Gulping the Poison: How Webcare Attributes Reduce Damages to Brands Caused by Negative Reviews

Abstract

Negative reviews written by unsatisfied consumers can significantly erode the image of a brand. Therefore, marketers regularly respond to these reviews through written messages posted on online channels: a practice known as webcare. The present article seeks to explore whether selected webcare attributes, such as strength, sidedness, and ownership, have any effects on consumers’ forgiveness of the service failures caused by transgressing firms. Furthermore, the effects of consumer forgiveness on satisfaction with webcare, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions are also investigated. The article examines these relationships in the context of a fine dining restaurant (Study 1) and a hotel (Study 2). The results reveal that webcare attributes play a salient role in achieving consumer forgiveness. Furthermore, the studies also reveal that consumer forgiveness leads to satisfaction with webcare and improved brand attitudes and purchase intentions.

Keywords:

• Consumer forgiveness
• negative reviews
• webcare
• webcare attribute
• webcare ownership
• webcare sidedness
• webcare strength

Notes

Notes

1 Many students wrote the same brand names; therefore, duplicates were removed and discrete brands were retained in the list.

2 Frequency was measured in terms of number of visits per month.

3 For each review type, two complaints were made by the customer. The review with low severity of failure had complaint aspects such as waiting time and change of seating position. Its counterpart highlighted aspects such as waiting time and food reorder.