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Investigating the impact of surprise rewards on consumer responses
... past researches has postulated that to create and maintain a notable experiences surprise is required (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). In order to support this notion and concept, past studies have found direct and indirect links of surprise on satisfaction and ultimately to customer delight ( (Haseebullah & Saad Alflayyeh, 2021;Vanhamme & Snelders, 2003;Wu et al., 2015). The reason why surprise consider the antecedent of customer delight is due to surprise boosts, this means that customer experiencing the services beyond their prospects and expectations (Keiningham and Vavra, 2001;Wu et al., 2015). ...
... In order to support this notion and concept, past studies have found direct and indirect links of surprise on satisfaction and ultimately to customer delight ( (Haseebullah & Saad Alflayyeh, 2021;Vanhamme & Snelders, 2003;Wu et al., 2015). The reason why surprise consider the antecedent of customer delight is due to surprise boosts, this means that customer experiencing the services beyond their prospects and expectations (Keiningham and Vavra, 2001;Wu et al., 2015). Surprise from theoretical perspectives is cognitive and considered positive disconfirming and thus it may cause a high level of delight (Gyung Kim & Mattila, 2013). ...
... Further evidenced in the previous studies, delight found as facet of surprise and considered as direct antecedent of customer delight (Finn, 2005;Oliver et al., 1997). However, from loyalty reward aspects, surprise rewards were more effective and operative comparatively to discount reward in order to create customer delight (Wu et al., 2015). Thus, based on the above discussion and evidences the study then develop the following hypothesis. ...
Aim of present study is to pursuit with the abundant of resources provided by the firms to make customer satisfied and corresponding consequences which are in the favor of customers. Nevertheless, present study results indicated that customer satisfaction not necessarily in the outcome that are persuaded. In addition, study focused more on customer delight which explored innovative consequences and antecedents that are in the interest of the service firms. Study then proposed the conceptual framework and considered the links of employee expertise, employee effort to customer surprise which in turn leads to customer delight and percent of budget spent, shopping frequency is considered as moderating between customer surprise and customer delight. Data collection process were conducted in a grocery store. Study hypotheses and relationships were tested using SPSS (V.22). Findings of study shows all the considered variables are positively linked with each other.
... endowed customers). This practice of status endowment, that is, awarding elevated status to customers who are not entitled to it (Eggert et al., 2015) or similarly offering unearned or discretionary preferential treatment to certain customers (Butori and De Bruyn, 2013;Jiang et al., 2013;Wu et al., 2015), is gaining traction in managing loyalty programs because of its positive effects on target customers. However, it is not clear how endowed customers may respond to HLP design characteristics (Baker and Legendre, 2020;Eggert et al., 2015). ...
... The moderating role of status endowment on the effect of point expiration The proposition that point expiration is more critical than status demotion raises the question of whether endowed-status customers would react differently to point expiration than earned-status customers following a status demotion experience. Recent literature on loyalty programs notes the practices of awarding preferential treatment such as higher status, points or free gifts to customers who did not earn it are becoming more common because the unexpected benevolence of this corporate action induces customer delight (Butori and De Bruyn, 2013;Wu et al., 2015) and customer gratitude (Eggert et al., 2015;Jiang et al., 2013), which, in turn, foster customers' commitment to their relationship with the company. ...
... However, some status levels in HLP are granted through a process known as a status endowment, which is defined as awarding elevated status to customers who are not entitled to it (Eggert et al., 2015). While status endowment may not be a standard practice in all organizations, it is implemented across numerous service companies such as hotels, airlines, restaurants, retail, rental cars and credit card companies (Baker and Legendre, 2020;Butori and De Bruyn, 2013;Eggert et al., 2015;Jiang et al., 2013;Wu et al., 2015). ...
Purpose
In managing hierarchical loyalty programs (HLP), firms often use a reward point expiration and status demotion policy to reduce financial liability and to encourage repeat purchases. This study aims to examine how point expiration and status demotion policies affect customer patronage, the role of extension strategies in mitigating the negative effects of these policies on customers and the moderating role of status endowment in the effect of point expiration on customers patronage following status demotion experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Three experiments were conducted using the hotel industry as the context. The hypothesized relationships were tested using ANOVA and a serial moderated mediation analysis using SPSS PROCESS Macro.
Findings
Customers subjected to reward point expiration exhibited a higher level of anger and perceived severity of the problem than those subjected to status demotion in HLP. Consequently, when customers experienced both point expiration and status demotion, the point extension strategy rather than the status extension strategy was found to be a more effective remedy for reducing perceived unfairness, although there was no change in the level of patronage reduction between the two extension strategies. Importantly, the effect of point expiration on patronage reduction was stronger among endowed-status customers than earned-status customers, serially driven by heightened feelings of embarrassment and perceived unfairness.
Originality/value
The study adds to the existing literature on HLP by comparing the effects of point expiration and status demotion on customer patronage with practical insights for HLP managers.
... Such employees should be well knowledgeable about the product/service offerings of the firm to an extent that when customers face challenges in undertaking banking transactions, these should be dealt with promptly, expeditiously, and timeously. Employee skills, knowledge, capabilities and competencies can positively influence future customer behavioural intentions (Wasan, 2018;Wu, Mattila and Hanks, 2015). However, in instances where customers feel that employees do not possess the knowledge, skills and competence to deliver the service, they may become dissatisfied and even switch to competitors (Medberg and Grönroos, 2020). ...
... Literature on delight confirms that constructs, such as surprise and joy, are major antecedent variables of customer delight. Wu et al. (2015) confirmed that "surprise" rewards have a greater impact on customer delight, compared to discount rewards. Some studies have investigated the surprise and delight relationship and confirmed that for one to experience delight, an element of surprise is necessary (Kim and Mattila, 2013). ...
Purpose
This study aims to explore the influence of surprise and delight on the loyalty intentions of retail banking customers in an emerging market context. This study also considers the moderating effect of trust on these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Using convenience and purposive sampling methods, data collection was secured from 350 customers in the retail banking industry who are delighted with their banks.
Findings
This study found that for delightful experiences to occur, customers need to be surprised and see value in the product/service offered by the retail bank, coupled with the expertise of employees in delivering the service.
Research limitations/implications
The sample’s demographic profile was mostly skewed towards the younger generation (individuals 20–39 years of ages), meaning the results could be biased towards this group.
Practical implications
Retail banks need to create delightful experiences, as they are more memorable and leave a permanent mark in customers’ minds.
Originality/value
Limited studies have explored the relationship between delight, its antecedents and outcomes in a developing African market context, such as Botswana, hence the contribution of this study to literature.
... After reviewing the advertisement, participants were asked to answer six manipulation check questions for perceived appeal types, adopted from Huertas and Pergentino (2020) and Van Dijk et al. (2014). Lastly, two questions that were adopted from Wu et al. (2015) were asked to check the realism of the scenario and advertising. All the manipulation check and realism check questions are measured using 7-point Likert scales (1 =strongly disagree; 7 =strongly agree). ...
... Leonidou and Skarmeas (2017) Realism checks The advertisement is realistic. Wu et al. (2015) I can imagine myself in this scenario. ...
This study investigates how co-created green appeals influence restaurant customers’ green behavioral intentions. Using a quasi-experimental design, this study investigates the effect of appeal type (i.e., co-created vs. firm-created) on customers’ green behavioral intentions and the two-way interaction between appeal type and customers’ green involvement. The study also examines how customers’ perceptions of restaurants’ green reputations moderate the joint effects between appeal type and customers’ green involvement. To explain the effects of co-creation appeal, the study identified a mediator (i.e., a restaurant’s perceived green innovativeness). The results reveal significant effects of appeal type; the two-way interaction between appeal type and customers’ green involvement; and the three-way interaction among appeal type, customers’ green involvement, and restaurants’ green reputations. The mediating effect of the perceived green innovativeness of restaurants was also confirmed by the results of this study. The study offers helpful suggestions for restaurant practitioners to develop effective green marketing strategies.
... Therefore, our manipulations were successful for proceeding the subsequent main study. Scenario realism was also checked with two items (see Appendix 2; Wu et al., 2015) and the results indicated that respondents considered the scenario to be highly realistic (M average = 6.10 vs. 4.00 as the mid-point; t(85) = 52.179, p < .001). ...
... name, scary face)? (yes, no) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Scenario Realism (Wu et al., 2015) How realistic is the scenario? (1 = not realistic at all, 7 = very realistic) ...
Although physical distancing is the key to reducing the risk of virus infection, the commonly used signs to spur physical distancing in services seem ineffective as many customers still refrain from practicing physical distancing. This research therefore suggests using regulatory focus (prevention vs. promotion) to improve the persuasiveness of these appeals. Study 1 creates and validates one multiple-item scale for measuring physical distancing in services, which is then adopted in two subsequent scenario-based experiments. Study 2 proves the superior effect of prevention-focused message to both promotion-focused message and conventional message in encouraging physical distancing compliance, which is explained by perceived fear as the underlying psychological mechanism. Study 3 further unveils the boundary condition of anthropomorphism in strengthening this superiority (i.e. Mr. Deadly COVID-19, scary face). Given a great deal of uncertain future caused by this epidemic, this research provides relevant implications for fostering the engagement in physical distancing in services.
... It is crucial to gain a better understanding of what kinds of rewards lead to affective commitment and produce the most valuable consumer in terms of relational worth. To this end, a few studies have investigated new types of rewards, like altruistic (Eason et al., 2015;Hwang & Kandampully, 2015), surprise (Wu, Mattila, & Hanks, 2015), and gamified rewards (Hwang & Choi, 2019). Our research focuses on another type of loyalty reward: special rewards. ...
... Similarly, cumulative satisfaction moderates the impact of surprise rewards (Wu, Mattila & Hanks, 2015). Therefore, it seems appropriate to verify these results in the context of our current research. ...
Although brands offer different kinds of rewards through their loyalty programs, little is known about how they can impact consumer–brand relationships and brand attitude. How do loyalty program rewards influence the consumer–brand relationship? And which kinds of rewards establish or maintain closer relationships between consumers and brands than others? To answer these questions, the present research makes use of self‐expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986) and two experiments that manipulate the extraordinary character of rewards offered to consumers. Our findings show that special rewards produce higher self‐expansion than mundane rewards. Moreover, the positive effect of the rewards’ extraordinary character on brand evaluation, recommendation, and identification is sequentially and fully mediated by self‐brand inclusion and self‐expansion. Finally, we show that consumer satisfaction moderates the impact of special and mundane rewards on self‐brand inclusion.
... Unlike quantitative studies, experimental research allows for manipulation and control, offering deeper insights into the dynamics of customer delight. For instance, studies have shown that surprise plays a significant role in generating customer delight (Kim & Mattila, 2013;Wu et al., 2015). Ludwig, Heidenreich, et al. (2017) found that the positive impact of providing added value is amplified when accompanied by an element of surprise. ...
... With 11 measurement items included in this study, a minimal sample size of 110 (10 * 11) would be required. It also exceeds the suggested minimum of 30 cases for each scenario being tested (Wu et al. 2015). This ensures a robust sample size for valid and reliable results in our study. ...
This study employs a 3 × 2 between-subject experimental design to investigate customer responses to hotel service failures attributed to different service provider agents (SPAs) [humans, humanoid robots, non-humanoid robots] in two types of service failure contexts [process and outcome]. It focuses on customers’ initial psychological response [forgiveness], subsequent action-seeking behavior [service recovery expectation (SRE)], and overall outcome evaluation [dissatisfaction]. Hypotheses are grounded in Mind Perception Theory, Attribution Theory, and Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory. A two-way ANCOVA was used to compare mean scores across the dependent variables. The findings reveal that increased SPA humanness diminishes customers’ forgiveness, elevates SRE, and intensifies dissatisfaction, with these differences occurring only in process failures and not in outcome failures. Subsequently, a serial mediation analysis for process failures indicated that forgiveness and SRE serially mediate the positive relationship between SPAs’ humanness and customer dissatisfaction.
... Third, studies of the effects of surprise marketing address various outcomes and identify positive (Wu et al., 2015), negative (Dutta et al., 2019;Li & Fumagalli, 2022), and insignificant (Wang et al., 2019) effects (Table B2). The varied outcomes include attitudinal consequences, such as product evaluations (Mattila, 2003), service quality (Ball & Barnes, 2017), and brand attitudes , as well as behavioral consequences, such as purchase intentions and WOM (Ludwig et al., 2017)-usually studied in isolation. ...
... As an incentive, those who 10 completed the survey received a dining voucher worth HK$50 (around US$6.5). A total of 181 11 usable responses were collected, surpassing the recommended minimum of 30 cases for each 12 tested scenario (Wu et al., 2015). Table 1 19 Chi-square tests were used to examine the relationship between the presence of 20 calorie/carbon information and low-impact dining choice behaviors. ...
This study employed a 2 (calorie and carbon emission) × 2 (numeric and reference) experimental design to assess the impact of displaying nutritional and environmental information on menus in hotel’s Chinese restaurant. Unlike previous studies primarily focused on simulated intention, it captured consumer actual behavior and perception. While such information did not significantly affect dietary choices, the inclusion of carbon emission information had a positive influence on perceived social responsibility. The reference format proved effective in enhancing transparency, especially when the information was complex. This research offers practical insights for restaurants to effectively communicate their commitment to health and sustainability.
... The variety of methodologies employed indicates the complex and evolving nature of customer delight research. The quantitative approach usually accompanied the empirical testing of different delight components in various contexts and theoretical lenses: antecedents of delight (e.g., Ali et al., 2018;Collier and Barnes, 2015;Torres et al., 2020;Wu et al., 2015), and consequences of delight (e.g., Anshu et al., 2022;Torres et al., 2020). The number of studies adopting a qualitative approach did not show significant growth in 2013-2022, with the majority of qualitative studies conducted before 2013, indicating the saturation in the conceptual development of the construct. ...
... Additionally, our study confirms that service providers -including hotels -need to meet the expectations of their clients because they have grown more discerning and demanding in their purchasing decisions (Ball et al., 2006). Only businesses that shift from a philosophy of merely delighting their customers to one that is bolstered by practical techniques of delighting their customers will succeed (Wu et al., 2015). Guests must receive the highest level of satisfaction; hotels must delight them. ...
The current work seeks to unveil the essential drivers and consequences of customer delight in the hotel sector. A qualitative approach was employed by conducting an interview to gather data from guests staying in luxurious hotels in Agadir, Morocco, who originated from different countries. Employing thematic analysis, the findings indicated that there are two main drivers of customer delight which are interpersonal factors
(i.e. friendliness, problem resolution, employee empathy, professionalism, needs fulfilment, and efficiency) and non-interpersonal factors (i.e. destianation attributes and cleanliness). The results also indicated that customer delight leads to behavioural and affective loyalty. This research holds various contributions to both academic and professional. Limitations
and avenues for further research are also outlined.
... The items measuring "delight" were derived from the work of Finn (2005) and Ahrholdt et al. (2019). which were also used by Wu et al. (2015). Finally, the construct of INTE was measured by three items adapted from Lunardo and Ponsignon (2020), which were also used by Jiang and Tu (2023). ...
... The first is service encounter research which examines the interactions that occur between various participants in the service encounter (e.g., customers, employees, other customers). The majority of this research has investigated employee factors that promote feelings of delight, and has primarily focused on the context of service marketing, including examinations of delight in the context of retail sales; restaurants; and general service encounters (Barnes et al., 2011;Collier et al., 2018;Finn, 2005;Meyer et al., 2017;Wu et al., 2015). Findings highlight the importance of employee characteristics such as effort, expertise, and engagement. ...
This research provides new insights into how customer delight functions across the tourism experience. Drawing from literatures on delightful experiential encounters, service encounters, cognitive appraisal theory and multisectoral satisfaction index studies, we develop and test a comprehensive model of tourist delight that integrates multisectoral delight, destination delight, and destination loyalty. Results from a novel application of multivariate probit analysis to data from an exit survey administered to 1,240 visitors to Barbados suggest that destination delight is strongly associated with delight across tourism sectors, and that traveler, trip and planning characteristics explain variation in delight. Tourists’ behavioral intentions are associated with delight in all tourism sectors. Delight with accommodation, food and beverage, and the overall destination provide the strongest avenues for economic returns through visitor loyalty. Understanding the key sectors and elements of tourist delight gives tourism stakeholders a practical way to design targeted marketing strategies that yield destination loyalty.
... We conducted a manipulation check for the framing effect using two items from Spence and Pidgeon (2010), asking participants about the extent to which information stresses gains or losses associated with climate change. In addition, we conducted a realism check for the goal framing effect using two items (Wu et al., 2015): "How realistic is the scenario?" (1, not realistic at all; 7, very realistic) and "How easy is it for you to imagine yourself in the scenario?" ...
Introduction: Compared to carbon emission reduction from production, reduction from households is more required. This study explores the mechanism and boundary conditions of the effect of goal framing on household low-carbon behavior by drawing on the framing effect and social cognitive theory. The central questions posed in this research are whether, how, and under what circumstances goal framing affects household low-carbon behavior.
Methods: We tested the hypotheses in two studies. Study 1 investigated the main effect of whether the framing effect of climate change has a different influence on household low-carbon behavior. Study 2 further confirmed the main effect of this study and verified the mediating role of environmental self-efficacy and the moderating role of global–local identity.
Results: Across two experiments, we discovers: 1) Goal framing of climate change messages affects household low-carbon behavior. In particular, loss framing elicits a greater persuasive impact on household low-carbon behavior than gain framing. 2) Environmental self-efficacy plays a mediating role between the framing effect and household low-carbon behavior. Specifically, loss framing of climate change messages is more likely to increase residents' environmental self-efficacy than gain framing, which increases their household low-carbon behavior. 3) Residents' global-local identity moderates the effect of the framing messages on household low-carbon behavior. Among residents with a local identity, loss framing has a more powerful influence on household low-carbon behavior compared to gain framing. Among residents with a global identity, a significant difference between the effects of loss and gain framing on household low-carbon behavior is not found.
Discussion: The theoretical and managerial implications of the study are also discussed.
... This can be attributed to the fact that delight has mostly been examined from a business standpoint, neglecting in the process consumers' goals (Füller & Matzler, 2008). Previous research has assessed the uniqueness of delight (as compared to satisfaction) as a construct, especially due to the fact that it brings about emotional responses involving surprise and joy (Plutchik, 2003;Wu et al. 2015). In this sense, delight can be perceived as an emotion or affect response (Kim et al., 2015). ...
Customer delight is a concept that has recently gained momentum in consumer behavior, marketing, and hospitality literature. This study investigated the antecedents and subsequent of delight in a hospitality context. A meta-analysis was conducted, including 22 articles and producing 141 independent effect sizes. Results revealed a strong relationship between experiential context (service quality, physical environment, and authenticity), positive emotions, and surprise as antecedents of delight, with behavioral intentions, satisfaction, and loyalty as consequences of delight. Furthermore, gender was tested as a moderator, yielding a strong relationship between surprise and loyalty. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed as well as future research perspectives.
... In addition, scenario realism was checked with two items (i.e. How realistic is the scenario? 1 5 not realistic at all, 7 5 very realistic; How easy is it for you to imagine yourself in the scenario? 1 5 very difficult, 7 5 very easy; r Spearman Brown 5 0.78, Wu et al., 2015). Results exhibited that students considered this hypothetical scenario to be highly realistic (M average 5 5.61 vs 4.00 as the mid-point, t(21) 5 26.043, p < 0.001). ...
Purpose
While robots have increasingly threatened frontline employees’ (FLEs) future employment by taking over more mechanical and analytical intelligence tasks, they are still unable to “experience” and “feel” to occupy empathetic intelligence tasks that can be handled better by FLEs. This study, therefore, aims to empirically develop and validate a scale measuring the new so-called empathetic creativity as being creative in practicing and performing empathetically intelligent skills during service encounters.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a multistage design to develop the scale. Phase 1 combines a literature review with text mining from 3,737 service robots-related YouTube comments to generate 16 items capturing this new construct. Phase 2 assesses both face and content validity of those items, while Phase 3 recruits Prolific FLEs sample to evaluate construct validity. Phase 4 checks this construct’s nomological validity using PLS-SEM and Phase 5 experiments dedicated effort (vs natural talent) as an effective approach to foster FLEs’ perceived empathetic creativity.
Findings
The final scale is comprised of 13 refined items that capture three dimensions (social, interactive and emotional) of empathetic creativity. This research provides timely implications to help FLEs in high-contact services stay competitive.
Originality/value
This study introduces the new construct of empathetic creativity, which goes beyond the traditional definition of creativity in services and highlights the importance of empathetic intelligence for FLEs in future employment. This study also develops a multi-item scale to measure this construct, which can be applied to future service management research.
... Regarding functional concerns, prior research suggests utilitarian and monetary concerns can be dominant factors in hospitality consumption (Lu & Chi, 2018;Zhang et al., 2020). With the capacity to arouse positive feelings or affective states like delight and enjoyment, hospitality consumption experiences create authentic and memorable moments to satisfy customers' emotional values (Baloglu et al., 2019;Miao et al., 2014;Wu et al., 2015). The social value of hospitality experiences can enhance one's need for social acceptance, a sense of belonging, and positive acknowledgment of others (Kirillova et al., 2020). ...
This study examines the negative consequences of perceived isolation and its influence on intentions to travel and visit hospitality businesses. Drawing on compensatory control theory, we explore the multi-faceted effects of perceived isolation (e.g., functional, emotional, and social loss) on subsequent within-domain (e.g., functional loss–functional compensation) and cross-domain (e.g., functional loss–social/emotional compensation) compensatory needs, which eventually drive intentions to seek experiential consumptions. We conduct this research via a two-phase design, each of which involves a national consumer panel of U.S. adults (Phase 1 = 840; Phase 2 = 1087) who have participated in “shelter-in-place”/ “stay-at-home” ordinances during the national lockdown. Across two phases, we find that perceived isolation leads to compensatory needs and intentions for travel and hospitality consumption. Our study also reveals the dynamics between two-phase models regarding the within and cross-domain compensation pathways and the effect on experiential consumption intentions.
... Preferential treatment is an act of offering certain benefits (e.g., free breakfast, exclusive access to VIP lounges, special discounts) to selective customers over other customers (Lacey et al. 2007;Wu, Mattila, and Hanks 2015). If an employee feels guilty over a service failure, the employee's active listening may signal to customers that the employee will treat them better (Söderlund et al. 2014). ...
A service employee’s active listening plays a crucial role in restoring a damaged customer relationship. However, previous studies reveal little about how listening to customer complaints operates in recovering a service failure. The purpose of this research is to explore when and why the employee’s active listening has a positive influence on customer response. We define active listening as (1) listening to customers’ concerns before apologizing and (2) verbally acknowledging them. Using scenario-based experiments, we demonstrate that active listening improves customer satisfaction, which in turn increases tip size (Study 1). Moreover, we find that active listening fosters customers’ perceptions of preferential treatment, which lead to greater customer satisfaction (Study 2). Yet, such positive effects of active listening diminish when customers are unexpectedly offered a complimentary service such as a room upgrade. The implications for academic researchers and marketing managers are discussed.
... Overall, our manipulations were effective for proceeding the subsequent main study. Also, scenario realism was tested with the two items: How realistic is the scenario? 1 = not realistic at all, 7 = very realistic; and How easy is it for you to imagine yourself in the scenario? 1 = very difficult, 7 = very easy (Wu et al., 2015). Results showed that experimental subjects considered the hypothetical scenario to be very realistic, M average = 5.80 versus 4.00 as scale mid-point, t(78) = 42.724, ...
This study examines the proenvironmental persuasion of the so‐called normative framing that incorporates normative influence (i.e., social norms) into message framing (i.e., loss vs. gain). Across three green contexts (i.e., towel reuse, paperless adoption, and ugly food consumption), this study shows that normative gain is consistently more effective than both normative loss and pure normative influence in promoting proenvironmental act, which is particularly motivated by positively framed information under the prospect‐theoretic reasoning. This superior effect of normative gain is explained by the psychological sequence from collective efficacy to self‐efficacy as the serial underlying mechanism. This study further unveils the boundary condition of anthropomorphism in amplifying this superiority (i.e., Mr. Nature, happy earth face) and reveals that the advantageous effect of normative gain is stronger among those low in interdependent self‐construal. Our findings might provide helpful and relevant guidelines for businesses to operate sustainably by shifting their customers' behaviors to be greener.
... If frequent sampling sessions are organized for a single product, there is also a snowball effect on sales. 35 Programs focused primarily on delivering free samples, however, will only boost the actions of the community in the short term. Furthermore, delivering free samples risks the discontinuation of practices. ...
Background:
The health of a community depends greatly on the availability of sufficient and clean water. Rural households relying on self-supplied drinking water must take full responsibility for the treatment of their drinking water. Globally, not many inquiries appear to have been carried out to satisfactorily inform us regarding how and why improvements in behavior related to water treatment occur in some selected individuals and not in others. Related investigations in Ethiopia are even fewer.
Methods:
In the rural Aleta Wondo district of Ethiopia, a total of fifteen focus group discussions were conducted with community members. Similarly, ten key informant interviews were conducted with officers responsible for organizing water and hygiene programs. To gather data for this study, two qualitative data collection methods, viz., key informant interviews and focus group discussions, were used. Open code software 4.03 was used for thematic analysis.
Results:
Factors influencing household water treatment practices were categorized into individual-level factors (eg cognitive factors, emotional factors), household-level factors (household means and decision-making balance), community-level factors (the value that is given for water quality and Public resources) and, environment and context-related factors (access to products and reliance on external sources).
Conclusion:
Household water treatment practice has a range of multilevel influences. Beyond the model of providing ongoing safe water education by health extension workers, potential initiatives could be improved by community mobilization activities that include community leaders, women's groups, etc., in promoting water treatment at community engagements. Also, the results of the present study indicate that it could be beneficial to provide health extension staff with additional training to improve their ability to encourage community members across, a wide range of user types or levels of readiness, to treat their water.
... It would seem prudent for companies to segment their customer base to see which customers are deemed most valuable and to utilize surprise gifts with these customers first. Moreover, as previously suggested by Wu et al. (2015), technology can help when the goal is creating surprise for customers. Data from sources such as hotel apps, social media postings, or even internal databases can help isolate customers that would be good targets for surprise. ...
Many firms aim to create positive emotional experiences, and even delight, for their customers with the end desire of creating loyal customers. However, there is a lack of research evaluating tactics that firms can employ to create these emotions. In response, the current research evaluates the impact of an after-service gift on customer emotions and ultimately recommendation intentions. Across two studies, results show the effectiveness of the after-service gift in creating customer delight, but not customer satisfaction. Both context (degree of luxury) and value of the after-service gift moderate the relationships between the gift and the customer reaction.
... Hsu, Fang, and Tseng (2016) revealed that both utilitarian and hedonic gifts introduced unexpectedly to hotel guests led to higher customer satisfaction. In a study on restaurant loyalty reward programs, Wu, Mattila, and Hanks (2015) found that surprise rewards were more effective than discount rewards in enhancing customer delight and satisfaction. Veréb, V., & Azevedo, A. (2019) also discovered that surprise gifts given during a trip positively influence traveler's purchase intention. ...
Although most meetings offer free giveaways to attendees, the role these giveaways plays in influencing attendees' behavioral intentions has received limited attention. This study contributes to event research by examining the impact of giveaways on meeting attendees' word-of-mouth (WOM) intention. Two 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental designs were utilized for this study. Results showed that high-value giveaways lead to greater WOM intention among meeting attendees compared to low-value giveaways. Moreover, the study found that cuteness and experienced unexpectedness moderate the effect of meeting giveaways' value on attendees' WOM intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... To check the savings message manipulation, participants were asked two questions: "In the scenario, the promotion was 'get $x off'" and "In the scenario, the promotion was 'save $x'". As for scenario realism, two items (e.g., The scenario was realistic; r = 0.73, p < 0.01) were adopted from Wu et al. (2015). ...
Despite the prevalent use of savings messages (e.g., “get x”), no previous tourism and hospitality research has examined their effect on consumer responses. To fill that void, this study investigates the joint effect of savings message type (gain-framed vs. nonloss-framed) and weather conditions (sunny vs. rainy) on consumer attitude. The results show that individuals in rainy weather respond more favorably to a gain-framed (vs. nonloss-framed) message, and this effect is attenuated among people in sunny weather. Furthermore, this study reveals a boundary condition. When the amount of savings is presented in percentage terms (e.g., “get x% off” and “save x%”), the superiority of a gain frame disappears. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
... MTurk is a crowdsourcing platform designed to recruit individuals from the general public to complete surveys and experiments and allows for predefined criteria and qualifications, such as country of residence, hotel stay experience, and age. Research from the hospitality literature has used MTurk to collect similar data (e.g., Liu & Mattila, 2017;Wu, Mattila, & Hanks, 2015), because MTurk samples have been shown to be a valid method to collect data (Paolacci, Chandler, & Ipeirotis, 2010 ...
Although employees with disabilities represent a significant percentage of the American hospitality labor force, they often face workplace discrimination. Despite this reality, no research has examined whether customer service evaluations are affected by employees with visible disabilities and the mechanisms behind why and when customer service evaluations can be negatively impacted by employee disability status. This is a significant gap in the literature focusing on disability discrimination because customers—through their customer service evaluations—play a significant role in the evaluation of hospitality employees. Therefore, the current article examined if employee disability status (i.e., does or does not have a disability) influences customer service evaluations using experimental methods in which a hotel service experience is performed by an employee who does or does not have a disability. The current research found that (a) customers do evaluate hospitality employees with disabilities lower than employees without disabilities, (b) customer service evaluations are negatively impacted by employee disability status because they are perceived as less competent than employees without disabilities, and (c) customers are more likely to do so in the presence of a service failure.
... Younger customer prefers to have points reward that they can use immediately [20]. Surprise reward can increase customer satisfaction toward LP and consequently promote customer loyalty [51]. ...
Loyalty program(LP) has long become one of the marketing strategies used by the firms to retain their customers and gain their loyalty. The objective of this study is to identify challenges and opportunities in designing LP. Five dimensions associated with designing loyalty programs such as membership, point structure, benefit, communication program, and partnership have been identified. This Systematic review will focus on loyalty programs in hospitality and travel-related industry. This paper reviewed 37 articles to explain the important factor in designing LP. Furthermore, technology advances also Dyah Wahyu Sukmaningsih, Meyliana, Achmad Nizar Hidayanto and Harjanto Prabowo http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/index.asp 2 editor@iaeme.com influence the evolution of the LP. The future direction of LP also identified as a guideline for researchers and practitioners to understand the LP.
... Regarding manipulation checks, respondents were asked two questions: "The Pad See Lew dish had a "chef recommended" (or "most popular") sign next to it". Scenario realism was captured by two items (e.g., The scenario was realistic; r American = 0.6, p < 0.01, r Indian = 0.6, p < 0.01) adopted from Wu et al. (2015). ...
Despite the widespread use of recommendation labels on restaurant menus, no prior research has investigated their impact on diners’ menu decisions. To bridge that gap, this study examines the joint effect of recommendation type (chef recommended vs. most popular) and culture (individualistic vs. collectivistic) on diners’ purchase intention. The results indicate that Indians showed higher levels of purchase intention when the recommendation involved a popularity (vs. expertise) cue, while Americans responded more favorably to an expertise (vs. popularity) cue. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that self-construal is the underlying mechanism explaining the culture effect for popularity cues. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Merely satisfying the customers is not enough; delighting them by offering unexpected, innovative and surprising services has become crucial. For this, firms invest in several channels and attract delighted customers. The current research examines the impact of Omni-channel customer delight on customers’ repurchase intention. The proposed conceptual model develops several hypotheses relating to customer delight in the Omni-channel context by reviewing rich literature on customer delight. Data were collected from 496 respondents using convenience sampling, representing 24 states of India. Using Smart PLS software, collected data were examined through structural equation modelling. Surprise and joy are crucial to offline customer delight, while satisfaction, usefulness and entertainment play significant roles in online customer delight. Also, Omni-channel customer delight significantly influences repurchase intentions; therefore, paying attention to all antecedents of customer delight is essential. The research provides a basic understanding of customer delight in Omni-channel contexts and offers directions to formulate various strategies to delight customers beyond satisfaction. The article adds value to existing knowledge relating to Omni-channel retailing. Omni-channel customer delight is undoubtedly an emerging research domain in the current Omni-channel retailing.
A dynamic business environment and intense competition require companies to create numerous incentives for consumers to keep them loyal. Various incentives are available to marketing managers. Their combination depends on the company's goals on the one hand and consumer characteristics on the other. Loyalty programs have traditionally been based on financial incentives aimed at the average consumer. The means on which modern loyalty programs are based are more diverse and complex, and are often based on information technology. They are focused on personalization, that is, the creation of incentives for the individual consumer and the dominant provision of hedonic and symbolic values. The goal of such programs is consumer loyalty to the company/brand, not to the program itself. Starting from the differences between traditional and modern consumer loyalty programs, the author's intention in the paper is to investigate the impact of both programs on consumer loyalty. The impact of traditional programs on consumer loyalty was investigated through financial benefits, flexibility and program reliability, and the impact of modern loyalty programs through personalization, social benefits and gamification. Additionally, the paper analyzed the moderating role of gender and age as consumer demographic characteristics on the degree of loyalty to the program itself and loyalty to the company/brand. Identified relationships between the investigated variables enabled a comparison with the results of existing research and the formulation of recommendations necessary for managing consumer loyalty.
Purpose
Status demotion in hierarchical loyalty programs (HLPs) has received considerable academic attention. However, existing research is relatively silent on whether HLP status demotion fosters service relationship fading by influencing demoted customers’ psychological disengagement and the likelihood of patronage reduction. Drawing on the relationship fading literature and the stimulus–organism–response framework, this study aims to examine these effects. It further investigates the moderating role of psychological ownership on the links of status demotion with psychological disengagement and the likelihood of patronage reduction.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies (Studies 1 and 2) were conducted in the context of airline HLPs. Study 1 was a structured survey conducted among 213 demoted airline HLP customers in Australia, and Study 2 was an experiment conducted among 178 executive MBA students in Bangladesh. The PROCESS macro was used to test the moderated mediation model.
Findings
The results of both studies show that HLP status demotion significantly influences customers’ psychological disengagement and the likelihood of patronage reduction. The findings also reveal that psychological disengagement mediates the relationship between status demotion and the likelihood of patronage reduction. Further, customers with high (low) psychological ownership feel high (less) psychological disengagement and show high (less) likelihood of patronage reduction due to their HLP status demotion.
Originality/value
This study extends the existing literature on relationship marketing and HLPs by offering a better understanding of how and under what conditions status demotion elicits customers’ psychological disengagement and the likelihood of patronage reduction.
This study intends to understand whether hotels should choose to surprise through a discount or a surprise gift. The experiment consisted in identifying whether there were differences in satisfaction and delight, according to the associated treatment (no surprise, surprise discount, or gift). With this purpose, a fictional hotel website was created for participants to simulate a reservation. Through the analysis of the experiment, the impact of surprise on customer satisfaction was confirmed. It was also found that, in the hospitality industry, a gift has a higher impact on satisfaction than a discount. When analyzing the guest delight, the results differ from what is stipulated in the literature (which points to the significant impact of surprise in this measure). It was concluded that between the two promotion tools, only the gift can significantly increase customer delight. This study demonstrates the importance of understanding the concept of surprise according to different industries. It also points to the importance of identifying the best methods to surprise customers, as different methods may lead to different results.KeywordsSurpriseCustomer satisfactionCustomer delightHotelExperiment
The current research aims to analyze the relational marketing application in higher education institutions. Quantitative descriptive research was done, composed of two variables and ten indicators that explain these effects. The results describe the level of relation and student service contentment through digital marketing tools and communication channels for students enrolled in face-to-face and online classes. It has been determined that the digital tools with a more significant relation level to online students in academic matters are Instagram and YouTube. In the communication field, the Facebook tool and web portals show the highest percentage as significant, on the other hand, the most used communication channels to establish a relationship with the university during pandemic times were: Call Center, WhatsApp, virtual rooms, and every online service.KeywordsMarketing relationshipSatisfactionHigher education marketingStudent serviceDigital toolsCommunication channels
Purpose: Exploring antecedents of flawed wine purchase intention, this study attempts to assess consumer acceptance leading to the purchase or consumption of a flawed wine product as well as build a profile of flawed wine consumers. Design/Methodology/Approach: A survey, from Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk) with 260 valid survey responses collected. ANOVA with post hoc testing was used to analyze the data. Findings: Results reflect that attitude, subjective knowledge, perceived behavioral control, perceived risk, and sensory appeal all significantly influence intent to purchase a flawed wine product. Additionally, environmental attitude significantly influences their intent to purchase wines with flaws and their attitude toward flawed wine. Originality: To date, no research has explored consumer acceptance of flawed wines. This study attempted to fill a gap in the literature and add to the overall body of knowledge regarding flawed wines and consumer understanding/acceptance of flawed wines, as well as generating a profile of potential flawed wine consumers. Research Limitations/Implications: Consumer panel data is not as rich as an experimental study design; however, this work starts an academic conversation on flawed wine and provides a foundation for future research. Practical Implications: The results of this study offer practical opportunities, from educating consumers toward a richer understanding of wine flaws; promotional opportunities for wine producers with a product to be disposed of, enhancing revenue generation; and how sensory appeal and environmental concern are beneficial to furthering the understanding and predictability of consumer intentions to purchase flawed wines.
Purpose
While regular price discount (RPD) promotions remain popular, marketers have also introduced gambled price discounts (GPDs) in recent years. There is a need to understand the performance and limitation of the relatively novel GPD, because the importance of pricing and the surprise element inherent in GPD could cause the promotions to backfire when inappropriately applied. This study compared the performance of GPD and RPD via consumers' perception of their attractiveness through quality cues of product types (experience and search goods) and word-of-mouth (WOM) content (affective and cognitive).
Design/methodology/approach
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied on a 2 (product type: experience goods [hotel rooms] vs. search goods [printers]) × 2 (word-of-mouth type: affective vs. cognitive) × 2 (price promotion type: GPD vs. RPD) between-subjects scenario experimental design (resulting in eight conditions).
Findings
Analysis of the 600 returns revealed that RPD does well for both search and experience goods, but GPD is more attractive for the marketing of experience goods. GPD works better with cognitive than with affective WOM.
Originality/value
GPD is a relatively new domain in marketing research. This study contributes to GPD literature and behavioral pricing literature. The study also adds to a better understanding of the dynamics, usefulness and limitations of GPD by considering the roles played by surprise element inherent in GPD and comparing it with RPD.
Purpose
Given the increasing need after the outbreak of COVID-19 to encourage restaurant customers to dine in, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects that anthropomorphic cues jointly with brand awareness and subjective social class have on restaurant-visit intention.
Design/methodology/approach
To better comprehend the use of anthropomorphic cues, this paper involved two studies that used two types of anthropomorphic cues: (1) non-food (a spoon) and (2) food ingredients. For each study, a 2 × 2 mixed factorial design was used.
Findings
Using three-way mixed ANOVAs, the results from Study 1 confirmed that adding anthropomorphic cues to a non-food object (a spoon) could induce positive effects for restaurants with lower brand awareness, especially among individuals with low subjective social class. In contrast, Study 2 showed that adding anthropomorphic cues to a food ingredient (e.g. tomato, lettuce and olive) had a weaker effect on restaurants with high brand awareness, especially among individuals with a high subjective social class.
Practical implications
Marketers should use anthropomorphism strategies based on their target customers, especially if their brand is less popular.
Originality/value
Using the theoretical framework from the elaboration likelihood model, this paper contributes to the anthropomorphism literature by showing how an anthropomorphized image that fits an individual’s interests could trigger a careful thinking process that leads to differential behaviors based on brand awareness.
Purpose
Status demotion in hierarchical loyalty programs (HLPs) has received considerable academic attention. However, little is known about whether status demotion engenders two widely recognised behavioural intentions: revenge and avoidance. This study aims to make up this gap by examining the effects of status demotion on customers’ revenge and avoidance intentions. The underlying mechanism and boundary conditions of these effects are also explored.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Study 1 was conducted using a structured survey from 347 active HLP members/customers of Chinese airlines. Study 2 used an online experiment amongst 268 active HLP airline customers in Australia. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling and Hayes’ (2013) PROCESS macro were used for data analysis.
Findings
The results of Study 1 show that status demotion increases customers’ revenge and avoidance intentions simultaneously. Meanwhile, these effects are more significant for demoted customers with an external locus of causality than those with an internal locus of causality and demoted customers with higher entitlement tend to possess more revenge intentions than avoidance intentions. Study 2 further identified perceived inequity as a mechanism, which links status demotion to revenge and avoidance intentions of demoted customers.
Research limitations/implications
This study examines demoted customers’ revenge and avoidance intentions amongst Chinese and Australian airline travellers. Future research may focus on actual behaviour and test the current study’s model in cross-cultural and cross-industry settings.
Practical implications
Managers should deal with demotion decisions carefully as the failure to manage outraged customers may weaken customer-company relationships.
Originality/value
This study extends the existing literature on relationship marketing and HLPs by offering a better understanding of how and under what conditions status demotion elicits customers’ intentions for revenge and avoidance.
Service industries practice hierarchical loyalty programs (HLP) to enhance the relationship with customers. However, little is known about the negative effects of HLP status demotion and under what condition such effects vary among the demoted customers. This study thus aims to examine the effects of HLP status demotion on customers’ satisfaction, word-of-mouth, and share-of-wallet. This study further explores the moderating role of the cause of demotion (spending-based vs. policy-based) of such effects. Two studies were conducted in the context of hotel and airlines industries in Bangladesh. PROCESS Macro was used to test the moderated mediation model, and the results of both studies show that status demotion significantly influences customers’ satisfaction, word-of-mouth, and share-of-wallet. Further, customers who perceive firms’ policy changes as the cause of their status demotion show lower level of satisfaction, word-of-mouth, and share-of-wallet.
ÖZ: Müşterilerden gelen geri bildirimlerin hızlı ve etkili biçimde değerlendirilmesi, müşterilerle uzun vadeli ilişkilerin kurulabilmesinin gerekliliklerinden biridir. Bu süreçte verimliliğin sağlanması, bilişim teknolojisinin etkin biçimde kullanılmasını zorunlu kılmaktadır. Karmaşık hizmet demetine sahip olan otel işletmeleri gerek konaklama rezervasyonu gerekse hizmet deneyimlerine ilişkin yorum ve değerlendirmeler elde edebilmek amacıyla çevrimiçi rezervasyon sitelerinden faydalanmaktadırlar. Bu çalışmada, yorum dışı müşteri verilerinden hareketle Antalya ilindeki otellere ilişkin hizmet algısının değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Burada kullanılan yorum dışı veriler, müşteriler tarafından yorumlara eklenilen otel hizmet kalite kriterlerine yönelik memnuniyet ve tercihlerini belirten derecelendirmelerden ve müşteri bilgilerinden oluşmaktadır. Araştırma kapsamında toplamda 164 otele ait veri analiz edilmiştir. Araştırmadaki tüm hizmet kriterlerinde yurtdışından gelen müşterilerin, yurtiçinden gelen müşterilere göre daha memnun oldukları ortaya konulmuştur. Ayrıca konaklayanların genel memnuniyet ve hizmet memnuniyeti düzeyinin en yüksek ortalamaya sahip olduğu ayın Nisan ayı; uyku kalitesinden duyulan memnuniyetin en yüksek ortalamaya sahip olduğu ayın Aralık ve konum uygunluğundan duyulan memnuniyetin en yüksek ortalamaya sahip olduğu ayın Haziran olduğu saptanmıştır. Çevrimiçi rezervasyon sitelerinden elde edilen otel verilerinin analizi sayesinde, otel işletmelerinin yöneticilerinin hızlı, tutarlı ve maliyet etkin pazarlama kararları almalarının mümkün olabileceği düşünülmektedir.
ANAHTAR KELİMELER: Customer Feedback, Online Booking Websites, Online Ratings, Hotel Businesses, Service Quality /////
ABSTRACT: Quick and effective evaluation of customer feedbacks is one of the requirements for long-term relationships with customers. Ensuring efficiency in this process necessitates the effective use of information technology. Hotel businesses which have complex bundle of services use online booking sites to obtain reviews and ratings regarding their accommodation booking and service experiences. In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the service perception regarding the hotels in Antalya province based on non-comment customer data. Non-comment used here consist of ratings and customer information which indicate satisfaction and preferences for hotel service quality criteria added to comments by customers. Data belongs to 164 hotels in total have been analysed within the scope of the research. In the research, it has been revealed that customers coming from abroad are more satisfied than domestic customers with all service criteria. It has been also determined that the month in which overall satisfaction and service satisfaction level of the residents have the highest average is April; the month with the highest average satisfaction of sleep quality is December; and the month with the highest average satisfaction of location suitability is June. Owing to rapid analysis of hotel data obtained from online booking sites, it is thought that it will be possible for hotel managers to make fast, consistent and cost-effective marketing decisions.
KEYWORDS: Customer Feedback, Online Booking Websites, Online Ratings, Hotel Businesses, Service Quality
Retailers often delight their customers with surprise offers. Common wisdom would suggest that this practice is fruitful because customer delight elicits customer reciprocation and increases customer satisfaction. This research examines the negative consequences of offering such delight offers. Across five studies, customers receiving delight offers repetitively and on a regular basis develop a sense of entitlement. Once retailers decide to discontinue those offers, feelings of entitlement prompt customers to seek revenge against the retailer (e.g., filing complaints, switching to competitors, spreading negative word of mouth). Furthermore, customer expectation has been ruled out as an alternative process explanation. Even though customer entitlement and customer expectation are often confounded in the literature, our research offers conceptual and empirical evidence to illustrate the fundamental differences between these two concepts. Our results indicate that retailers could avoid elevating customer entitlement by designing delight offers as one-time offers or by delivering multiple offers following a random pattern. Additionally, we show that retailers can also limit the effect of customer entitlement on customers’ desire for revenge by providing offers of small monetary value and by explicitly communicating that the offer recipients are selected at random.
The current study aims at providing understanding and practical insights of how to maintain customer loyalty using E-CRM from perspectives of small food businesses in Jordan. The qualitative design of research is adopted. Semi-structured and face-to-face interviews have been conducted with eight executives to generate data from target interviewees in different Jordanian food companies. Using thematic analysis for interviews and based on executives perspectives, this study provides customer loyalty concepts, benefits, tools, and measurements. Moreover, this study also investigates the benefits of E- CRM, E-CRM tools, and how customer loyalty could be enhanced by E-CRM. The results of the thematic analysis found that social media and telemarketing are the most common tools of E-CRM that are adopted by food companies. Sales frequency and sales records are the most common criteria for customer loyalty measurement. Furthermore, complaints handling, post sales services, customer following up, and maintaining customer relationship are the most critical tactics of E-CRM that are adopted by food companies to enhance customer loyalty. The study recommends that customer loyalty practices are not well established by food companies; however, adopting E-CRM practices are critical issues for maintaining customer loyalty.
How can the business maximize revenue while providing discounts? This research suggests that hospitality operators may stimulate add-on purchases with the adoption of surprise discounts. Two experiments investigated factors that influence hospitality consumers’ ancillary spending. Study 1 tested the discount and product type effects on additional spending intentions for a cruise booking. Study 2 identified how the depth of surprise discount and add-on product type influence consumers' add-on purchase decisions for an online hotel booking. The findings indicate that a surprise discount and hedonic items induce consumers' unplanned purchases. A hedonic add-on item is preferred over a utilitarian item when a low discount is offered. Impulse buying mediates the effect of surprise discount and product type on unplanned purchase intentions. This research extends the traditional discount role, by demonstrating that a discount promotion can induce consumers' additional purchases. The findings provide guidance for effective pricing strategies and add-on marketing mix.
Prior research demonstrates that consumers are more likely to donate when asked to round up their total bill to the next whole dollar (vs. donate a flat-dollar amount). However, there is scant research demonstrating boundary conditions for the effectiveness of round-up donations. The purpose of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by suggesting crowding level of a service establishment as a boundary condition. Study 1 demonstrates that round-up (vs. flat-dollar) donations decrease perceived pain of donation, thereby increasing donation likelihood. Study 2 shows that round-up (vs. flat-dollar) donations decrease pain of donation in a crowded environment. Conversely, such differences in pain of donation are not observed in a non-crowded environment. The present study contributes to the nascent literature on round-up donations and provides insight to cause-related marketing managers concerning how to design donation messages.
The S-O-R framework (Stimulus-Organism-Response) is used to examine the influence of telepresence in virtual reality (VR) on service perceptions, positive emotions and post-consumption behaviors. Potential customers to a heritage bed and breakfast (B&B) hotel in Christchurch, New Zealand, experienced one of the guest rooms in VR. The telepresence dimension of spatial situation had a positive relationship with both service atmospherics and service quality. Positive emotions after the VR experience had a positive effect on overall attitude towards the hotel. Positive surprise had a significant relationship with intention to book the B&B hotel. The telepresence dimension of suspension of disbelief had a negative relationship with positive emotions. Implications for using VR as a marketing tool for B&Bs and hotels are offered.
Building on goal pursuit theory, this paper addresses an important issue concerning the management of hierarchical loyalty programs (LPs), which are widely used in the hotel industry: how to—through customized communications—motivate LP members to either maintain or upgrade their membership status. Two experimental studies conducted with actual hotel LP members (Experiment 1) and general adult consumers (Experiment 2) provide converging evidence that a to-date (to-go) frame highlighting the accomplished (yet-to-be-accomplished) progress is more effective in motivating LP members to maintain (upgrade) their membership status. This research confirms the progress-framing effect (along with the underlying psychological mechanisms), establishing progress framing as an effective LP communication strategy for motivating hotel LP members toward membership maintenance or upgrading.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of social crowding and solo consumers’ sense of power on attitudes toward the restaurant menu with popularity and scarcity cues.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 181 US consumers were recruited. Using a quasi-experimental design, social crowding and promotional cues on a restaurant menu were manipulated and solo consumers’ sense of power was measured.
Findings
Low-power individuals exhibited more favorable attitudes toward the menu with a popularity cue at a crowded restaurant. High-power individuals’ attitudes toward the menu were equally favorable across the two promotional cues and crowding levels.
Practical implications
Restaurant managers might want to leverage popularity cues on the menu during peak hours to appeal to solo diners. After diners indicate their dining type (alone vs with others) in kiosks and tablets, restaurants can tailor promotional cues accordingly. Restaurants can also embed more popularity cues in dinner (vs lunch) menus because dinner is more hedonic and social in nature.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the crowding literature by examining promotional cues on the menu and sense of power as moderators of consumer responses to crowding. This study further adds to the solo consumption literature by extending the notion of power and social crowding to ethnic dining contexts.
Research shows that offering monetary compensation is effective in restoring customers’ equity perceptions following a service failure. However, little is known about loyalty reward program members’ responses to various types of recovery options. This study fills this important void by investigating two types of compensation: a discount coupon (in dollars) and bonus reward points (in miles) in the airline context. This study further investigates the boundary effect of controllability of a service failure. Our findings show that, when the flight delay is perceived as highly controllable by the airline company (i.e., scheduling error by flight crews, repatronage intention was higher in the 50-dollar discount vs. 2500 bonus miles condition. Conversely, repatronage intention did not differ between the two compensation options when the flight delay was perceived as uncontrollable i.e., inclement weather. Our findings help hospitality and tourism firms leverage service recovery initiatives for loyalty reward program members.
Customer complaints play an important role in firm performance as complaints enable service recovery and provide feedback for new product development. This study is among the first to investigate the impact of customer compassion on face-to-face complaints and online review posting behaviors following a service failure. Using an experimental design, either compassion or neutral emotion was primed. In an ostensibly unrelated task, individuals read a service failure scenario in the restaurant (Study 1) and hotel setting (Study 2). In Study 1, results show that individuals primed with compassion (vs. neutral emotion) were less likely to lodge a direct complaint. In Study 2, results show that participants were equally likely to post a negative online review regardless of the emotion prime. Practitioners might want to consider diversifying their customer complaint channels to deter compassionate customers from turning to social media to voice their dissatisfaction.
Electronic word-of-mouth has become a driving force for hospitality businesses. Achieving customer loyalty is a primary goal of hospitality businesses, and reward programs are one mechanism for doing so. Customer-based communication channels have the potential to undermine or support these efforts. This study investigated attitudes toward hotel loyalty programs among members of flyertalk.com, a forum for frequent travelers. A content analysis of 1,519 comments from members of five major hotel programs was conducted. The core categories that emerged were program experience, value, process, obtaining status, company-created communication, customer-created communication, and defection motivators and inhibitors. A paradigm model indicated that communication is the most important loyalty antecedent, and that all antecedents influence loyalty via the program experience. The emergent relationships suggest that managers should actively monitor online channels and take action to correct issues that cause member frustration and dissatisfaction. Otherwise, these problems can escalate through the rapid spread of electronic word-of-mouth.
Using the context of an unexpected airline upgrade, we examined factors that influence an individual’s reaction when they are overrewarded compared to others: guilt-proneness and relationship to the other, underrewarded, individuals. Results demonstrated that for individuals high in guilt-proneness, satisfaction with the upgrade and behavioral intent may be qualified by a feeling of existential guilt when they receive benefits that others do not, particularly if they have a close relationship with those others. Our results extend the research in advantageous inequality by showing that people high in guilt-proneness tend to have a heightened sensitivity to such injustices. Our findings also have important implications for the hospitality, airline, and travel industries: for customers high in guilt-proneness, receiving an expected upgrade may, in fact, have unintended negative results. Managers can use this information to make employees aware of the potential detrimental effects of rewarding or upgrading only one member of a party.
This study sheds some light on the role of memory in satisfaction judgments. The author's findings indicate that consumers might fail to form satisfaction evaluations in an online manner in typical repeat-consumption situations. Instead of consciously reevaluating familiar products or services, consumers may choose to engage in judgment updating/formation processes only when faced with a postpurchase satisfaction inquiry. Surprise performances or inconsistent service delivery, however, greatly reduce the consumer's reliance on prior judgments. Under these conditions, consumers are motivated to spontaneously update their summary evaluations stored in memory. The implications of the memory-based nature of satisfaction judgments to service and retail managers are briefly discussed.
While reward programs have been widely used as a means to engender customer loyalty, it is not clear if the ends are justified. Some researchers argue that we do not fully understand the mechanism underlying reward programs and how it affects consumer acceptability of such programs. In this study, we examine two variables; timing (immediate vs. delayed) and type (direct vs. indirect) of rewards in two service conditions (satisfied vs. dissatisfied). We conduct the experiment in two service settings and the results indicate that when consumers are satisfied, they prefer delayed, direct rewards (of higher values) to immediate, direct rewards. However, when consumers are dissatisfied, they prefer immediate, direct rewards to delayed, direct rewards (of higher values). Interestingly, the preference for direct over indirect rewards is apparent only if the rewards are delayed (for the satisfactory service experience) or immediate (for the dissatisfactory service experience).
Mechanical Turk (MTurk), an online labor system run by Amazon.com, provides quick, easy, and inexpensive access to online research participants. As use of MTurk has grown, so have questions from behavioral researchers about its participants, reliability, and low compen-sation. In this article, we review recent research about MTurk and compare MTurk participants with community and student samples on a set of personality dimensions and classic decision-making biases. Across two studies, we find many similarities between MTurk participants and traditional samples, but we also find important differences. For instance, MTurk participants are less likely to pay attention to experimental materials, reducing statistical power. They are more likely to use the Internet to find answers, even with no incentive for correct responses. MTurk participants have attitudes about money that are different from a community sample's attitudes but similar to students' attitudes. Finally, MTurk participants are less extraverted and have lower self-esteem than other participants, presenting challenges for some research domains. Despite these differences, MTurk participants produce reliable results consistent with standard decision-making biases: they are pres-ent biased, risk-averse for gains, risk-seeking for losses, show delay/expedite asymmetries, and show the certainty effect—with almost no significant differences in effect sizes from other samples. We conclude that MTurk offers a highly valuable opportunity for data collection and recommend that researchers using MTurk (1) include screening questions that gauge attention and language comprehension; (2) avoid questions with factual answers; and (3) consider how individual differences in financial and social domains may influence results.
Hierarchical loyalty programs award elevated customer status (e.g., "elite membership") to consumers who meet a predefined spending level. However, if a customer subsequently falls short of the required spending level, firms commonly revoke that status. The authors investigate the impact of such customer demotion on loyalty intentions toward the firm. Building on prospect theory and emotions theory, the authors hypothesize that changes in customer status have an asymmetric negative effect, such that the negative impact of customer demotion is stronger than the positive impact of status increases. An experimental scenario study provides evidence that loyalty intentions are indeed lower for demoted customers than for those who have never been awarded a preferred status, meaning that hierarchical loyalty programs can drive otherwise loyal customers away from a firm. A field study using proprietary sales data from a different industry context demonstrates the robustness of the negative impact of customer demotion. The authors test the extent to which design variables of hierarchical loyalty programs may attenuate the negative consequences of status demotions with a second experimental scenario study and present an analytical model that links status demotion to customer equity to aid managerial decision making.
The purpose of this research is to contribute to a better knowledge about the impact of retailing loyalty programmes on repeat purchase behaviour. It is based on the BehaviorScan single-source panel which has been crossed with the store data base of a French retailer. We implemented the multinomial Dirichlet model, in order to test the impact of loyalty programmes on the general market structure. The double jeopardy phenomenon is present and loyalty programmes do not substantially change market structures. When all companies have loyalty programs, the market is characterized by an absence of change of the competitive situation.
Scholars have questioned the effectiveness of several customer relationship management strategies. The author investigates the differential effects of customer relationship perceptions and relationship marketing instruments on customer retention and customer share development over time. Customer relationship perceptions are considered evaluations of relationship strength and a supplier's offerings, and customer share development is the change in customer share between two periods. The results show that affective commitment and loyalty programs that pro- vide economic incentives positively affect both customer retention and customer share development, whereas direct mailings influence customer share development. However, the effect of these variables is rather small. The results also indicate that firms can use the same strategies to affect both customer retention and customer share development.
Marketing academics and practitioners generally agree that customer loyalty is vital to business success. There is less agreement on the factors that determine customer loyalty, particularly in service contexts. Research on the determinants of service loyalty has taken three distinct paths: quality/value/satisfaction, relationship quality, and relational benefits. The authors coalesce these paths to derive a model that links dimensions of customer loyalty (cognitive, affective, intention, and behavioral) with a system of determinants. The model is tested with data from varied services (airlines, banks, beauty salons, hospitals, hotels, mobile telephone) and 3,500 customers in China. Results are consistent across contexts and support a multidimensional view of customer loyalty. Key loyalty determinants are customer satisfaction, commitment, service fairness, service quality, trust, and a construct new to service loyalty models—commercial friendship. The research contributes to the literature by providing a more complete, integrated view of customer loyalty and its determinants in services contexts.
Customer loyalty is the key to success in today’s commoditized hotel industry. To that end, many hotel companies offer frequent-guest programs. The reward programs are not enough to induce loyalty, however, in the absence of an emotional bond with the brand. Instead, affective commitment—that emotional bond—is needed to ensure repeat patronage. This study demonstrates the key role of an affective commitment in strengthening loyalty to the brand and in improving customers’ perceptions of their preferred brand’s frequent-guest program.
Companies that offer loyalty reward programs believe that their programs have a long-run positive effect on customer evaluations and behavior. However, if loyalty rewards pro- grams increase relationship durations and usage levels, customers will be increasingly exposed to the complete spectrum of service experiences, including experiences that may cause customers to switch to another service pro- vider. Using cross-sectional, time-series data from a worldwide financial services company that offers a loyalty reward program, this article investigates the conditions under which a loyalty rewards program will have a posi - tive effect on customer evaluations, behavior, and repeat purchase intentions. The results show that members in the loyalty reward program overlook or discount negative evaluations of the company vis-à-vis competition. One possible reason could be that members of the loyalty re - wards program perceive that they are getting better quality and service for their price or, in other words, "good value."
Purpose
This study aims to investigate customer preferences towards loyalty reward programs in the restaurant industry. Willingness to join such programs and expected benefits are also examined.
Design/methodology/approach
Focus group interviews followed by a survey methodology were used to test the research questions. The study sample included participants in a popular arts festival in Pennsylvania, USA and restaurant patrons in Las Vegas, USA.
Findings
A vast majority of study respondents favored immediate, necessary, and monetary gratification. These results were consistent across restaurant types (fast‐food versus casual dining). Although savings was the most sought‐after benefit, intangible benefits such as quality and convenience also received high ratings. Casual dining customers, in particular, seemed to be highly motivated by exploration and entertainment‐type benefits.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should investigate the optimal level or combination of rewards. In addition, other types of restaurants (e.g. fine dining) might require different types of reward schemes.
Practical implications
The findings of this study suggest that restaurant operators in the casual dining and fast‐food segments should consider employing immediate, necessary, and monetary rewards as opposed to points‐system, luxury, and non‐monetary rewards. In terms of motivation to join loyalty reward programs, the study results indicate that casual dining patrons are looking for exciting and entertaining rewards in addition to mere cost savings.
Originality/value
This paper helps restaurant managers to better understand customer preferences for loyalty reward programs and to realize the value of targeted rewards.
One of the pressing issues in marketing is whether loyalty programs really enhance behavioral loyalty. Loyalty program members may have a much higher share-of-wallet at the firm with the loyalty program than non-members have, but this does not necessarily imply that loyalty programs are effective. Loyal customers may select themselves to become members in order to benefit from the program. Since this implies that program membership is endogenous, we estimate models for both the membership decision (using instrumental variables) and for the effect of membership on share-of-wallet, our measure of behavioral loyalty. We use panel data from a representative sample of Dutch households who report their loyalty program memberships for all seven loyalty programs in grocery retailing as well as their expenditures at each of the 20 major supermarket chains. We find a small positive yet significant effect of loyalty program membership on share-of-wallet. This effect is seven times smaller than is suggested by a naïve model that ignores the endogeneity of program membership. The predictive validity of the proposed model is much better than for the naïve model. Our results show that creating loyalty program membership is a crucial step to enhance share-of-wallet, and we provide guidelines on how to achieve this.
Most theories of relationship marketing emphasize the role of trust and commitment in affecting performance outcomes; however, a recent meta-analysis indicates that other mediating mechanisms are at work. Data from two studies—a laboratory experiment and a dyadic longitudinal field survey—demonstrate that gratitude also mediates the influence of a seller's relationship marketing investments on performance outcomes. Specifically, relationship marketing investments generate short-term feelings of gratitude that drive long-lasting performance benefits based on gratitude-related reciprocal behaviors. The authors identify a set of managerially relevant factors and test their power to alter customer perceptions of relationship marketing investments to increase customer gratitude, which can make relationship marketing programs more effective. Overall, the research empirically demonstrates that gratitude plays an important role in understanding how relationship marketing investments increase purchase intentions, sales growth, and share of wallet.
Loyalty programs have become an important component of firms' relationship management strategies. There are now some industries in which numerous rival loyalty programs are offered, inducing intense competition among these programs. However, existing research on loyalty programs has often studied such programs in a non-competitive setting and has often focused on a single program in isolation. Addressing this gap, this research examines the effect of a firm's competitive positioning and market saturation on the performance of the firm's loyalty program. Based on the analysis of firm-and individual-level data from the airline industry, the results indicate that larger firms tend to benefit more from their loyalty program offerings than smaller firms. Moreover, when the product category demand is rigid, the impact of an individual loyalty program decreases as the marketplace becomes more saturated with competing programs. However, when the product category is highly expandable, the saturation effect disappears. Under such situations, loyalty programs can help an industry gain competitive advantage over substitute offerings outside the industry, and multiple programs can effectively coexist even under a high level of market saturation.
A review of the extant literature reveals that the theoretical underpinnings of the majority of loyalty program research rest on psychological mechanisms from three specific domains—status, habit, and relational. We propose that to understand how loyalty programs actually work, a broader, more holistic research perspective is needed to account for the simultaneous effects across these three theoretical domains as well as both cross-customer and temporal effects. The contribution of this approach is a fresh research agenda advanced in 15 research propositions.
How do people evaluate sequentially presented items? Prior research suggests that sequential evaluations are subject to anchoring biases, such that the values of subsequently evaluated alternatives are assimilated toward the initially considered option. The present research argues, however, that sequential valuations often lead to contrast rather than assimilation effects, whereby values of the subsequently estimated alternatives are distanced from the initially evaluated option. These contrast effects are attributed to semantic anchoring, which stems from evaluating conceptually related options classified into opposing categories (e.g., vices and virtues).
Global competition today is fierce. Customers who are merely satisfied with a company's products or services will soon be lured away by competition. This book reveals how today's leading marketers consistently retain and grow their customerbases by moving beyond satisfaction to discover and fulfill each of their customer's unaddressed, yet essential needs. This book reveals how to dramatically increase your organization's positive customer experiences, virtually eliminating the negative and driving your customers to new levels of repeat purchasing, loyalty and sheer delight!
Purchase and consumption behaviors in daily life often are repetitive and performed in customary places, leading consumers to develop habits. When habits have formed, environmental cues can activate the practiced responses in the absence of conscious decision making. This research tested these ideas using a longitudinal design. We predicted that regardless of their explicit intentions, consumers would repeat habits to purchase fast food, watch TV news, and take the bus. The results yielded the anticipated pattern in which participants repeated habitual behaviors even if they reported intentions to do otherwise. Intentions only guided behavior in the absence of strong habits. This study ruled out a number of artifactual accounts for these findings including that they arise from the level of abstraction at which intentions are identified, the certainty with which participants held intentions, a restriction of range in the measures, and the strategy participants used to estimate frequency of past performance.
How do consumers decide how many units to buy? Whereas prior research on individual consumers’ purchases has focused primarily on purchase incidence and brand choice, the authors focus on the psychological process behind the purchase quantity decision. The authors propose that a simple anchoring and adjustment model describes how consumers make purchase quantity decisions and suggests how point-of-purchase promotions can increase sales. Two field experiments and two lab studies show that anchor-based promotions—presented as multiple-unit prices, purchase quantity limits, and suggestive selling—can increase purchase quantities. The final study shows that consumers who retrieve internal anchors can counter these anchor-based promotions effectively. Firms might receive net benefits from anchor-based promotions depending on whether increases in unit sales reflect increased category consumption, brand switching, variety switching, store switching, or stockpiling.
How do consumers decide how many units to buy? Whereas prior research on individual consumers' purchases has focused primarily on purchase incidence and brand choice, the authors focus on the psychological process behind the purchase quantity decision. The authors propose that a simple anchoring and adjustment model describes how consumers make purchase quantity decisions and suggests how point-of-purchase promotions can increase sales. Two field experiments and two lab studies show that anchor-based promotions-presented as multiple-unit prices, purchase quantity limits, and suggestive selling-can increase purchase quantities. The final study shows that consumers who retrieve internal anchors can counter these anchor-based promotions effectively. Firms might receive net benefits from anchor-based promotions depending on whether increases in unit sales reflect increased category consumption, brand switching, variety switching, store switching, or stockpiling.
Many decisions are based on beliefs concerning the likelihood of uncertain events such as the outcome of an election, the guilt of a defendant, or the future value of the dollar. Occasionally, beliefs concerning uncertain events are expressed in numerical form as odds or subjective probabilities. In general, the heuristics are quite useful, but sometimes they lead to severe and systematic errors. The subjective assessment of probability resembles the subjective assessment of physical quantities such as distance or size. These judgments are all based on data of limited validity, which are processed according to heuristic rules. However, the reliance on this rule leads to systematic errors in the estimation of distance. This chapter describes three heuristics that are employed in making judgments under uncertainty. The first is representativeness, which is usually employed when people are asked to judge the probability that an object or event belongs to a class or event. The second is the availability of instances or scenarios, which is often employed when people are asked to assess the frequency of a class or the plausibility of a particular development, and the third is adjustment from an anchor, which is usually employed in numerical prediction when a relevant value is available.
This paper explores consumers' experience of delight and investigates the role of surprise in this process. These questions are examined through an interpretation of five consumers' own accounts of delight in the context of travel experiences, informed by literature from the fields of psychology, aesthetics, and consumer research. The exercise contributes to our understanding of customer delight by identifying two distinct modes of delight: delight-as-pleasant-surprise and delight-as-magic. Delight-as-magic refers to the efferent emotional arousal individuals derive from consumption experiences they imbue with a subjective, symbolic meaning associated with themes of interpersonal warmth, aesthetic experiences, or leisure experiences.
For many years hospitality firms have believed that the goal of marketing is to create as many new customers as possible. While hoteliers believed it was important to satisfy the guests while they were on the property, the real goal was to continue to find new customers. This constant search for new customers is called conquest marketing. In the future, conquest marketing will not be sufficient. Instead firms need to practice loyalty marketing or retention marketing. The authors believe that this will be the successful wave of the future in hospitality. The goal of this paper is to present a framework for understanding customer loyalty. We do this first by examining the economics of loyalty. We then define loyalty and explain the difference between frequency programs and loyalty programs. We also show why satisfaction does not equal loyalty. We then introduce the Loyalty Triangle©, which provides a framework for building customer loyalty. Each leg of the Loyalty Triangle© is then examined in-depth, including examples of how hotel companies use the Loyalty Triangle© to develop strategy. Next we present ways to measure the success of loyalty programs. Finally, we present future research issues.
Word of mouth (WOM) affects diffusion and sales, but why are certain products talked about more than others, both right after consumers first experience them and in the months that follow? This article examines psychological drivers of immediate and ongoing WOM. The authors analyze a unique data set of everyday conversations for more than 300 products and conduct both a large field experiment across various cities and a controlled laboratory experiment with real conversations. The results indicate that more interesting products get more immediate WOM but, contrary to intuition, do not receive more ongoing WOM over multiple months or overall. In contrast, products that are cued more by the environment or are more publicly visible receive more WOM both right away and over time. Additional analyses demonstrate which promotional giveaways in WOM marketing campaigns are associated with increased WOM. Overall, the findings shed light on psychological drivers of WOM and provide insight into designing more effective WOM campaigns.
This paper enriches the model of delight and satisfaction that Oliver et al. (1997) propose and Finn (2005) modifies, with a suggested causal relationship between disconfirmation and arousal and the introduction of two new variables: the lodging unit’s corporate reputation and perceived quality. The modified model is applied to rural tourism accommodations in Portugal and validated using PLS (Partial Least Squares).
The results suggest that the lodging unit’s reputation is a more significant determinant of loyalty than satisfaction or even delight. This study further supports the conceptualization of customer delight and customer satisfaction as distinct constructs. Results may help managers of rural tourism accommodations to develop and implement more successful relationship marketing strategies.
The purpose of hotel reward programs is to cultivate customer loyalty, yet most studies on hotel loyalty do not consider reward programs, and even fewer evaluate reward tier. The current study investigated the influence of reward tier on attributes that have been established as key loyalty indicators in the hospitality and marketing literature. A sample of 800 hotel loyalty program members completed an online survey on which they rated their preferred brand on measures of attitudinal loyalty, behavioral intentions, and loyalty behaviors. There were significant differences between tiers on all measures, with the highest scores for elite members, followed by middle and base/entry level members. Effect size measures revealed that emotional commitment and program evaluation were core attributes differentiating tier levels. Behavioral loyalty increased as a function of tier level, with base, middle and elite members spending 53%, 66% and 78% of their hotel nights at a preferred program brand.
Despite its often controversial and philosophically divisive nature, preferential treatment of customers holds the potential to contribute to important relational outcomes valued by firms. In this study, sampled customers (n = 2,461) of a national upscale department store chain representing recipients of three different levels of preferential treatment are tested. While controlling for individual customer characteristics, higher levels of preferential treatment are shown to positively influence relationship commitment, increased purchases, share of customer, word of mouth, and customer feedback. This study fills a major services marketing research gap by assessing the favorable effects of higher levels of preferential treatment as a relationship marketing strategy.
Drawing on the attitude accessibility and stability theories, we investigate the moderating role of product involvement in the customer satisfaction-loyalty relation. Structural equation modeling shows that customer satisfaction has both direct and indirect effects on loyalty, whereas ad attitudes and corporate image have only indirect effects through their mediating influence on brand attitudes. Furthermore, product involvement decreases the direct effects of satisfaction on brand attitudes and loyalty, but it increases the indirect effects of ad attitudes and corporate image.
Hotel brands have sought numerous ways to build the relationship with their customers. Inspired by the airlines’ success, most major hotel chains have developed loyalty programs that reward customers for repeat business. However, the effectiveness of reward programs has been questioned. To explore reward programs’ potential to alter normal patterns to behavior, this research investigates how the timing of rewards affects customer loyalty for hotels and whether the effectiveness of these reward structures is moderated by customer satisfaction. This research also examines whether customer's value perception of loyalty program truly affect brand loyalty or program loyalty. In order to test the research framework, a 2×2 full-factorial, randomized, between-subject experimental design was conducted. In total, 209 respondents participated in the study. The results indicate that immediate rewards are more effective in building a program value than delayed rewards. Moreover, the value of loyalty program affects customer loyalty only through program loyalty to the extent that the program provides value to the customer. Finally, satisfaction plays an important moderating role on reward timing. Delayed rewards work better than immediate rewards only if customers are satisfied with hotel experience. In contrast, the immediate rewards in the dissatisfied experience become effective in their capacity to invoke customer loyalty.
Mood effects have been studied in consumer behavior literature, but prior research investigating the joint impact of mood and surprise on satisfaction is scant. To bridge this gap, this study examines the relationship among these three constructs. We manipulated customers’ pre-consumption mood and provided surprise cues with hypothetical scenarios in a 2 by 2 factorial design in a restaurant setting. The results show that a positive surprise yields high satisfaction without a significant effect from customers’ pre-consumption mood. Conversely, with a negative surprise, customers in a negative pre-consumption mood indicate lower satisfaction than those in a positive mood.
Purchase and consumption behaviors in daily life often are repetitive and performed in customary places, leading consumers to develop habits. When habits have formed, environmental cues can activate the practiced responses in the absence of conscious decision making. This research tested these ideas using a longitudinal design. We predicted that regardless of their explicit intentions, consumers would repeat habits to purchase fast food, watch TV news, and take the bus. The results yielded the anticipated pattern in which participants repeated habitual behaviors even if they reported intentions to do otherwise. Intentions only guided behavior in the absence of strong habits. This study ruled out a number of artifactual accounts for these findings including that they arise from the level of abstraction at which intentions are identified, the certainty with which participants held intentions, a restriction of range in the measures, and the strategy participants used to estimate frequency of past performance.
Research increasingly emphasizes the significance of customer loyalty to a firm's success. In order to provide a clearer understanding of hotel customers’ loyalty-formation process, this study proposed and tested an extended Oliver's (1997) four-stage loyalty model by employing a multi-dimensional approach for each attitudinal loyalty stage while considering the moderating impact of inertia. The original model was slightly altered to improve its fit and predictive ability. Results from the structural model generally supported proposed paths among the variables in the model (cognitive, affective, and conative loyalty components and action loyalty) and verified the mediating roles of study variables in forming action loyalty. Further, findings from structural group comparisons using invariance tests indicated that the links from satisfaction to commitment and intention and from intention to action loyalty were stronger for the low inertia group, supporting the moderating role of inertia. Implications are discussed, and limitations of this study are briefly outlined.
Over the past few years, customer relationship management and loyalty programs (LPs) have been widely adopted by companies and have received a great deal of attention from marketers, consultants, and, to a lesser degree, academics. In this research, the authors examine the effect of the level of effort required to obtain an LP reward on consumers' perception of the LP's attractiveness. The authors propose that in certain conditions, increasing program requirements can enhance consumers' likelihood of joining the program, thus leading consumers to prefer a dominated option. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that consumers often evaluate LPs on the basis of their individual effort to obtain the reward relative to the relevant reference effort (e.g., the effort of typical other consumers). When consumers believe they have an effort advantage over typical others (i.e., an idiosyncratic fit with the LP), higher program requirements magnify this perception of advantage and can therefore increase the overall perceived value of the program. The authors support this proposition in a series of studies in which the perceived idiosyncratic fit was manipulated either by reducing the individual effort or by raising the reference effort. The authors' findings also indicate that (1) idiosyncratic fit considerations are elicited spontaneously, (2) idiosyncratic fit mediates the effect of effort on consumer response to LPs, and (3) an alternative account for the results based on signaling is not supported. The authors conclude that the findings are part of a broader phenomenon, which they term the "idiosyncratic fit heuristic," whereby a key factor that affects consumers' response to marketing programs and promotional offers is the perceived relative advantage or fit with consumers' idiosyncratic conditions and preferences.
Critics have suggested that delighting the customer “raises the bar” of customer expectations, making it more difficult to
satisfy the customer in the next purchase cycle and hurting the firm in the long run. The authors explore this issue by using
a mathematical model of delight, based on assumptions gathered from the customer satisfaction literature. Although delighting
the customer heightens repurchase expectations and makes satisfying the customer more difficult in the future, and the delighting
firm is injured by raised customer expectations, the (nondelighting) competition is hurt worse through customer attrition
to the delighting firm. If customers forget delighting incidents to some degree from occasion to occasion, the delighting
firm suffers if it is in a position to take customers from the competition. If taking customers from the competition is difficult,
the delighting firm actually benefits from customer forgetting, because the same delighting experience can be repeated again,
with the same effect.
Surprise gifts offer more business opportunities than gifts suggested by recipients, because a larger part of the selection and purchase processes can be molded, and such gifts are especially valued by recipients. Yet the extant gift-giving literature explicitly takes into account neither the giver's intention to surprise nor the consequences for the gift selection and purchase processes. The present study investigates surprise gifts from the giver's point of view and disentangles the selection and purchase processes of surprise gifts and gifts that are not meant as surprises. The hypotheses emerge as a consequence of the enhanced pleasure and experiential motivation underlying surprise gifts, as well as their greater inherent perceived risk. According to panel data, design and money-back guarantees are more important for the purchase of surprise gifts (compared with non-surprise gifts), whereas good deals appear less important, and brand name does not seem to matter any more than it does for gifts not intended as a surprise. Also, surprise gifts more often are bought on the spot than non-surprise gifts, without extended information search (similar to impulse purchases), by women alone, and for someone within the household. Finally, the giver usually has a poorer idea of what he or she wants to buy before entering the shop and visits fewer stores to purchase surprise gifts. However, the last three results apply only to appliances which often serve as gifts. These insights lead to significant managerial implications for retailers and manufacturers.
The 1990s saw a questioning of the value of merely satisfying customers and instead focused attention on the importance of customer delight. In a key contribution, Oliver, Rust, and Varki (1997) developed a structural model of the antecedents and consequences of customer delight, acting in parallel with satisfaction, that was generally supported for two entertainment services. However, the effect of delight on intention was significant for symphony ticket purchasers but not for theme park patrons. This article first replicates their path analysis for more mundane visits to consumer Web sites. Then it takes advantage of a larger sample and additional measures to address construct measurement issues and to determine whether customer delight is something more than a nonlinear effect of satisfaction on intention.
Purpose – This article aims to examine US loyalty marketing industry size and analyzes growth trends. Design/methodology/approach – The article provides a discussion on COLLOQUY's benchmark-setting measurement. Findings – US loyalty rewards program membership has reached 1.3 billion, according to COLLOQUY research that provides the first comprehensive census-taking of loyalty marketing since the modern loyalty era began with frequent flyer incentives in 1981. COLLOQUY's benchmark-setting measurement, based on a fourth-quarter 2006 analysis of a dozen business sectors, reveals that the average US household belongs to 12 loyalty programs. In a key finding, the COLLOQUY census shows that “active participation” in loyalty programs is a blended average of 39.5 percent across all sectors analyzed, a number that COLLOQUY experts characterized as “dismal.” Of the 12 programs per average household, 4.7 yield active participation. The census results raise a major question. Does the participation data mean the loyalty empire has reached a saturation point? The response from COLLOQUY experts: “Loyalty memberships are flying dangerously high. Fat membership roles may look good in a press release, but active loyalty program members are the only members who count.” Practical implications – The loyalty marketing industry has experienced significant growth. Low active participation rates signal that millions of customer files in a database do not signify a successful loyalty strategy. Smart enrollment strategies should suggest a finite population of best or highest potential spenders. Originality/value – The article provides proprietary business-to-business research on the size and scope of the US loyalty marketing industry.
Consumers sometimes act like creatures of habit, automatically repeating past behavior with little regard to current goals and valued outcomes. To explain this phenomenon, we show that habits are a specific form of automaticity in which responses are directly cued by the contexts (e.g., locations, preceding actions) that consistently covaried with past performance. Habits are prepotent responses that are quick to activate in memory over alternatives and that have a slow-to-modify memory trace. In daily life, the tendency to act on habits is compounded by everyday demands, including time pressures, distraction, and self-control depletion. However, habits are not immune to deliberative processes. Habits are learned largely as people pursue goals in daily life, and habits are broken through the strategic deployment of effortful self-control. Also, habits influence the post hoc inferences that people make about their behavior.
Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a relatively new website that contains the major elements required to conduct research: an integrated participant compensation system; a large participant pool; and a streamlined process of study design, participant recruitment, and data collection. In this article, we describe and evaluate the potential contributions of MTurk to psychology and other social sciences. Findings indicate that (a) MTurk participants are slightly more demographically diverse than are standard Internet samples and are significantly more diverse than typical American college samples; (b) participation is affected by compensation rate and task length, but participants can still be recruited rapidly and inexpensively; (c) realistic compensation rates do not affect data quality; and (d) the data obtained are at least as reliable as those obtained via traditional methods. Overall, MTurk can be used to obtain high-quality data inexpensively and rapidly.
© The Author(s) 2011.