Explaining customer satisfaction with complaint handling

Purpose – Due to the importance of understanding what circumstances make customer recovery programmes successful, this paper aims to study the effects of different cognitive evaluations (disconfirmation of expectations and perceived justice) and affective responses (positive and negative emotions) on satisfaction with complaint handling. Design/methodology/approach – The sample used in this study consists of 679 subjects who, over the last six months, had experienced service failures and had afterwards complained. The data were collected via personal interviews using a structured survey. Findings – The results of the study support the model and highlight the importance of the emotions experienced as a result of the complaint handling. Although these emotions have been underrepresented in the service recovery literature, our investigation shows that these emotions not only have an independent effect on customer satisfaction, after accounting for the effects of the cognitive evaluations of complaint handling, but also play a mediating role in the relationship between these cognitive variables and satisfaction. Research limitations/implications – This study examines only one service context; consequently, caution is needed when generalizing the results. Practical implications – Given the findings in this paper, identifying customers' emotions can enable service organizations to know their perceptions of the recovery and, hence, adapt service recovery strategies adequately. Originality/value – This study incorporates the disconfirmation of expectations paradigm and the dimension of informational justice into the existing models of cognitive and affective antecedents of satisfaction with complaint handling. Furthermore, this study is based on the analysis of real service failures and recovery strategies.