Managing complaints to improve customer profitability

Cambra-Fierroa, Jesús ; Iguacel Melerob, Iguacel ; Sesec, F.Javier (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: In this study, the authors aim to understand whether, to what extent, and under what circumstances, organizational responses to customercomplaints improve customer profitability. To do so, they build upon the congruence approach and propose a contingency framework in whichthe effectiveness of three organizational responses to customer complaints (timeliness, compensation and communications) in improving customerprofitability is contingent upon the strength of the relationship and the type of failure. The framework is tested empirically in the financialservices industry applying latent class techniques to longitudinal data for a sample of complaining customers. The results reveal that: (1) differentcomplaint-handling initiatives affect customer profitability differently for each of the four segments of complaining customers that are obtained; (2)these heterogeneous responses to complaint handling are explained by differences in the orientation of the relationship and in the failure context;and (3) complaint-handling initiatives are more (less) effective at improving customer profitability when the benefits they offer strongly (poorly)match the benefits sought by customers in each segment to recover from the failure. These results contribute to a better theoretical understandingof customers’heterogeneous responses to complaint handling and offer managerial recommendations to allocate marketing resources acrossalternative complaint-handling strategies to improve profitability.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2014.09.004

Año: 2015

Publicado en: JOURNAL OF RETAILING 91, 1 (2015), 109-124
ISSN: 0022-4359

Factor impacto JCR: 2.014 (2015)

Categ. JCR: BUSINESS rank: 43 / 120 = 0.358 (2015) - Q2 - T2

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 2.174 - Marketing (Q1)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/S09-PM062
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/ECO2011-23027

Tipo y forma: Artículo (PostPrint)

Área (Departamento): Área Comerci.Investig.Mercados (Dpto. Direc.Mark.Inves.Mercad.)