Clay M. Voorhees

A Voice From the Silent Masses: An Exploratory and Comparative Analysis of Noncomplainers

This study used a critical incident survey with both qualitative and quantitative sections to investigate noncomplainers. Noncomplainers are customers who experience service failures but do not voice complaints. The qualitative study (n=149) explored reasons why customers do not complain after experiencing service failures. In the quantitative study (n=530), two kinds of noncomplainers who either (a) received organization-initiated recoveries or(b) exited the encounters without recoveries were compared with three kinds of complaining customers who received (a) satisfactory recoveries, (b) dissatisfactory recoveries, or (c) no recoveries. The five customer groups were compared across repurchase intentions, negative affect, perceived regret, and intentions to engage in negative word of mouth. The results of the comparative analyses challenge existing views of noncomplainers’ repurchase intentions and negative outcome levels.

The impact of brand trust and satisfaction on retailer repurchase intentions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate spill‐over effects from customer perceptions of trust in and satisfaction with a brand to customer evaluations of a retailer and, ultimately, repurchase intentions.Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual model is developed and tested using structural equation modeling. Specifically, recent procedures for assessing direct and mediated effects are adoped.Findings – The findings demonstrate that customer trust in and satisfaction with a retailer mediate the effects of brand trust and satisfaction on customer repurchase intentions.Research limitations/implications – This research provides a preliminary examination of the relationship between brands, retailers, and consumers. The results suggest that halo effects exist between customer perceptions of brands and retailers. Future research could attempt to discern how this transference from brand to retailer occurs and replicate these findings in other industries or product types.Practical implications – T...

A Service Perspective on the Drivers of Complaint Intentions

This study assesses the effects of service evaluations in a failed service experience on complaining intentions in a future encounter. A model is developed and tested that investigates the relationships between service quality, satisfaction, social justice, and future complaint intentions. A sample of 525 dissatisfied customers across numerous service industries is used to test the model. Results support the model and suggest that otherwise fair service in a failed service experience increases complaint intentions in future failed encounters. Specifically, the authors find that firms that are perceived to treat customers fairly during a service failure and that have employees perceived to be responsive are rewarded with higher future complaint intentions. They also find that service quality and satisfaction have significant, negative effects on future complaint intentions. Moderation analysis indicates that the findings do not depend on a customer’s attitude toward complaining. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

The Drivers of Loyalty Program Success: An Organizing Framework and Research Agenda

Despite the proliferation of loyalty programs over the past three decades, evidence regarding their effectiveness in cementing customer loyalty remains mixed and often inconsistent. The current lack of understanding of what factors drive a successful loyalty program represents an important knowledge gap. Accordingly, this review (1) organizes current thinking on loyalty program management and (2) outlines an agenda for future research. This review is organized around three categories of drivers that affect loyalty program effectiveness: program structure, reward structure, and customer factors. In synthesizing this body of research, this review identifies important research questions that offer opportunities for hospitality managers and academic researchers to collaborate on a mutually beneficial topic that has both theoretical and practical importance.

Service Sweethearting: Its Antecedents and Customer Consequences

This research is the first to examine service sweethearting, an illicit behavior that costs firms billions of dollars annually in lost revenues. Sweethearting occurs when frontline workers give unauthorized free or discounted goods and services to customer conspirators. The authors gather dyadic data from 171 service employees and 610 of their customers. The results from the employee data reveal that a variety of job, social, and remuneration factors motivate sweethearting behavior and several measurable employee traits suppress its frequency. The results from the customer data indicate that although sweethearting inflates a firms satisfaction, loyalty, and positive word-of-mouth scores by as much as 9%, satisfaction with the confederate employee fully mediates these effects. Thus, any benefits for customer satisfaction or loyalty initiatives are tied to a frontline worker that the firm would rather not employ. Marketing managers can use this study to recognize job applicants or company settings that are particularly prone to sweethearting and as the basis for mitigating a positive bias in key customer metrics.

The good guys don't always win: the effect of valence on service perceptions and consequences

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advance a new conceptualization of the service encounter that highlights the role of outcome valence as a key antecedent of customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach – This study develops and tests a conceptual model using structural equation modeling. Specifically, it adopts recent procedures for assessing direct, mediated, and moderated effects.Findings – The findings demonstrate that valence has a stronger effect on satisfaction than both functional and service environment quality, that satisfaction fully mediates the effects of valence on behavioral intentions, and that consumer involvement moderates the valence‐satisfaction relationship.Research limitations/implications – This research draws attention to the fact that valence is an important research topic and researchers should focus attention on how valence might influence customer evaluations of services. Specifically, it is important to replicate these findings across industries, develop models th...

It Depends: Moderating the Relationships Among Perceived Waiting Time, Anger, and Regret

When consumers have to wait, the service delivery process is frequently compromised. The literature suggests that reducing waiting time is beneficial, but for service firms faced with scarce resources this is not always an option. As an alternative strategy, this study identifies and tests the mitigating effects of three factors that moderate the waiting time—anger and waiting time—regret relationships. Results show that in four service industries, affective commitment, perceived justice, and physical environment quality affect negative evaluations of a service experience and attenuate the effects of waiting time on both anger and regret. The authors discuss implications for researchers and service marketers in light of the results.

The Promise and Perils of Wearable Sensors in Organizational Research

Rapid advances in mobile computing technology have the potential to revolutionize organizational research by facilitating new methods of data collection. The emergence of wearable electronic sensors in particular harbors the promise of making the large-scale collection of high-resolution data related to human interactions and social behavior economically viable. Popular press and practitioner-oriented research outlets have begun to tout the game-changing potential of wearable sensors for both researchers and practitioners. We systematically examine the utility of current wearable sensor technology for capturing behavioral constructs at the individual and team levels. In the process, we provide a model for performing validation work in this new domain of measurement. Our findings highlight the need for organizational researchers to take an active role in the development of wearable sensor systems to ensure that the measures derived from these devices and sensors allow us to leverage and extend the extant knowledge base. We also offer a caution regarding the potential sources of error arising from wearable sensors in behavioral research.

The Role of the Sales-Service Interface and Ambidexterity in the Evolving Organization: A Multilevel Research Agenda

Despite a long history of independent sales and service functions within organizations, customers are pressuring organizations to rethink their sales and service operations. Specifically, customers expect organizations to offer a “single face” of the firm rather than being forced to interact with multiple agents across both sales and service throughout their relationships. As firms attempt to meet these customer demands, they have countless options to integrate sales and service operations, but little is known about which strategies are most effective. This article attempts to shed new light into the challenges and potential benefits of sales-service integration, in an effort to spur research in this area and better inform this managerial challenge. Specifically, we formalize the concept of the sales-service interface, discuss how it relates to sales-service ambidexterity, and identify several opportunities for future research. Given the complexity of the sales-service interface, we contend that future researchers must view these issues through a multilevel lens and, as a result, we focus on identifying opportunities ideally suited for testing in a multilevel environment. The goal of this article is to provide a platform for researchers to tackle this challenging problem and generate new insights into how best to meet customer’s evolving demands.

Hospitality Service Innovations in Private Clubs

Service innovation positions an organization to create and deliver anticipatory service that exceeds member expectations and ultimately strengthens relationships. However, service innovation remains one of the most under-researched topics in hospitality. This study begins to fill that gap by exploring the strategies and factors that drive service innovation in the private club industry. Drawing insights from approximately 700 critical incidents reported by private club general managers/chief operating officers, we examined the common strategies and factors that assist clubs in developing and launching new services and products. Moreover, we also categorize pressing issues in the industry that are ripe for future innovation. The findings may have implications not only for the club industry but also for the hospitality industry in general.