Responding to online complaints in webcare by public organizations: the impact on continuance intention and reputation

IF 3.1 Q1 COMMUNICATION Journal of Communication Management Pub Date : 2022-12-06 DOI:10.1108/jcom-11-2021-0132
Sandra Jacobs, Christine Liebrecht
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Abstract

Purpose

Since public sector organizations provide services to citizens but struggle with poor perceptions of their functioning, it is valuable to examine how their online responses to complaints on social media could impact their reputation. Yet, surprisingly little is known about effects of public organizations' webcare. Therefore, this study assesses the impact of the webcare's tone, response strategy and user's involvement on participants’ continuance intention and perceptions of reputation.

Design/methodology/approach

Two experimental studies (Study 1: N = 424; Study 2: N = 203) with an interval of one week were carried out to assess the effects of singular and repeated exposure to webcare by a Dutch public transport organization on the participants' continuance intention and perceived organizational reputation. Study 1 examined the effects of the webcare's tone (corporate vs conversational human voice (CHV)) and response strategy (accommodative vs defensive); Study 2 contained tone of voice and user's involvement (observer vs complainer). The effects of repeated exposure to the webcare's tone were also examined.

Findings

The results indicate that perceptions of CHV in webcare contribute to webcare as reputation management tool, since it leads to immediate higher reputation scores that also remain stable after repeated exposure. Furthermore, people's continuance intention increased after repeated exposure to webcare responses that were perceived as CHV, thus a natural and engaging communication style, indicating this is an effective strategy for customer care as well. No substantial impact was found for response strategy and user's involvement in the complaint handling.

Originality/value

The novelty of this study is that the authors assess the effects of the webcare's tone combined with response strategy and user's involvement in a public sector context with a sector-specific conceptualization of reputation and continuance intention measured after singular and repeated exposure to webcare.

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公共机构对网络医疗中网上投诉的回应:对延续意愿和声誉的影响
由于公共部门组织为公民提供服务,但人们对其运作的看法却很差,因此研究他们在社交媒体上对投诉的在线回应如何影响他们的声誉是有价值的。然而,令人惊讶的是,人们对公共机构网络保健的影响知之甚少。因此,本研究评估了网络护理的语气、回应策略和用户参与对参与者的继续意愿和声誉感知的影响。设计/方法/方法两项实验研究(研究1:N = 424;研究2:N = 203),间隔一周,评估单一和反复接触荷兰公共交通组织网络护理对参与者继续意愿和感知组织声誉的影响。研究1检验了网络护理者的语气(公司与对话的人类声音(CHV))和回应策略(包容与防御)的影响;研究2包含语音语调和用户参与(观察者vs抱怨者)。反复接触网络护理音调的影响也被检查。研究结果表明,对网络医疗中CHV的认知有助于网络医疗作为声誉管理工具,因为它会立即导致更高的声誉得分,并且在反复暴露后保持稳定。此外,人们在反复接触被视为CHV的网络护理回应后,继续意愿增加,因此,这是一种自然而引人入胜的沟通方式,表明这也是一种有效的客户护理策略。回应策略和用户参与投诉处理并无实质影响。原创性/价值本研究的新颖之处在于,作者评估了网络护理的语气与响应策略和用户在公共部门背景下的参与的影响,并在单一和反复接触网络护理后测量了特定部门的声誉和持续意愿的概念。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
5.40
自引率
6.50%
发文量
29
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