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Service failures usually occur in front of third-party customers. Third-party customers react emotionally and behaviorally to service failure and recovery efforts aimed at focal customers. However, there is a gap in the literature on how third-party customers react to a service failures incident and a recovery over another customer, depending on how socially close or distant they are from. This study investigates the effect of third-party customers' emotions on consumer forgiveness, negative word-of-mouth (WoM) and repatronage intentions in the service recovery process by comparing close and distant third-party customers.

This study utilizes a 2 (social distance to the focal customer: close, distant) × 2 (service recovery: yes, no) between-subjects design. The authors used a scenario-based experiment to test the proposed hypotheses. A total of 576 respondents were involved in the study.

The results from the authors' scenario-based experimental study show that positive and negative emotions felt by distant third-party customers are higher than those of close third-party customers. In addition, the effect of positive emotions on customer forgiveness is more substantial for distant third-party customers. Third, moderated-mediation analysis indicates that social distance has a moderator effect only on the relationship between positive emotions and customer forgiveness.

This study contributes to the service literature by comparing socially close and socially distant third-party customers' reactions to service failure and recovery attempts.

Although service researchers have long suggested that customer mistreatment adversely impacts service employees' outcomes, statistical integration of current empirical findings has been lacking. This meta-analysis aims to review and statistically synthesize the state of research on the relationship between customer mistreatment and service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes.

The authors included 221 effect sizes of 135 independent samples from 119 primary studies (N = 47,964). The authors used a meta-analytic approach to quantitatively review the relationship between customer mistreatment and service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Meta-analysis structural equation modeling was used to explore the mediation mechanism of service employees' affective outcomes on the relationships between customer mistreatment and employees' attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Meta-regression was applied to explore the impact of contextual-level moderators (i.e. service provider type and service delivery mode) on these relationships. Furthermore, we compared the effects of customer mistreatment with the effects of other organizational-related factors on some commonly measured employee outcomes.

The results show that customer mistreatment has a significant negative impact on service employees' affective outcomes (i.e. negative emotions), attitudinal outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement and turnover intention) and behavioral outcomes (i.e. job performance, surface acting and emotional labor). Additionally, service employees' negative emotions mediate the association between customer mistreatment and employees' job satisfaction, turnover intention, surface acting and emotional labor. Furthermore, the relationships between customer mistreatment and service employees' negative emotions and job performance are influenced by a contextual-level moderator (i.e. service delivery mode).

The authors contribute to the literature by providing robust meta-analytic estimates of the effects of customer mistreatment on a variety of service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, as well as the different magnitudes of the effect sizes between customer mistreatment and other job-related and personality-related factors by quantifying the true variability of the effect sizes. The authors draw on current theories underpinning customer mistreatment to test a theoretical model of the mediation mechanism of service employees' affective outcomes (i.e. service employees' negative emotions) on the relationships between customer mistreatment and employees' attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The authors explore the effects of two contextual-level factors (i.e. service provider types and service delivery mode) related to the service delivery context that may account for the variability of effect sizes across empirical studies.

This paper aims to examine the role of brand attachment as a relevant construct in customers’ evaluation after they face a service failure which impacts future consumer behaviors. It mainly answers the research question: does brand attachment cushion or amplify the effect of service failure on customers’ negative emotions?

A 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design was conducted. Data analysis was performed with ANOVA and moderated mediation.

Customer’s feelings toward a brand (brand attachment) that existed before a service failure occurred can regulate customer’s negative emotions especially when consumer attribute service failure to a controllable cause. This process minimizes the effect of service failure in customer’s satisfaction and consequently increase customer behaviors like word of mouth and loyalty intentions.

Adding perceived intentionality as a service failure’s attribution could provide another layer of explanation of customer behavior. Also, an expanded study using a sector characterized by higher cost of change and permanent consumption could provide result’s generalizability.

Brand attachment should be included in the customer service strategy. In a service failure situation, brand attachment becomes part of the “service customer policy” helping customers to regulate their negative emotions.

This study fills the knowledge gap regarding the role of customers’ positive emotions toward brands when a service failure occurs. The current study extends branding literature by differentiating brand attachment role from coping tactics.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to determine the role of emotions in customer evaluation of service failures; and second, to examine how customers’ emotion regulation impacts customer satisfaction and behavioural responses (e.g. repurchase intentions and negative word-of-mouth).

A scenario-based survey was used to elicit responses in a hospitality setting. Structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression analysis were used to test the proposed hypotheses.

Results show that both positive and negative emotions mediate the relationship between perceived injustice and customer satisfaction. The emotion regulation of customers through suppression and reappraisal influences the effects of satisfaction on both negative word-of-mouth and repurchase intentions.

This study advances service managers’ understanding of customer experience during service failure by demonstrating how emotion regulation influences customer response behaviours. With a better understanding of customers’ emotion regulation strategies, managers and frontline employees can more effectively develop and execute recovery strategies which adapt to customer emotions while eliciting more satisfying outcomes.

This research is one of the first to examine the moderating role of customers’ emotion regulation strategies in determining their behavioural responses. Conducted in the hospitality services context, this study provides support for relationships among perceived injustice, customer emotions, emotion regulation, customer satisfaction, negative word-of-mouth and repurchase intentions.

The purpose of this study is to distinguish those emotions which customers express verbally during a failed remote service encounter from those which they do not. The study further attempts to investigate the post-consumption customer behaviour of verbally expressed and unexpressed negative customer emotions.

The authors used a survey-based research design. The hypotheses were tested through the “partial least squared structural equation modelling” method.

This study shows that in a failed remote service encounter, customers verbally express retaliatory rage emotions, such as anger and rage. At the same time, they are able to suppress rancorous rage emotions, such as disgust and contempt and do not express them verbally. The authors demonstrate that after emotions are verbally expressed during a failed remote service encounter, they are followed by the post-consumption behaviours of negative word of mouth and revenge; when emotions are not expressed verbally during a failed service encounter, they are followed up by exit behaviour.

The effects of variables, such as switching costs and individual and situational factors, can be investigated in the model. Future studies can also explore the role of organizational interventions, such as explanation and apology, on negative customer emotions during failed remote service encounters. Their moderating impact on customer behaviour during and after the encounters can be investigated.

This study has much practical relevance in the post-COVID-19 world, where remote service delivery is becoming the new normal in many sectors. In remote service delivery situations, verbally unexpressed negative emotions can remain undetected; however, they have negative consequences for firms. This study underscores the need to train frontline employees to notice these unexpressed emotions so that service recoveries can be initiated.

This paper contributes to the area of dysfunctional customer behaviour and service recovery. The existing literature has not explored whether some negative emotions are expressed during a failed service encounter and then acted upon later, and some emotions are not expressed but acted upon later. This study addresses the problem of firms getting caught unawares when they find customers resorting to undesirable post-consumption behaviour without demonstrating any verbal expressions during the preceding failed service encounters.

This study aims to investigate pre‐complaint situations and has a threefold purpose: to identify a set of negative emotions experienced in unfavourable service experiences, to examine the patterns of these negative emotions and to link these negative emotions to complaint behaviour.

To fulfil the threefold purpose previously outlined, the study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. A critical incident technique is applied. The empirical data are derived from 25 in‐depth interviews and the results of a questionnaire survey of 3,104 respondents.

A total of 20 observed negative emotions are reduced to a second‐order construct with five latent categories of negative emotions: shame, sadness, fear, anger and frustration. These categories coincide with three categories of negative emotions in the agency dimension: other‐attributed, self‐attributed and situational‐attributed. The study finds that the negative emotion of frustration is the best predictor for complaint behaviour towards the service provider.

The results are limited by the fact that the data are entirely self‐reported. Moreover, the generalisabilty of the results is limited by the fact that the findings relate to one service industry in one country.

The study provides a comprehensive conceptual understanding of both pre‐complaint negative emotions and how these emotions affect customer complaint behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to examine causal attribution in interactional service experiences. The paper investigates how triggers in the environment of a customer-employee interaction influence customer behavioral response to employees’ negative and positive affect. Additionally, it studies the role of sympathy and authenticity as underlying mechanisms of this relationship.

Two scenario-based experimental designs (N1=162; N2=138) were used. Videotaped scenarios served as stimulus material for the manipulation of two focal variables: the employee’s emotional display as either negative or positive and the availability of an emotion trigger in the interaction environment to convey the attribution dimension of cause uncontrollability. The emotion trigger’s visibility was varied in the two studies. Customer response was captured by buying intentions.

Customer responses are more favorable for both positive and negative interactional experiences when customers have access to information on cause uncontrollability (i.e. notice triggers in the interaction environment). Analyses reveal that these effects stem from feelings of sympathy for negative experiences and authenticity for positive experiences.

This research supports the relevance of causal attribution research on interactional service experiences, which have high-profit impact. Moreover, the findings underline the importance of the experience of fact in service interactions and thereby provide a more nuanced view on the discussion of whether service providers should use impression management strategies to engender customer satisfaction even when this behavior is “faked.”

A combined model involving the intensity of negative emotions and the strategic combinations (timing and means) of service recovery is developed. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performances of these different combinations through customer satisfaction, repurchase intention and fitting curves between the two under hotel service scenarios.

A 2 (recovery timing: immediate/delayed) × 2 (recovery means: psychological/economic) × 3 (type of service failure: failure in a delivery system/failure in responding to customer needs/improper employee behavior) between-subject experimental design was used with 456 participants.

The results suggest that immediate and economic recovery effectively raises the service recovery evaluations from customers with low-intensity negative emotions, whereas delayed and psychological recovery helps customers with high-intensity negative emotions to give higher evaluations.

When service failures happen, the strategies for and timing of recovery directly influence customers’ service recovery evaluations. This study sheds light on the role that negative emotions play in the process of service recovery and provides implications for service industry managers.

The objective of this paper is to test the validity and reliability of a SOS construct and its dimensions (i.e. self, other and situational) of negative emotions in the context of consumers' service experience (CSE) and the following processes of service recovery by firms (SRF).

A triangular approach was used, based on interviews and a survey in the Norwegian tourism industry. This paper reports the results from the survey consisting of 3,104 customers.

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses have been used to examine and test the SOS construct of negative emotions in CSE and SRF. The SOS construct tested has indicated an acceptable fit, validity and reliability.

The SOS construct of CSE and SRF may be seen as a seed for future research in refining and extending endeavors of managing critical incidents in CSE and SRF.

Strategies to manage CSE and SRF should be aimed at solving the three different SOS dimensions of negative incidents in service encounters, namely those that are caused by the customer, the company, or the situation.

The SOS construct brings together, complements and fortifies existing theory and previous research in the context of negative emotions in CSE and SRF.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential spill-over effects from negative (and positive) experiences with trading a company’s stock on shareowner-customers’ emotions and subsequent customer attitudes and behavior.

A conceptual framework that links selling a stock for a loss (or gain), emotions, and customer attitudes and behaviors is developed. The framework is tested with data from a sample of Dutch investors that is analyzed with structural equation modeling through the partial least squares method in SmartPLS.

Selling a stock for a loss vs selling a stock for a gain have different effects on shareowner-customers’ attitudes and behavior toward the company. Losses induce negative emotions which in turn result in lower satisfaction and behavioral loyalty as well as in increased propensity to complain about the company. Investment gains, however, result in more positive emotions which then lead to increased preference of the company whose stocks were traded over its competitors and increased engagement in positive word-of-mouth (WOM).

The study is focussed on shareowner-customers’ experiences with stocks of companies active in the consumer industry. Future research could address whether the results generalize to other industries.

The findings emphasize the importance of a close collaboration between the marketing and investor relation departments. Complaints of shareowner-customers should be taken seriously and incentives to stimulate repurchases as well as those that encourage positive WOM engagement are recommended.

This is the first study to examine possible negative spill-over effects from experiences obtained during stock trading on shareowner-customers’ attitudes and behaviors toward the stock’s company.