-006-9006-6

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