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Lack of preferential treatment: effects on dissatisfaction after a service failure

Concepción Varela‐Neira (University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
Rodolfo Vázquez‐Casielles (University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain)
Víctor Iglesias (University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain)

Journal of Service Management

ISSN: 1757-5818

Article publication date: 16 March 2010

2596

Abstract

Purpose

Preferential treatment of selected customers is one of the strategies employed by companies seeking to implement relationship marketing. However, it remains unclear whether or not this policy negatively affects relationships with customers not receiving the above‐mentioned preferential treatment, as existing literature focuses, for the most part, on the beneficiaries. The purpose of this paper is to study whether or not the perception of lack of preferential treatment has a positive impact on dissatisfaction following a service failure, after accounting for the effects of attribution.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample used in this paper consists of 344 subjects who, over the last six months, have experienced service failures. The data are collected via personal interviews using a structured survey. Structural equation modelling is employed in order to test the relationship between lack of preferential treatment and dissatisfaction.

Findings

The results of this investigation indicate that lack of preferential treatment has an additional explanatory power with regard to customer dissatisfaction, after considering the effects of attributions, and that negative emotions have a mediation effect on the relationship between these cognitive antecedents and the aforementioned dissatisfaction.

Research limitations/implications

This paper examines only one service context; as a consequence, caution is needed when generalizing the results.

Practical implications

Given the findings of this paper, managers are advised to consider the “merits” of preferential treatment to help strengthen customer relationships.

Originality/value

This paper provides an initial step towards understanding the impact of systematic and deliberate use of preferential treatment as a relationship marketing strategy from a non‐beneficiaries perspective.

Keywords

Citation

Varela‐Neira, C., Vázquez‐Casielles, R. and Iglesias, V. (2010), "Lack of preferential treatment: effects on dissatisfaction after a service failure", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 45-68. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564231011025119

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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