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CUSTOMERS BEHAVING BADLY: COMPLIANCE, RETENTION, AND REVENUE CONSEQUENCES OF PROBLEM CUSTOMERS AND FRONTLINE EMPLOYEE PROBLEM SOLVING

Sivakumar, Soumya
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1171908347

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Marketing.
While an impressive body of work on service recovery and customer retention through problem solving exists, organizations often face situations that involve customers behaving badly—that is, customers who behave in a way that is problematic and violates the exchange contract between the firm and the customer. The premise is that customers who behave badly are not necessarily non profitable. Rather, frontline employee efforts to solve customer problems can yield profitable returns. This dissertation (1) proposes a process-based construct of problem solving derived from multidisciplinary research in education, marketing, economics, and psychology; (2) a model of problem solving processes for capturing the dynamics of frontline employee problem solving and its consequences for customer compliance, retention, and revenue, and (3) explicitly accounts for FLEs’ dispositional tendencies, and the cognitive and emotive problem solving strategies utilized in problem solving. Using data from 54 front line employees and 810 episodes of customers behaving badly, we test the posited hypotheses in a financial services setting. Our results provide support for the influence of FLE problem solving orientations on dynamics of exchanges in problematic episodes, and the effect that exchange dynamics have on customer level compliance and modeled loyalty metrics.
Jagdip Singh (Advisor)
177 p.
Psychology, Behavioral
Customer adversity; front line employee; problem solving; FLE problem solving orientations; customer compliance; customer retention; share of use

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Citations

  • Sivakumar, S. (2007). CUSTOMERS BEHAVING BADLY: COMPLIANCE, RETENTION, AND REVENUE CONSEQUENCES OF PROBLEM CUSTOMERS AND FRONTLINE EMPLOYEE PROBLEM SOLVING [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1171908347

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sivakumar, Soumya. CUSTOMERS BEHAVING BADLY: COMPLIANCE, RETENTION, AND REVENUE CONSEQUENCES OF PROBLEM CUSTOMERS AND FRONTLINE EMPLOYEE PROBLEM SOLVING. 2007. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1171908347.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sivakumar, Soumya. "CUSTOMERS BEHAVING BADLY: COMPLIANCE, RETENTION, AND REVENUE CONSEQUENCES OF PROBLEM CUSTOMERS AND FRONTLINE EMPLOYEE PROBLEM SOLVING." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1171908347

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1171908347
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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.