Why Customer Service Frustrates Consumers: Using a Tiered Organizational Structure to Exploit Hassle Costs

References

• Aksin Z, Armony M, Mehrotra V (2007) The modern call center: A multi-disciplinary perspective on operations management research. Production Oper. Management 16(6):665–688.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Anderson E, Hansen K, Simester D (2009) The option value of returns: Theory and evidence. Marketing Sci. 28(3):405–423.Link, Google Scholar
• Barlow J, Møller C (2008) A Complaint Is a Gift: Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong (Barnett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco).Google Scholar
• Bearden WO, Teel J (1983) Selected determinants of consumer satisfaction and complaint reports. J. Marketing Res. 20(1):21–28.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Borowski C (2015) The impact of demographics on live chat customer service. Accessed April 2, 2019, https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/demographics-impact-live-chat-customer-service/.Google Scholar
• Brady D (2000) Why service stinks. Bloomberg (October 23), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2000-10-22/why-service-stinks.Google Scholar
• Chen RR, Gerstner E, Yang Y(C) (2012) Customer bill of rights under no-fault service failure: Confinement and compensation. Marketing Sci. 31(1):157–171.Link, Google Scholar
• Consumer Reports (2011) Women get more annoyed than men with aspects of bad customer service. Consumer Reports (June 13), https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2011/06/women-get-more-annoyed-than-men-with-aspects-of-bad-customer-service/index.htm.Google Scholar
• Cooper R, Ross TW (1985) Product warranties and double moral hazard. RAND J. Econom. 2(1):103–113.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Davis S, Gerstner E, Hagerty M (1995) Money back guarantees in retailing: Matching products to consumer tastes. J. Retailing 71(1):7–22.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Desmarais, Mike (2010) The call center’s main purpose is to retain customers. Cost Management (September–October):29–34.Google Scholar
• de Véricourt F, Zhou Y-P (2006) On the incomplete results for the heterogeneous server problem. Queueing Systems 52(3):189–191.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Federal Trade Commission (2016) Combating fraud in African American & Latino communities: The FTC's comprehensive strategic plan: A report to Congress. Report, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
• Ferguson M, Daniel V, Guide R Jr, Souza GC (2006) Supply chain coordination for false failure returns. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 8(4):376–393.Link, Google Scholar
• Fornell C, Wernerfelt B (1987) Defensive marketing strategy by customer complaint management: A theoretical analysis. J. Marketing Res. 24(4):337–346.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Fornell C, Wernerfelt B (1988) A model for customer complaint management. Marketing Sci. 7(3):287–298.Link, Google Scholar
• Fudenberg D, Maskin E (1986) The folk theorem in repeated games with discounting or with imperfect public information. Econometrica. 54:533–556.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Gans N, Koole G, Mandelbaum A (2003) Telephone call centers: Tutorial, review and research prospects. Manufacturing Service Oper. Management 5(2):79–141.Link, Google Scholar
• Gerstner E, Libai B (2005) Why does poor service prevail? Marketing Sci. 35(6):601–603.Link, Google Scholar
• Gerstner E, Halbheer D, Koenigsberg O (2015) The protection economy: Occasional service failure as a business model. Working Paper MKG-2015-1124, HEC Paris, Paris, France.Google Scholar
• Gümüş M, Ray S, Yin S (2013) Returns policies between channel partners for durable products. Marketing Sci. 32(4):622–643.Link, Google Scholar
• Heal G (1977) Guarantees and risk sharing. Rev. Econom. Stud. 44(3):549–560.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Hirschman AO (1970) Exit, Voice and Loyalty (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
• Homburg C, Fürst A (2005) How organizational complaint handling drives customer loyalty: An analysis of the mechanistic and the organic approach. J. Marketing 69(July):95–114.Google Scholar
• Hviid M, Shaffer G (1999) Hassle costs: The Achilles’ heel of price-matching guarantees. J. Econom. Management Strategy 8(4):489–521.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Knox G, van Oest R (2014) Customer complaints and recovery effectiveness: A customer base approach. J. Marketing 78(5):42–57.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Kreps DM, Wilson R (1982) Reputation and imperfect information. J. Econom. Theory 27:253–279.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Lambrecht A, Tucker C (2012) Paying with money or effort: Pricing when customers anticipate hassle. J. Marketing Res. 49(1):66–82.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Laux V (2008) On the value of influence activities for capital budgeting. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 65(3–4):625–635.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Liang P (2013) Exit & voice: A game-theoretic analysis of customer complaint management. Pacific Econom. Rev. 18(2):177–207.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Lutz N, Padmanabhan V (1995) Why do we observe minimal warrantees. Marketing Sci. 14(4):417–441.Link, Google Scholar
• Ma L, Sun B, Kekre S (2015) The squeaky wheel gets the grease—An empirical analysis of customer voice and firm intervention on Twitter. Marketing Sci. 34(5):627–645.Link, Google Scholar
• Matthews S, Moore J (1987) Monopoly provision of quality and warranties—An exploration in the theory of multidimensional screening. Econometrica 55:441–467.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Milgrom P, Roberts J (1982) Predation, reputation, and entry deterrence. J. Econom. Theory 27:280–312.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Moorthy S, Srinivasan K (1995) Signaling quality with a money-back guarantee: The role of transaction costs. Marketing Sci. 14(4):442–466.Link, Google Scholar
• Narasimhan C (1984) A price discrimination theory of coupons. Marketing Sci. 3(2):128–147.Link, Google Scholar
• Nisen M (2013) The 15 worst companies for customer service. Business Insider (January 8), https://www.businessinsider.com/15-worst-companies-for-customer-service-2013-1.Google Scholar
• Ofek E, Katona Z, Sarvary M (2011) "Bricks and clicks": The impact of product returns on the strategies of multichannel retailers. Marketing Sci. 30(1):42–60.Link, Google Scholar
• Padmanabhan V, Rao R (1993) Warranty policy and extended customer service contracts: Theory and an application to automobiles. Marketing Sci. 12(3):230–247.Link, Google Scholar
• Raval D (2016) What determines consumer complaining behavior? Working paper, Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Protection Division, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
• Shulman J, Coughlan AT, Canan Savaskan R (2010) Optimal reverse channel structure for consumer product returns. Marketing Sci. 29(6):1071–1085.Link, Google Scholar
• Simester D, Zhang J (2014) Why do salespeople spend so much time lobbying for low prices? Marketing Sci. 33(6):796–808.Link, Google Scholar
• Spencer J (2003) Cases of ‘customer rage’ mount with service problems on hold. Wall Street Journal (September 17), https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB106374907777835000.Google Scholar
• Tuttle B (2013) You probably spent 13 hours on hold last year. Time (January 24), http://business.time.com/2013/01/24/you-probably-spent-13-hours-on-hold-last-year.Google Scholar
• Wang H (2004) Do returns policies intensify retail competition? Marketing Sci. 23(4):611–613.Link, Google Scholar
• Wolinsky A (1986) True monopolistic competition as a result of imperfect information. Quart. J. Econom. 101(3):493–512.Crossref, Google Scholar