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Verbal Communication Between Complaining Consumers and Company Service Representatives
Author(s) -
GARRETT DENNIS E.,
MEYERS RENEE A.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of consumer affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.582
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1745-6606
pISSN - 0022-0078
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6606.1996.tb00066.x
Subject(s) - service (business) , attribution , business , advertising , marketing , public relations , psychology , social psychology , political science
Dissatisfied consumers are encouraged to complain directly to company service representatives. However, little is known about the verbal communication that actually occurs during these interactions. To address this research area, the content of 461 telephone calls between complaining consumers and service representatives was analyzed. Results showed that (1) consumers and service representatives perform distinct communication roles; (2) communication evolves from discussion of performance, to attribution, to equity issues during the course of these interactions; and (3) communication is not standardized across service representatives.