모든 고객은 판매원의 서비스실패에 대해 분노하는가? : 판매원의 서비스 실패에 대한 고객귀인이 고객의 감정적 반응과 행동적 반응에 미치는 영향 (Is Every Customer angered by Salespersons' Service Failure?: The Effect of Customer Attributions to Failure on Customers' Emotional and Behavioral Responses in Salespersons' Service Failure Situation)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국마케팅학회
· 수록지 정보 : 마케팅연구 / 27권 / 2호 / 27 ~ 52페이지
· 저자명 : 김상희

초록

본 연구는 판매원 서비스실패 상황에서 실패에 대한 고객귀인, 감정적 반응, 그리고 행동과의 관계에 관한 것으로 서비스접점에서 판매원의 서비스실패에 따른 고객의 귀인과정에 대해 살펴보고자 한다. 본 연구는 판매원의 서비스실패시 고객귀인으로 내적귀인(능력, 노력)과 외적귀인(업무의 어려움, 운 없음)을 제시하고자 하며 귀인으로 인한 감정적 반응으로 분노와 동정심을 제시하고자 한다. 선행연구들은 서비스종업원의 서비스실패는 모두 부정적 고객반응을 유발시킨다고 제시하고 있지만 이러한 실패에 대해 고객이 어떻게 귀인하는가에 따라 부정적 반응이 유발되지 않을 수 있음을 제시하고자 한다. 즉 ‘모든 고객은 서비스실패에 대해 분노하는가?’ 에 대한 질문을 던지고 이에 대한 해답을 찾고자 한다.
연구결과 판매원 서비스실패에 대한 내적귀인은 고객의 분노를 유발시켰으며 외적귀인은 고객의 동정심을 유발시키는 것으로 나타났다. 특히 내적귀인 중 노력은 능력보다 고객의 분노를 더 많이 유발시키는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 능력은 고객 동정심을 유발시키는 것으로 나타나 판매원의 서비스실패에 대한 고객의 능력귀인은 분노와 동정심을 모두 유발시키는 요소인 것으로 나타났다. 외적귀인 중 업무의 어려움은 고객의 동정심을 유발시켰으며 운 없음은 고객동정심에 어떠한 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 추가분석을 통해 서비스실패의 유형에 따른 고객귀인을 살펴본 결과 신속하지 못한 서비스와 실수는 주로 외적귀인을 하는 경우가 높고 불친절과 약속위반은 내적귀인을 하는 경우가 높았다. 특히 불친절은 내적귀인 중 노력으로 귀인할 가능성이 매우 크며 이로 인해 가장 좋지 못한 서비스 실패유형인 것으로 나타났다. 반면 신속하지 못한 서비스는 업무의 어려움으로 귀인할 가능성이 매우 커 서비스실패 유형 중에서 고객의 부정적 반응을 가장 덜 유발시키는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 모든 고객은 서비스실패에 대해 분노하는 것은 아니며 서비스실패를 어떻게 귀인 하는가에 따라 분노가 유발되기도 하지만 동정심이 유발될 수도 있음을 본 연구는 제시하고 있다.
본 연구는 판매원으로 인한 서비스실패 상황에서 고객귀인, 감정적 반응, 그리고 행동과의 관계를 살펴봄으로써 서비스실패에 대한 더 나은 이해를 제공하고 있으며 서비스실패에 대한 고객귀인과 반응에 대한 관심을 제고시키고 기업차원에서 서비스실패에 대한 전략적 시사점을 제공하고 있다.

영어초록

This study deals with customer attributions, emotional responses, and behavior concerning salespersons'service failure and aims to investigate customers' attribution processes based on salespersons' service failure at service encounter. This study intends to suggest customer attributions concerning salespersons'service failure as internal (ability and effort) and external (difficulty of task and misfortune) and present anger and pity as emotional responses caused by the attributions. While previous researches indicate that service employees' service failure all causes negative customer responses, this study intends to suggest that there can be no negative response according to how customers attribute this failure. That is, an attempt is made to ask "Is every customer angered by salespersons' service failure?' and find a solution to this question.
The specific purposes of this study are as follows: First, this study intends to investigate customer attributions in the situation of service failure. An attempt is made to divide attributions for failure into four categories―effort, ability, difficulty of task, and misfortune―and suggest possibility of the four types of attribution by customers in the situation of service failure. Second, this study intends to see how customers' attributions for salespersons' service failure affect their emotional responses. An attempt is made to present anger and pity as emotional responses and suggest how to attribute with the objective of reducing customers' anger and increasing their pity. Third, this study intends to see how emotional responses caused by attributions affect customers' behavioral responses. That is, an attempt is made to investigate the effects of anger and pity caused by attributions on behavior when attributions make them experience these affective responses. An inquiry is conducted into how to induce them to attribute failure, though it is negative itself, with the objective of preventing negative emotional and behavioral responses and making them show positive emotional and behavioral responses despite failure.
It was found that customers' internal attributions for salespersons' service failure enraged them, while external ones aroused their pity. Of internal attributions, in particular, effort was found to anger customers more than ability. As ability aroused customers' pity, customer attribution of ability was shown to be a factor to arouse both anger and pity. Of external attributions, difficulty of task aroused customers' pity, and misfortune had no effect on customers' pity. According to the additional analysis to examine customer attribution by service failure types, non-prompt service and mistake were principally externally attributed while unkindness and promise-breaking tended to be internally attributed. In particular, unkindness, which was very likely to be attributed to effort among internal attributions, was found to be the worst type of failure. To this contrary, non-prompt service, which was very likely to be attributed to difficulty of task, was shown to be the service failure type arousing the least negative responses among customers. Therefore, the results demonstrate that all the customers are not angered by service failure and how service failure is attributed can arouse customers' pity as well as anger.
On the basis of the results, this study has the following theoretical and practical implications. First, the theoretical implications are as follows: First, previous researches divide customer attributions for a failure situation into internal and external ones, mostly in terms of tangible aspects: customers, firms,dealers, and so on. In addition to tangible aspects, however, substantial ones are also necessary. This is because a substantial approach as well as tangible one to attributions enable a firm to get a more specific understanding of customers' causal reasoning about failure and make a specific strategic plan. Second,this study presents pity as consumers' emotion caused by attributions. While prior researches present disappointment, regret, and anger as consumers' emotional responses to service failure, this study indicates that pity related to consideration and understanding of others as well as these negative emotions can be aroused. This indicates that all the types of service failure don't arouse negative emotion among customers but can also arouse positive one according to customers' perception of where the failure comes from. Third, this study investigates substantial aspects of attribution and presents customers' positive and negative attributions in case of service failure. While such external attributions as difficulty of task and luck were principally positive, internal ones, such as effort and ability, were negative. This helps to find out the real cause of customers' showing a negative response to failure from the theoretical perspective and indicates that customers don't show a negative response to failure itself but their perception of the cause of failure can arouse a negative response.
In addition to these theoretical implications, there are the following practical implications: First, this study provides implications for negative and positive attributions in case of salespersons' service failure.
The most negative attribution is effort, which is internal, and the most positive one is difficulty of task,which is external. Therefore, an company needs to make customers believe that it at least tries the best although it cannot provide perfect service. Second, additional analysis shows that there are permissible and unpermissible types of failure for customers. This study suggests that promise-breaking and unkindness should be those types of failure to avoid if possible although it is impossible to prevent service failure completely. Therefore, a company needs to educate salespersons not to make an immoderate promise that they cannot keep but to make a promise that they can keep. Making a promise that they can't keep in pursuit of immediate sales can rather arouse negative attributions and emotional responses among customers and lead to negative customer behavior. A company also needs to educate salespersons not to provide unkindly service. Customers were very likely to attribute unkindness to effort, which comes from high possibility that they consider service providers' friendliness to be their basics. That is, failure to stick to the basics is perceived by customers to be failure to make a minimal effort for customers and, thus, is very likely to be attributed to lack of effort. A company needs to emphasize that friendliness is the right duty which service providers should stick to and educate salespersons to reply to customers sincerely. Today many companies emphasize service differentiation as a factor of competitive advantage and make efforts to provide various types of specific and differentiated service. However, they neglect the fact that customers provided with service want sincere and friendly service as well as various types of service. From this perspective, this study present implications for how to provide service. They can induce companies, who intend to increase service types alone, to increase their concerns about the quality of service and how to provide it, emphasizing importance of sincere service as well as differentiated and specific one.
This study investigates relations among customer attributions, emotional responses, and behavior in the situation of service failure by a salesperson to provide a better understanding of service failure, increase concerns about customer attributions and responses to service failure, and offer strategic implications for service failure from the perspective of firms.

참고자료

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