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Angry customers don't come back, they get back: The experience and behavioral implications of anger and dissatisfaction in services

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Abstract

This article investigates the specific experience of anger and dissatisfaction and their effects on customers' behavioral responses to failed service encounters across industries. Study 1 demonstrates that anger and dissatisfaction are qualitatively different emotions with respect to their idiosyncratic experiential content. Study 2 builds on these findings and shows how anger and service encounter dissatisfaction differentially affect customer behavior. It provides empirical support for the contention that anger mediates the relationship between service encounter dissatisfaction and customers' behavioral responses. The findings of Study 2 diverge from previous findings in marketing on the interrelationships between customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction, related consumption emotions, and customers' behavioral responses to service failure. The implications of these findings for services marketing theory and practice are delineated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tilburg University, The Netherlands

    Roger Bougie, Rik Pieters & Marcel Zeelenberg

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  1. Roger Bougie
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  2. Rik Pieters
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  3. Marcel Zeelenberg
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Additional information

Roger Bougie (J.R.G.Bougie@uvt.nl) is an assistant professor of marketing at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. His research interests are emotions and their impact on consumer behavior, and consumer decision making.

Rik Pieters is a professor of marketing at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. His research interests are emotions in consumer behavior, visual attention and memory, and social networks. His work has appeared in, among others, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Economic Literature, theJournal of Marketing Research, andMarketing Science.

Marcel Zeelenberg is a professor of social psychology at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. His research interest is in anticipated emotions and acutal emotional experiences and their impact on behavioral decision making. His work has appeared in, among others, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

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Bougie, R., Pieters, R. & Zeelenberg, M. Angry customers don't come back, they get back: The experience and behavioral implications of anger and dissatisfaction in services. JAMS 31, 377–393 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070303254412

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