The A-Craft Model of Organizational Responses to Customer Complaints and Their Impact on Post-Complaint Customer Behavior

Abstract

This research presents a model of organizational responses to customer complaints, detailing how customers evaluate those responses through the mediating effects of perceived justice and satisfaction and estimates the impact of those responses on post-complaint customer behavior. The results provide plausible support for the model. The relationship between the organizational responses and the perceived justice dimensions (distributive, procedural, and interactional) was largely validated, showing that consumers could differentiate between an organizational response, and how they felt about such a response. However, the effect of some of the relationships between the perceived justice dimensions and postcomplaint customer behavior were largely indirect through the satisfaction variable. This research provides empirical evidence for this important area of research, thereby furthering our understanding of customer perceptions of complaint handling techniques. The model allows managers to accurately estimate consumer post-complaint repurchase behavior based on organizational response levels, thus allowing complaint handling optimization.