The discourse of 'respect for customers'

Although consumers value respect and expect to be respected by providing firms (Daskou et al., 2004) it appears that some industries (i.e., telecommunications as per Vittore (2001) fail to apply respect for the customer. In an effort to address the utility of recognising, appreciating and understanding the concept of respecting customers, the paper focuses on the discussion of concept, an issue that has received very little empirical attention from the perspective of the business disciplines. With the view of future research on the subject, the paper offers propositions on the ontology of respect for the customer, the facets of respect, ways firms may manifest their respect for the customer, and the potential customer behavioural consequences of respecting the customer. The theory presented examines work springing from philosophy, services management, fairness, and fairness literatures. The paper concludes with recommendations for research that could reveal the dimensions of customer respect in commercial contexts, may aid in the quantitative measurement of customer experienced respect, and may lead to the development of respect recovery strategies.