Digital presence in service recovery: The interactive effect of customer salutations and employee photographs in email signatures

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Authors

  • Gianfranco Walsh
  • Edward Shiu
  • Mario Schaarschmidt
  • Louise M. Hassan

External Research Organisations

  • Bangor University
  • Northumbria University
  • University of Birmingham
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Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2361-2383
Number of pages23
JournalPsychology and Marketing
Volume39
Issue number12
Early online date18 Nov 2022
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2022

Abstract

Service firms can manage failure apology emails depending on how much digital presence or lack thereof they wish to maintain toward aggrieved customers. While nascent research indicates positive effects of higher levels of digital presence, the efficacy of this strategy in service recovery settings remains unclear. Drawing on the concept of digital presence and the unified theory of social relations, the authors investigate the potential detrimental effects of combining certain salutation forms with digital presence in the form of employee photographs in these emails. The data were gathered using one survey among service employees (Prestudy, N = 202), and two scenario-based experiments (Study 1, N = 418; Study 2, N = 449). Study 1 assesses customer reactions to different apology emails and shows that personalized salutations (i.e., addressing customers by first name) and digital presence in the form of employee photographs can negatively interact to affect recovery satisfaction and repatronage intentions, with customers' perceived rapport mediating these relationships. Moreover, the results of a second experiment (Study 2) show that compensation after a service failure can mitigate the negative interactive effects. This study thus suggests using digital presence (in the form of employee photographs) in conversations with aggrieved customers only when customer salutation personalization is absent.

Keywords

    apology emails, Digital presence, employee photographs, service failure, service recovery

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Cite this

Digital presence in service recovery: The interactive effect of customer salutations and employee photographs in email signatures. / Walsh, Gianfranco; Shiu, Edward; Schaarschmidt, Mario et al.
In: Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 39, No. 12, 12.2022, p. 2361-2383.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Walsh G, Shiu E, Schaarschmidt M, Hassan LM. Digital presence in service recovery: The interactive effect of customer salutations and employee photographs in email signatures. Psychology and Marketing. 2022 Dec;39(12):2361-2383. Epub 2022 Nov 18. doi: 10.1002/mar.21724
Walsh, Gianfranco ; Shiu, Edward ; Schaarschmidt, Mario et al. / Digital presence in service recovery : The interactive effect of customer salutations and employee photographs in email signatures. In: Psychology and Marketing. 2022 ; Vol. 39, No. 12. pp. 2361-2383.
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