Interactional service failures in a pseudorelationship: The role of organizational attributions

Abstract

The current research investigates customer responses to interactional service failures, such as a service provider who is rude or inattentive, or unfriendly. We study interactional failures within pseudorelationships, which exist when a customer interacts repeatedly with the same firm but encounters different employees across service occasions. Empirical results demonstrate that customers' responses to these interactional failures distinguish between the offending employee and the organization. Dissatisfaction with the organization critically depends on the customer's attribution of globality—how widespread the interactional failure is throughout the organization. Globality attributions and dissatisfaction with the organization can be lowered by excellent past experience with the organization; however, that same positive experience increases dissatisfaction with the offending employee. Thus, customers' discrimination of the organization and employee in a pseudorelationship can work in the organization's favor after an interactional failure, and managing customers' attributions of globality should be a managerial priority.