From “Hypercritics” to “Happy Campers”: Who Complains the Most in Fine Dining Restaurants?

ABSTRACT

This article describes a cluster analysis of the complaining behavior of customers in fine dining restaurants using past visit frequency, public actions against the restaurants, recovery action requests, negative marketing actions, and satisfaction from previous experiences as the criteria variables. Four customer groups were recognized, termed hypercritics, silent killers, friendly complainers, and happy campers. Characteristics of the customer groups based on all criteria variables differed according to service delivery failure reactions. Overall, hypercritics and friendly complainers informed a restaurant and gave it the opportunity to make corrective actions; silent killers resorted to negative marketing actions rather than complaining on site; and happy campers did not complain. The analysis indicates several ways to turn silent killers into more favorable consumer groups. The results suggest that service stages should be treated uniquely while designing the best recovery response strategies for different customer groups.

本文对精品餐厅客户的抱怨行为进行类别分析，其中使用了下列各项作为标准变量：过去光临频率、针对餐厅的公开行动、恢复行动请求、负面营销行为以及根据以往体验的满意度。客户群分为四组，分别是挑剔型、沉默型、建议型和宽容型。根据标准变量的度量，各客户群对所提供服务不满意的反应有所不同。总的来说，挑剔型和建议型会对餐馆提出意见，给予纠正机会；沉默型将意见埋在心里而不是当场抱怨，给营销行动带来消极影响；而宽容型则没有任何抱怨。分析表明，通过几种方式可将最不利的沉默型顾客变成更有利的消费群体。结果表明，服务阶段应该有所区分，同时针对不同客户群设计最佳恢复响应策略。

KEYWORDS:

• Attitude toward complaining
• consumer complaining behavior
• recovery expectations
• service failure
• service recovery