Title

Customer opportunistic complaints management: A critical incident approach

Authors

Authors

H. Ro;J. Wong

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Int. J. Hosp. Manag.

Keywords

Opportunistic complaint; Complaining behavior; Unethical consumer; behavior; Critical incident technique; SERVICE ENCOUNTERS; BEHAVIOR; CONSUMERS; SATISFACTION; EMPOWERMENT; DISPOSITION; FAILURE; LOYALTY; PEOPLE; MODEL; Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism

Abstract

Although customer complaints are valued in the hospitality industry in order to create service recovery opportunities and improve service quality, there are occasions when customers knowingly and incorrectly report service failures or make illegitimate complaints. The purpose of this study is to investigate how service employees handle opportunistic customer complaints in service encounters. By using the critical incident technique, we classify 346 incidents from hotel and restaurant services based on complaint source, evidence, compensation, handling, follow-up, and customer return. Managerial implications for these challenging situations are discussed and suggestions are made for improvement. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

International Journal of Hospitality Management

Volume

31

Issue/Number

2

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

419

Last Page

427

WOS Identifier

WOS:000300467900014

ISSN

0278-4319

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