소비자의 불평 보상에 따른 인지와 감정 반응이 재구매 및 구전 의도 회복에 미치는 영향

One of the most important objectives of a firm’s compensation for the customer complaints is the recovery of the positive relationship with the customer. In addition, it is usually the case that the company wants to make even better relationships with the customer by the compensation. This paper examined the effects of the customers’ cognitive and emotional responses to the firm’s compensation on the recovery of the consumers’ behavioral intentions. The authors conducted two experiments to investigate the differential effects of cognitively oriented vs. emotionally oriented compensations. Experiment 1 employed a 2(defect; with defects vs. without defects) x 3(compensation methods; cognitively oriented, emotionally oriented, combined) between-subjects design. The dependent variables were the recovery of repurchase and positive word-of-mouth intentions. The results of experiment 1 show that the consumers’ cognitive and emotional responses to the compensation for the complaints are the results of two independent psychological systems. That is, when consumers receive cognitive-response-evoking compensation, the consumers’ responses increased the recovery level of the cognitive evaluation of the brands, but not the recovery level of emotional factors involved. Also, when the consumer received the emotional-response-evoking compensation, the consumers’ responses increased the recovery level of the emotional factors involved but not the recovery of cognitive evaluations. When the cognitive-response-evoking compensation was coupled with the emotional-response-evoking compensation, the recovery level of the consumers’ behavioral intentions was about the same as the emotional response only condition. The results for the positive word-of-mouth intentions followed similar patterns. The results also show that the consumers’ emotional recovery influences the repurchase and positive word-of-mouth intentions more than the cognitive recovery. This implies that the consumer emotions might be more important than cognitive factors for the recovery of the behavioral intentions associated with a firm’s compensation for the failure of its products or services. Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1 using a different durable product category(i.e., automobiles) as stimuli. Finally, the theoretical as well as practical implications of the findings are discussed.