Digital Customer Service and Customer-To-Customer Interactions: Investigating the Effect of Online Incivility on Customer Perceived Service Climate
摘要
The study investigates the effect of online incivility on customer perceived service climate in the context of digital customer service and customer-to-customer interactions. The research is motivated by the increasing prevalence of digital customer service versus traditional face-to-face service encounters, and the rise of customer-to-customer interactions in the context of online shopping and review systems. Well understanding and perpetuating the ethical aspects of digital customer service are important for managers and policy makers. The study finds that when customers deal with uncivil peers online, despite the fact that they never witness the actual exchange between customers, they perceive a lower level of employee service climate in the digital service environment. The possible reason for the effect is that online incivility may arouse negative customer emotions in digital customer service. As a result, it leads to a disturbance in the whole service-community network. Also, the study shows that the relationship between online incivility and service climate is stronger in the digital than in the traditional face-to-face service environment. This finding provides empirical evidence for the prevalent belief that the influence of employee behavior on customer service outcomes might be even more intensive in digital service settings. With the increasingly high volume of customer service interactions taking place in the digital world nowadays, the need for protecting and promoting a healthy, civil online customer service environment is clear and pressing to both scholars and practitioners. The methods section explains the research design and data collection process. The discussion section highlights the results of the study and provides analysis and interpretation. Finally, the conclusions section summarizes the main findings and their implications.