목적 : 안경원 고객을 대상으로 안경원 이용 시 안경원의 고객응대 태도, 고객만족도, 변화추구성향, 전환의도 를 조사하여 안경원 고객의 전환의도에 영향을 미치는 원인을 파악하고자 하였다. 방법 : 2019년 9월부터 11월까지 온라인 설문조사에 응답한 209명을 대상으로 하였다. 안경원의 고객응대 태 도, 고객만족도, 소비자의 변화추구성향, 전환의도가 포함된 총 20개의 문항으로 설문을 구성하였다. 결과 : 안경원의 고객응대 태도는 평균 3.76점, 고객만족도는 3.18점, 소비자의 변화추구성향은 2.95점, 전환 의도는 2.63점으로 나타났다. 안경원의 고객응대 태도가 좋을수록 고객만족도는 증가하였고, 전환의도는 감소하 였다. 안경원 고객 전환의도는 소비자의 변화추구성향이 높을수록 증가하였고, 고객만족도가 높을수록 감소하였 다. 안경원의 고객응대 태도와 소비자의 변화추구성향, 고객만족도는 전환의도에 영향을 미치는 것을 확인하였다. 결론 : 안경원의 고객응대 태도는 좋았으며, 고객만족도가 높아 안경원 고객의 전환의도가 낮음을 확인하였다. 본 연구의 결과를 통해 안경원 고객의 전환의도를 줄일 수 있는 방안을 연구하는 기초자료로 사용되리라 생각한다.

In the era of digital retailing, consumer-empowering technologies greatly facilitate the dissemination of complaint messages. Consumer audiences, who view consumer complaints and the subsequent responses made by retailers, consider these messages as critical information sources for decision-making (Weitzl & Hutzinger, 2017). We argue that retailers can use two types of response strategies (warmth- vs. competence-related response) to regulate the information distributed online, and that these strategies may influence consumer audiences’ perceptions and subsequent attitudes and behaviors differently based on their different levels of power (Rucker, Galinsky, & Dubois, 2012). Two experimental studies using a 2 (retailer response: warmth vs. competence) X 2 (audience power: low vs. high) between-subjects design were conducted. Study 1 (N = 240) revealed an interactive effect of power and retailer response on perceived diagnosticity and perceived fairness; and Study 2 (N = 233) showed that the significant moderated mediation for audiences’ perceptions on the relationship between retailer response X audience power and outcome variables. Theoretically, this study enriches the consumer complaint management literature from the perspective of consumer audience. It also sheds light on the power theory by validating its notion in the context of service failure and recovery. Practically, results demonstrate how retailers can effectively respond to negative consumer reviews to maintain customer relationship management with consumer audiences in digital age.

As its use widens across many different industries such as airlines, retailing, banking, and hotels, the effective management of customer loyalty programs is becoming an important issue. Previous studies have shown that loyalty programs have a positive impact on customer retention, customer share, market share, and sales (Bolton et al., 2000; Mägi, 2003; Verhoef, 2003; Lacey et al., 2007). A loyalty program is defined as any institutionalized incentive system that attempts to enhance consumers’ consumption behavior over time beyond the direct effects of changes to the price or the core offering (De Wulf et al., 2001; Palmatier et al., 2006; Henderson et al., 2011). The fundamental goal of loyalty programs of firms is to have a long-term relationship with their customers and to increase their customer lifetime value (Reichheld, 1993; Sharp and Sharp, 1997). Most earlier studies that showed positive effects of loyalty programs have been mainly concerned about the changes in customer response resulting from being inducted into the VIP program (Bolton et al., 2000; Mägi, 2003; Verhoef, 2003; Lacey et al., 2007). On the other hand, most loyalty programs are hierarchical, which sets several customer classes and provides preferential benefits to customers based on their status. And customers who are placed at higher VIP level are required to spend larger amounts to maintain that status level. Under these types of loyalty programs, many recent studies have focused on how customers perceive and respond to their status and the accompanying preferential treatments (Mathies and Gudergan, 2012; Mayser and Wangenheim, 2013; Xia and Kukar-Kinney, 2014; Pez et al., 2015). Companies adjust each customer’s VIP status level on a regular(yearly) basis based on his or her actual spending level during the previous period. A customer can be demoted to a lower level if he or she fails to spend the required amount while a customer can be elevated to a higher level if the spending exceeded the required level. Although this is a common practice in the industry, only a few studies to date have looked at customer responses to changes in their status level (Wagner et al., 2009; Berlo et al., 2014; Eggert et al., 2015; Hwang and Kwon, 2015). While most of these studies have relied on measuring attitudes under experimental conditions, the motivation of this research is to examine customers’ actual behavioral response to a status adjustment using real-life data. We particularly focus on the effects of status demotion and how the response is moderated by situational or psychological factors. Specifically, the research questions are presented as follows: 1)If customers are demoted as a result of not fulfilling the firm’s required spending level, how does their purchase behavior change? 2) How does the shortfall amount (the difference between the spending required to maintain the status and the actual spending) impact the demotion effect? 3) What moderators strengthen or weaken the relationship? Using actual VIP customer data from one of the major department stores in Korea, this paper applies the event study methodology to investigate changes in customer purchase behavior resulting from a demotion. Shortfall amount, which can be defined as the degree to which a demoted customer does not meet the firm’s required spending level, is the key variable in analyzing the different purchase response of demoted customers. Propensity for conspicuous consumption and store familiarity of the customers are also proposed as moderators that interact with the shortfall amount. People who experience status demotion in organizations have been found to respond negatively toward the organization by reducing their loyalty, trust, or commitment and increasing switching intentions to other organizations (Pfeffer, 1981; Trice and Beyer, 1984; Wagner et al., 2009; Berlo et al., 2014; Hwang and Kwon, 2015). Status demotion of VIP customers is also expected to negatively influence their purchase behavior. Equity theory (Adams, 1963) provides the conceptual foundation for hypothesizing about the role of shortfall amount in moderating the negative effect of status demotion on customers’ purchase amount. According to equity theory, people in social exchange relationships perceive the fairness of transactions by comparing their inputs (costs) into the exchange to outputs (benefits) from the exchange. People also perceive the fairness by evaluating whether their input/output ratio is consistent with that of their referent groups. Adams (1963) argues that people are motivated to restore equity when they perceive unfairness in a social exchange relationship by increasing or decreasing inputs based on their input/output ratio relative to that of their referents. In our context, the equity theory implies that demoted customers whose shortfall amount is smaller are more likely to perceive the status change to be more unfair than those whose shortfall amount is larger. These customers may feel that the decrease in preferential treatment they receive due to demotion is unfairly large given the small difference in spending between themselves and those who were able to maintain their status level. They may also feel that their spending (i.e., contribution to the company) is much greater than other customers in the lower demoted status level. To the extent that these customers are likely to feel that the exchange relationship with the firm is unjust, they will respond negatively toward the firm (Campbell, 1999; Xia and Kukar-Kinney, 2014) and it is predicted that they will show a larger decrease in their post demotion spending compared to their counterparts whose shortfall amount is larger. That is, the smaller (greater) the demoted customers’ shortfall, the stronger (weaker) the negative relationship between customer demotion and purchase amount. In this research, consumers’ propensity for conspicuous consumption and store familiarity are presented as variables that moderate the effect of shortfall amount on post demotion spending. Desire for status motivates conspicuous consumption and often leads to purchases of luxurious or altruistic goods (Han et al., 2010). Rucker and Galinsky (2008) argued that consumers are more willing to spend for status-related goods when they feel that they have low power. Based on the literature, it is anticipated that the effect of shortfall will be diluted if a demoted customer has strong propensity for conspicuous consumption as he or she may increase purchases to overcome threats caused by status reduction. In other words, when customers are demoted, the effect of shortfall on purchase amount is weakened as propensity for conspicuous consumption becomes higher. Familiarity is defined as the number of product-related experiences that have been accumulated by a consumer (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987). As the familiarity with a product increases, consumers generally reduce cognitive effort in choosing the product and are more likely to select it habitually or in inertia (Rhee, 2003). Assael (1998) proposed that a process of consumers’ product choice is similar with that of consumers’ store selection. Thus, based on previous studies, it is predicted that the effect of shortfall on post demotion purchase amount is diluted if a demoted customer’s store familiarity is higher because he or she may be less likely to decrease purchases since they face a higher cost of switching to other stores. In other words, when customers are demoted, the effect of shortfall on purchase amount is weakened as store familiarity becomes higher. This research applies the event study method to study the impact of shortfall amount on post demotion change in purchase amount. Specifically, we capture the increase or decrease in post demotion purchase through notion of cumulative abnormal purchase amount. Cumulative abnormal purchase amount is obtained for each demoted customer by calculating the difference between the actual purchase amount after the status change with the expected purchase amount (i.e., baseline) if the customer had not experienced the status demotion. If the actual purchase amount is smaller than the baseline, then the cumulative abnormal purchase amount is negative, which indicates that the customer responded negatively to the demotion. The results revealed that the average cumulative abnormal purchase amount of demoted customers was negative. Also, the shortfall amount had a positive impact on the cumulative abnormal purchase amount, supporting the hypothesis that demoted customers whose shortfall was small were more likely to show a larger decrease in post demotion purchase(i.e., larger negative cumulative abnormal purchase amount). Both of the moderating variables--propensity for conspicuous consumption and store familiarity of demoted customers--weakened the effect of shortfall on the cumulative abnormal purchase amount. This paper contributes to the literature by extending the understanding of consumer behavior in the context of hierarchical loyalty programs and status reduction in a real-world setting. Specifically, this study uses the notion of perceived fairness adopted from equity theory to hypothesize about the moderating role of shortfall amount on the effect of status demotion. This paper also provides several managerial implications to help marketing managers manage their loyalty program more effectively. First, it is important for the managers to recognize possible negative aspects of hierarchical loyalty programs where certain customers are inevitably demoted to lower status levels. Second, since demoted customers who ‘just miss’ the cutoff by only a small amount may perceive injustice, managers may need to look for a method to reduce such customers’ negative response. Third, companies could also seek for ways to weaken the negative effect of customer demotion through the development of marketing plans based on customer characteristics such as propensity for conspicuous consumption and store familiarity.

In this paper, we review the influence of crisis response strategies in social media on attitude recovery in relation to customer brand commitment. We extend the situational crisis communication theory and the social-mediated crisis communication model to include the role of audience characteristics (i.e., customer brand commitment). The effects of crisis response strategies (i.e., defensive, accommodative) and electronic word of mouth antecedents are discussed because source factors, message factors, and audience factors lead to attitude recovery. We also introduce a framework of the impacts of brand crisis response strategies on customer attitude recovery after exposure to negative word of mouth and response strategies in social media.

본 연구에서는 컨테이너 터미널의 물류역량이 서비스 품질과 고객반응에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 파악하여 향후 컨테이너 터미널의 마케팅 전략 수립에 시사점을 제공하고자 한다. 표본설계는 한국선주협회, 한국선박관리업협회에 등록된 선사 중 부산항 컨테이너 터미널을 이용하고 있는 선사별로 2011년 12월 5일부터 23일까지 5~8부의 설문지를 직접방문을 통하여 배포하고 회수된 설문지 243부를 분석하였다. 실증분석 결과 서비스 품질과 고객반응에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 물류역량 요인 중 관리역량이 가장 큰 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났고, 고객반응에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 서비스품질 요인 중 공감성이 가장 큰 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 그러므로 컨테이너 터미널에서는 적/양하를 계획할 때 고객의 요구사항을 정확히 파악하여 이를 적극적으로 반영하고 고객에게 최상의 서비스를 제공하여야 할 것이다.