Excuse Making: A prevalent Company Response to Complaints?
Abstract
This research considered organizational excuse making as part of the complaint management process. Company responses to customer complaint letters were examined. Based upon excuse theory, five types of excuses were studied. The results showed that over 50 % of the companies who replied to a complaint letter did so by offering at least one type of excuse. Deflection (blaming some-one else) and explanation (minimizing
blameworthiness by citing extenuating circumstances) were the most frequent types of excuses provided. Compared to companies who offered no excuse, excuses were more likely to result in the belief that the company could not control and could not avoid the problem. The results also showed that either answering the
customer's complaint with a letter, or including financial compensation, had a positive impact on consumers' perceptions of the firm.
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