Customers’ Response to Service Failure: An Empirical Study on Indonesian Customers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify customers’ response to service failure. It is about why some customers are likely to complain and others are not. This study adopts the concept of customer complaint behavior (CCB) with three-dimensional model: private response, voice response, and third party response. It also identifies the relationships between CCB and customers’ demographic backgrounds such as age, gender, and education backgrounds; and their complaining behaviors. Data were collected from 200 customers who have experienced service failure (response rate 86.5%). Using chi square method, it identifies the type of complaint which is often performed in service encounter. The research findings suggest that due to service failure, most customers are likely to engage in private and voice response. Further findings suggest that most complainers who experienced service failure are likely to express a set of multiple responses.