Hooman Estelami

Competitive and Procedural Determinants of Delight and Disappointment in Consumer Complaint Outcomes

This article examines the impact of competition and complaint handling procedures on the creation of outstanding complaint resolutions. Using a survey of consumer selfreports of delightful and disappointing complaint experiences, competition is found to have a direct but nonlinear relationship with delight in consumer complaint resolutions. Moreover, the relative impact of consumer loyalty as well as various aspects of complaint handling procedures on the creation of delightful or disappointing resolutions to consumer complaints is examined. Consumer delight and disappointment with complaint outcomes are found to be primarily influenced by compensatory aspects of complaint resolutions.

Alternative Indexes for Monitoring Customer Perceptions of Service Quality: A Comparative Evaluation in a Retail Context

Customer satisfaction and service quality measures obtained through consumer surveys invariably have skewed distributions. As such, researchers have questioned the appropriateness of the popular approach of using the mean rating to summarize such data. However, no detailed study on this topic has yet been conducted. In two independent studies, the relative validity of the various indexes that can be used to summarize consumer’s service quality ratings (e.g., mean, median, mode, kurtosis, skewness, top/bottom-tail percentiles) are examined. In Study 1, using typical commercial survey data from a fast-food/convenience retail chain, both the mean and top-box percentiles are found to be the best indicators of service quality, based on their correlation with customer-driven business performance measures. In Study 2, the results are further confirmed by an extensive simulation that varies factors such as the shape of the underlying distribution of customer ratings and the strength of the relationship between customer ratings and business performance measures. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and implications for future research.

The impact of research design on consumer price recall accuracy: An integrative review

For almost half a century, researchers have examined consumer knowledge of prices, often with disturbing and conflicting results. Although the general findings suggest that consumer knowledge of prices is poorer than assumed in neoclassical economic theory, significant variations among results exist. The authors synthesize findings from prior studies to determine the impact of research design choices on price recall accuracy measures. A meta-analysis indicates that a significant amount of variation in the accuracy of consumers’ price recall is related to research design characteristics such as the presence of financial rewards, respondents’ task size, and the price elicitation approach. Implications for price awareness research are discussed.

The Effect of Price Presentation Tactics on Consumer Evaluation Effort of Multi-Dimensional Prices

Prices in the marketplace often consist of multiple dimensions, such as a base price, percentage discounts, trade-in values, and monthly fees. The presence of multiple dimensions in a price forces consumers to compute the net price in order to determine the value of the presented offer. In two experiments, it is demonstrated that the presentation format of numeric price information and the arithmetic operation required in the price impose a hierarchy on consumers’ evaluation effort for multi-dimensional prices. The resulting variations in consumer effort are shown to systematically influence decision accuracy. Implications challenging the traditional uni-dimensional view of price are discussed.

Consumer Savings in Complementary Product Bundles

Complementary bundling is a selling strategy whereby two or more products which are functionally related are sold at one combined price. Using a survey of prices, the findings indicate that while on average consumers save about 8% by purchasing bundles, in contrast to popular belief, they may at times pay significantly higher prices by purchasing the bundle, rather than buying the bundle items individually. Consumer savings in complementary bundles range from 57% to −18%, and may be affected by bundle characteristics such as the number of items in the bundle and the level of variation in the value of bundle items. The findings also indicate a significant amount of variation in savings, both within, and between categories.

The computational effect of price endings in multi‐dimensional price advertising

Research in marketing indicates that consumers may be sensitive to the final digits of prices. For example, despite being substantively equivalent, a price such as

The Price Is Right...or is it? Demographic and category effects on consumer price knowledge

199 may create more favorable price perceptions than

An exploratory study of employee turnover indicators as predictors of customer satisfaction

200. However, existing research has primarily focused on the effects of price endings in the context of uni‐dimensional prices – prices consisting of a single number. Advertised prices in the marketplace are often multi‐dimensional, consisting of numerous price dimensions. In such pricing contexts, price endings may influence consumers’ ability to conduct the arithmetic required to compute the total advertised price. Examines the effect of various price ending strategies on consumers’ computational efforts. The findings indicate that the more commonly exercised price ending strategies tend to result in prices that are the most difficult for consumers to evaluate.

Customer Reactions to Service Provider Overgenerosity

For over a quarter of a century, the television game show The Price Is Right has been testing American consumers’ knowledge of prices for a wide array of products. The settings of this highly popular game show allow for a broad examination of the extent of price knowledge consumers possess across product categories. Much of our current perspective on consumer price knowledge has been limited by a restricted choice of product categories studied, and a lack of significant respondent incentives for providing accurate price responses. Using data from hundreds of contestants, highly motivated to provide accurate price estimates, this paper studies the impact of product‐ and consumer‐related factors on consumer price knowledge across 29 product categories.

Sources, characteristics, and dynamics of postpurchase price complaints

Purpose – The service profit chain postulates that higher employee satisfaction levels lead to high customer satisfaction, and ultimately affect consumer loyalty and profitability. One construct that has largely been ignored in most of this research has been the role of employee turnover. This paper proposes that employee turnover can also be a powerful predictor of employee sentiment and resulting customer satisfaction levels.Design/methodology/approach – The relationship between employee satisfaction, employee turnover and customer satisfaction ratings is explored using an extensive data set from a chain of convenience stores. Employee perceptions were obtained from a survey which developed and administered to all store personnel. Turnover data were obtained from archival data. The data are analyzed using path analysis.Findings – The test of various turnover indicators suggests that certain employee turnover indicators can perform as effectively as single‐item employee satisfaction ratings do in predict...