With the popularization and development of the internet, people’s shopping, travel and other lifestyles have undergone tremendous changes. At the same time, the mode of maintaining customer relationship and creating enterprise and customer value has also changed. More and more enterprises transfer the channel of maintaining customer relationship and value creation from offline to online through virtual brand community, which not only breaks the limi-tation of time and space, but also provides better service for customers and improves customer loyalty. It is of great significance to realize value creation between enterprises and customers. Virtual brand community can not only help enterprises better understand the needs of customers, but also guide customers to participate in community interaction and better realize value creation. However, due to the virtuality and uncertainty of the Internet, the possibility of enterprises failing online services is greatly increased. If enterpris-es can’t take timely remedial measures to alleviate customers’ complaints and dissatisfaction, the negative emotions of customers will spread faster, have stronger targeting, and have wider impact. Therefore, the community will be reduced by influencing the customer interaction in the virtual brand commu-nity, thereby affecting the value sharing between enterprises and customers. Therefore, based on the regulatory focus theory, the impact of online service recovery on customer interaction behavior in virtual brand community is of great significance to realize value creation between enterprises and customers.
With the development of the Internet, more and more enterprises create the value of customers and enterprises by establishing virtual brand community. Therefore, maintaining the vitality of the community and improving the interaction behavior of customers in the community become the premise of value creation. When the enterprise fails in service, in the first time service remedy through the virtual brand community can soothe the customer’s emotions and prevent the further spread of customer dissatisfaction; on the other hand, timely service remedy can make the customer feel valued, so it will improve the customer’s satisfaction and product to the community. Polarity can effectively improve customer interaction in the community. Online service remedy through virtual brand community can effectively reduce the negative emotions of customers, improve the image of enterprises, promote customer interaction within the community, and lay the foundation for realizing customer participation and value creation. So the research has certain theoretical and practical significance to some extent.
1) Theoretical Significance
From a theoretical point of view, most of the previous studies on customer interaction in virtual brand community are aimed at explaining customer participation in value creation, or improving customer experience value and innovation behavior. However, few scholars consider how to improve customer interaction behavior from the perspective of service failure. This study attempts to establish a framework to explain customers’ response to online service remediation in virtual brand community and how it affects customer interaction behavior. It also explores the moderating effects of different regulatory focus (promotional focus and defensive focus) on service remediation and customer interaction behavior. Is online service remedy able to make different customers more active in the virtual brand community interaction, so as to provide a basis for customer participation in value creation?
2) Practical Significance
The significance of virtual brand community is to provide customers with a more convenient service to improve customer loyalty to the brand, experience, and provide a shared platform to achieve value creation between customers and enterprises. Maintaining the vitality of virtual brand community is the premise of creating customer and enterprise value. When enterprises fail in service and fail to take appropriate measures to remedy it in time, it will affect the interaction of customers in the community, reduce the vitality of the community, and then affect customer participation in value creation in virtual brand community. At the same time, because customers with different regulatory focus respond differently to different remedial measures, it will also affect the occurrence of customer interaction behavior. This study explores the impact of online service remedy on customer interaction behavior. Considering that different regulatory focus has different impact on customer interaction behavior, this study can provide ideas for enterprises to improve the effectiveness of customer interaction behavior in virtual brand community, and has a certain practical significance.
Maxham (2001) defines service failure as errors or problems that consumers encounter when shopping or communicating with companies [
According to the existing service literature, service remedies are usually classified as material remedies and spiritual remedies. Material remedies refer to the provision of tangible compensation to customers through free services, refunds, gifts, discounts and coupons to reduce actual damage. Mental remedies refer to the use of apologies, transposition thinking and interpretation to correct service failure. Yang Xuecheng and Guo Guoqing (2009) believed that enterprises could provide material remedies (including cash compensation, gifts, discounts, etc.), spiritual remedies (including sincere apologies and explanations, friendly attitude of employees) and response speed (mainly referring to providing remedies) [
Therefore, this paper divides service remedy into three dimensions: material remedy, spiritual remedy and positive responsiveness, and sets up several items to measure these three dimensions. Combining with the research background of this paper, this research scale is moderately modified and data analysis is carried out.
When e-commerce is booming, members of the virtual brand community have a more free communication platform. Since then, the main method of customer information exchange is network interaction, and the start of e-commerce will change the channel of customer purchase behavior. The information exchange environment in the network is very different from that in the real society. Relying on the characteristics of the network itself, the network environment has broken the regional and class framework that limited human communication in the early period, and thus created a new interpersonal space. Quyong (2000) [
To sum up, there are some similarities and differences between the customer interaction under the network environment and that under the traditional environment. The similarities lie in the information or feeling communication process around the brand; the differences lie in the traditional customer interaction is “face-to-face” communication and communication; and in the network environment, the customer interaction is “face-to-face” communication and communication. Customer interaction is a process of information or experience exchange that is replaced by symbols or texts through the Internet as the main medium.
Based on the above literature review and the characteristics of this study, this paper uses the classification results of customer interaction (Zhao Jianbin, Jing Fengjie, Yu Ying, 2015) to divide customer interaction into two categories: the first is information interaction, mainly about product or service information, market information exchange, etc. Emphasize the exchange of practical information; the second type is interpersonal interaction, mainly the inner emotional communication between members, mainly focusing on emotional communication and communication.
As early as 1967, Eysenck proposed that the difference of personality traits is caused by the difference of brain structure and brain function. He also divided personality traits into extroversion and emotionality [
Domestic research on the theory of regulatory focus started relatively late, and only a few scholars have studied it in recent years. Compared with foreign scholars’ research on the theory of regulatory focus, domestic scholars’ research based on the theory put forward by foreign scholars demonstrates the inherent mechanism and exploratory nature of the theory of regulatory focus. Shi Qing (2010, 2011) used samples from different units to carry out empirical tests [
According to the principle of reciprocity of social exchange theory, the relationship formed in the process of communication is a kind of exchange relationship. The individual’s reward behavior is based on the individual’s response to the subject who gives himself value. People who perceive benefits are more likely to produce reward behavior. The social relationship between enterprises and customers is an exchange relationship. In the virtual brand community, only when the enterprise gives the expected benefits to the customers, the customers will participate in the construction of the community. When customers reflect the problems of products or services through the virtual brand community, on the one hand, it is to solve the problems they encounter in the process of using products and experiential services, on the other hand, it is expected that enterprises will compensate themselves by this way to make up for the problems they encounter in the process of using products and experiential services. This kind of compensation can be both material and spiritual. Price et al. (1999) believed that when employees of online stores gave customers certain material benefits, they would establish a trust relationship with customers, so that customers would support and support online stores out of the principle of reciprocity [
H1: Online Service Remediation of Virtual Brand Community Promotes Customer Interactive Behavior
H1a: Online Material Remedy Promotes Information Interaction
H1b: Online Material Remedy Promotes Interpersonal Interaction
H1c: Online Spiritual Remedy Promotes Information Interaction
H1d: Online Spiritual Remedy Promotes Interpersonal Interaction
H1e: Online Response Speed Forward Promoting Information Interaction Behavior
H1f: Online Response Speed Promotes Interpersonal Interaction
Chen Si et al. (2016) pointed out that the focus of regulation would affect the individual’s information processing and behavioral orientation, that is, the individual’s preference for internal self-psychological regulation arising from the external environment, which would affect the individual’s cognition of the external situation, thus causing the difference of individual’s actual action under the influence of behavioral motivation [
According to Social Information Processing Theory, the environmental factors around individuals greatly influence their attitudes and behaviors. When customers feedback to the virtual brand community (enterprise) about service failure, the remedial measures taken by staff (enterprise) will affect the follow-up behavior and performance of customers. Li Xiyuan et al. (2018) research shows that regulation focus affects the individual’s processing of information, leading to different behavioral orientations [
H2: Regulating Focus has a moderating effect on the relationship between online service recovery and customer interaction behavior in virtual brand community.
H2a: Promotional Focus moderates the relationship between online service recovery and customer interaction behavior in virtual brand communities.
H2b: Defensive Focus Moderates the Relationship between Online Service Remedy and Customer Interactive Behavior in Virtual Brand Community.
In terms of the dimensions of the service recovery scale, this paper decides to adopt the research scale proposed by Forbes (2005), spiritual recovery scale developed by Hsing (2012), Chang Yaping (2009), and positive response scale developed by Forbes (2005).
Based on the characteristics of virtual brand community research and the research results of scholars at home and abroad, this paper divides the customer interaction behavior in virtual brand community into two dimensions: information interaction and interpersonal interaction. Information interaction refers to the communication of product information, enterprise information, brand information and market information between customers and customers in the community; interpersonal interaction refers to the emotional communication between customers in the community.
Regulatory focus is divided into two dimensions: facilitative focus and defensive focus. The measurement of regulatory focus in this study is based on Lockwood, Jordan and Kunda scales, combined with the characteristics of regulatory focus research and the research achievements of scholars at home and abroad, and on this basis, translation is carried out in combination with the basic situation in China. Some modifications were made and eight items were finally determined.
Based on the research objectives and research models, this paper chooses six variables, including gender, age, educational background, occupation, monthly income and age of online shopping, as the control variables of this study. The use of virtual variables to deal with gender, 1 for men and 2 for women; Age is measured by the actual age of the respondents; Monthly income is measured by the actual monthly income of the respondents; Education is measured by the actual education level of the respondents; Occupations are classified according to categories; Online purchase age is divided into four levels from less than 6 months to more than 3 years.
This paper takes Apple, Huawei, millet and other electronic products users as the subjects of the survey, using online and offline questionnaires to obtain data and conduct a questionnaire survey. Off-line questionnaires are sent out by intercepting and investigating social figures in large supermarkets in Nanjing, and investigating some teachers and students with the help of tutors and students around them. On-line questionnaires are sent through the Internet to close friends and their friends around them to fill in, which have been filled in by sending questionnaires. The difficulties encountered in the process were explained by the author himself, and eventually returned through electronic questionnaires. The survey lasted more than three months. A total of 300 questionnaires were sent out, 289 were recovered, 16 were rejected and 273 valid questionnaires were recovered, which are 165 online questionnaires and 108 offline questionnaires. The recovery rate of the questionnaires was 96.33%, and the effective recovery rate was 94.4%.
In the questionnaire on the relationship between online service recovery and customer interaction behavior, background information mainly includes gender, age, education level, occupation, monthly income and the relevant information about the use of electronic products. Among the 273 valid questionnaires collected, the gender distribution was more uniform, with women accounting for 53.8% of the total sample and men accounting for 46.2% of the total sample. In terms of age distribution, the respondents of all ages are involved. On the whole, the proportion of young people is relatively large and concentrated in the 21 - 30 years old, because young people are very active in the virtual brand community. In terms of monthly income distribution, less than 1% is below 1000 yuan, 46.2% is between 1001 and 2000 yuan, and 30.8% is between 2001 and 5000 yuan. In terms of culture, undergraduate degree is the main factor, accounting for 69.5% of the total sample, 20.5% of the samples are below senior high school and junior college, and 10% of the samples are above master’s degree. In terms of occupational distribution, people from all walks of life, mainly students, accounting for 36.7% of the total sample. In terms of the distribution of years of using electronic products, the majority of employees are 5 - 10 years, accounting for 43.6%.
After calculating the mean of variables, this paper uses the mean of relevant variables to test the linear correlation between online service recovery of independent variables, adjustment of variable focus and customer purchase behavior of dependent variables.
Variable | Physical remediation | Spiritual remediation | Response speed | Accelerative focus | Defensive focus | Informative interaction | Interpersonal interaction |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Physical remediation | 1 | ||||||
Spiritual remediation | 0.88*** | 1 | |||||
Response speed | 0.85*** | 0.826*** | 1 | ||||
Accelerative focus | 0.845*** | 0.809*** | 0.795*** | 1 | |||
Defensive focus | 0.064 | 0.086 | 0.106 | 0.093 | 1 | ||
Informative interaction | 0.334*** | 0.428*** | 0.318*** | 0.274* | 0.556*** | 1 | |
Interpersonal interaction | 0.274*** | 0.412*** | 0.307*** | 0.574*** | 0.683*** | 0.436*** | 1 |
and interpersonal interaction is 0.274, and the correlation coefficient between online material remedy and interpersonal interaction is 0.412. The correlation coefficient between online material remedy and interpersonal interaction was 0.307. However, there is a significant positive correlation between regulatory focus and customer interaction behavior, so the hypothesis has been proved preliminarily.
According to the regression variance determination coefficient of
variable | Normalized coefficient | T | Significance |
---|---|---|---|
Constant | 6.581 | 5.638 | 0.000 |
Online service remediation | 0.340 | 2.172 | 0.037 |
Gender | 0.182 | 1.148 | 0.259 |
Monthly income | 0.089 | 0.558 | 0.580 |
F | 3.1 | ||
AdjR2 | 0.073 |
variable | (1) | (2) | (3) |
---|---|---|---|
Constant | 6.417*** (5.593) | 6.694*** (5.746) | 6.352*** (5.531) |
Physical remediation | 0.327** (2.085) | ||
Spiritual remediation | 0.362** (2.330) | ||
Response speed | 0.313* (1.986) | ||
Gender | 0.166 (1.041) | 0.199 (1.258) | 0.159 (0.992) |
Monthly income | 0.099 (0.621) | 0.096 (0.608) | 0.088 (0.547) |
F | 2.873 | 2.945 | 2.777 |
AdjR2 | 0.064 | 0.09 | 0.055 |
variable | (1) | (2) |
---|---|---|
Constant | 3.809*** (7.557) | 4.122*** (4.145) |
Online service remediation | 0.387*** (3.421) | 0.387*** (3.336) |
Online Service Remediation* Regulatory focus | 0.326*** (2.896) | 0.324*** (2.804) |
Regulatory focus | 0.587*** (5.206) | 0.577*** (4.843) |
Gender | 0.037 (0.310) | |
Monthly income | 0.031 (0.260) | |
F | 14.697 | 8.377 |
AdjR2 | 0.520 | 0.493 |
variable | (1) | (2) |
---|---|---|
Constant | 4.001*** (3.997) | 4.147*** (4.009) |
Online service remediation | 0.585*** (4.788) | 0.554*** (4.545) |
Accelerative focus | 0.396*** (3.325) | |
Online Service Remediation* Accelerative Focus | 0.297*** (2.494) |
Defensive focus | −0.362** (−3.039) | |
---|---|---|
Online Service Remediation* Defensive Focus | −0.293** (−0.247) | |
Gender | 0.015 (0.125) | 0.059 (0.479) |
Monthly income | 0.053 (0.621) | 0.022 (0.183) |
F | 7.676 | 7.667 |
AdjR2 | 0.468 | 0.467 |
Note: “***” means correlation at 1% (bilateral) significance level, “**” means correlation at 5% (bilateral) significance level and “*” means correlation at 10% (bilateral) significance level.
the negative impact of online negative reviews on online purchasing intention. In summary, the four sub-hypotheses A and B in H2 have passed the hypothesis verification.
Aiming at the relationship between online service remedy and customer interaction behavior, this paper first examines the significant positive correlation between the three dimensions of online service remedy and the two dimensions of customer interaction behavior through correlation analysis. Then in the regression analysis, the effects of online material remedy, mental remedy and response speed on information interaction and interpersonal interaction behavior have passed the significant test, and their respective regression coefficients are positive, which shows that the dimensions of online service remedy have significant positive effects on the dimensions of customer interaction behavior. It is assumed that H1a, H1b, H1c, H1d, H1e and H1f are supported. Therefore, both theoretical and empirical analyses in this paper show that online service recovery does have an important impact on customer interaction behavior.
The product coefficient of online service recovery and facilitative focus has passed the significant test, which shows that facilitative focus has a moderating effect between online service recovery and customer interaction behavior. That is to say, the promotional focus positively promotes the impact of online service recovery on customer interaction behavior, and H2a is assumed to be valid. The product term coefficients of online service recovery and defensive regulatory focus passed the significant test, indicating that defensive regulatory focus has a moderating effect between online service recovery and customer interaction behavior. That is to say, defensive focus negatively inhibits the impact of online service recovery on customer interaction behavior, and H2b is assumed to be valid.
Online service remediation will have an important impact on customers’ interaction behavior in virtual brand community, and then affect the value creation of customers and enterprises. If the virtual brand community staff (enterprises) do not take any remedial measures or remedial measures to service failure, the customer’s demands can not be satisfied, which will greatly affect the trust and loyalty of customers to the enterprise. Therefore, for online service remediation of service failure, virtual brand community (enterprises) should be given enough attention.
When solving the problem of customer service failure, virtual brand community staff should take it seriously. They should not only patiently explain the reasons for service failure to customers, but also listen carefully to customers’ demands and communicate with customers in detail. Only in this way can the trust between customers and enterprises be increased, and at the same time it will be reduced customers’ misunderstanding of the enterprise. If customers’ service failures are met spiritually, they will take more initiative to participate in the activities of the virtual brand community. This is a win-win situation for both enterprises and customers.
Virtual brand community should improve the service level of staff, be able to timely remedy according to the different situation of customers, and improve the efficiency of service remedy. The community can sort out the problems of customer feedback and sort out the solutions in advance according to different types of problems, so that when similar problems arise, the staff of the community can respond to the problems in time. In this way, the customers will feel the professionalism of the staff and increase their trust in the community. On the other hand, timely response will also make customers feel valued, which will increase their loyalty to the community. Professional service ability and efficiency of staff will greatly improve the customer’s sense of social presence, so they will invest more time and energy in the community, and greatly improve the occurrence of customer interaction behavior. At the same time, virtual brand community should also give staff some autonomy, flexible response to some special problems, timely remediation of customers, which will greatly improve the efficiency of service recovery, but also enhance customer trust in the community. This will play a positive role in improving customer interaction behavior and realizing value creation between customers and enterprises.
Enterprises should adopt different service remedial measures according to the customers with different adjustment focus when carrying out service remediation. Virtual brand community should create a good community atmosphere to ensure that customers with defensive focus also participate in community interaction. The community can publicize some activities in the community when it makes service remedies for defensive focus customers, so that they can lower their alert and feel good will in participating in community interaction. At the same time, the virtual brand community should optimize the community interface, so that customers feel comfortable in the process of participating in the interaction, which will also reduce the defense of defensive focus customers, and thus can improve the customer’s interactive participation. For the customers with promotional focus, the community should timely remedy online service and timely resolve their feedback on service failure. In this way, the customers with promotional focus will feel satisfaction and achievement in the process of feedback with the community, and then will actively engage in community interaction.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
Hu, H. and Li, D.P. (2019) Research on the Impact of Online Service Remedy on Customer Interactive Behavior in Virtual Brand Community. Open Journal of Business and Management, 7, 135-150. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbm.2019.71010