I liked his customer revenge research. I think it really hits homes the importance of maintaining a good customer relationship. The last half of his research made me think about the Elaboration Likelihood Theory in relation to the two sites. I think the more open compliant site that offered instant gratification caters to the peripheral processors of the world. The site that requires more scrutiny of the material you write in your compliant most likely appeals to the central processors because those type of people usually enjoy critically analyzing information.

In business classes it is always stressed how important the customer relationship is and that companies need to build strong relationships with customers. It was interesting with this research that those relationships can actually backfire in the case of a service failure and that it is your best customers which can become your worst enemies if they desire retribution. It creates a new line that companies need to be aware of and careful not to cross. Something important to remember when building and maintaining customer relationships.

Yany also describes the difference between public a private complaining. Private complaining is when the complainer will directly tell the company why they are dissatisfied with their product or service. But the new phenomena that people are doing is public complaining. This is when the complainer will go to an online site and voice their dissatisfaction with the company. Anyone who wants to go online and research what people are saying about a specific product or service can see anyone’s complain online on user generated content sites so they can learn what people really think about the product.

I have seen Professor Gregoire’s lecture before and thought it was interesting how he focused more on the online aspect of service failures. I found it interesting how he focused on two different websites where customers reach out to when they feel betrayed, one where it is angry retaliation and one where customers work to fix the service failure.

I also though it was interesting how he is currently still working on this. I didn’t realize it was an ongoing thing that he is working on. I enjoyed the conversations that he was having with us and asking our opinions on things he should look for or possible new studies to get out of this topic. It was a much more interactive presentation than the one I have already seen.

I found Dr. Gregoire’s presentation on service failure very interesting. He went over a few things that I read about in his article but he also went over a few things I didn’t read. Part of this was his research between the differences of consumeraffairs.com and rippedoffreport.com. We discussed what one we thought was better to get issues resolved and why it was or wasn’t.

Another big thing we talked about was how once a consumer goes to online public complaining its very hard to try and get them back as a customer. This is because it usually takes multiple service failures before a customer will go to online complaining (warning other consumers about that company and the problem they had with them) and by the time a company tries to resolve the issue (if they try at all) the damage has most likely already been done. Also, the people who go online and complain are usually the firms very loyal customers which I found to be interesting. These customers feel like they have been taken advantage of by the firm so the “hurt” is more. This is why if the issue doesn’t get resolved they go online and complain so they can get their revenge and “hurt” that firm back.

Like Paige, I had also seen Dr. Gregoire’s presentation on service failure before, and was glad he had new material to share. His research is really interesting, especially the difference between consumeraffairs.com and rippedoffreport.com. I thought it was cool that he asked for our opinions on why the two websites had different responses and reactions.

What is especially interesting is the fact that a firm’s most loyal customer can turn into their most hated enemy. That is something that we never discuss in Marketing classes, but its extremely important. Your loyal customers are you best ally, but if you make them mad, you can lose a lot of money, time, and reputation. Revenge is like a cancer.

Having heard Yany Gregoire’s speech about service failure in the past I felt like I was given a little bit of an advantage since I know many of the points that he was trying to make. It was interesting to see the actually data that he has found and what it says: Where time never fully gets rid of the revenge seeking, and that if you have a higher relationship with the company you will have felt more betrayal and thus will seek revenge more.
Also it was interesting to see that most companies were not interested in his research until the internet came to be in high usage. Before the internet the ability for people to talk about the service failures was very limited, mainly being able only to tell the people close around them. But with the advent of the internet millions of people can interact on a daily basis, creating a huge landscape for information to be shared.
His new research with rip-off.com and consumeraffiar.com also poses many interesting questions and answers. Whether more revenge seeking or more problem solving websites are better for dealing with service failure. Although it looks like consumeraffair.com (problem solving) does seem to have more of an effect on being compensated, it seems that revenge sites (rip off) do serve a purpose for people that have experience service failures.

After already hearing Dr. Gregoire’s presentation once in Mktg 417, I was very pleased to see that he changed some of the information presented. Today he talked a lot about customer betrayal and retaliation/revenge, but included information on how this really affects companies. He compared the two online public complaint websites, ConsumerAffairs and RipOff Report, and talked about which would be more successful. Customers that were going online to seek revenge were more likely to choose RipOff Report and those that wanted legal support went to ConsumerAffairs.

Once customers have gone to online public complaining Dr. Gregoire discussed whether they hold a grudge over time. His research paper claims that over time avoidance will increase and the desire for revenge will decrease. Also that customers that have a high quality relationship with the company are more likely to avoid in the future and the desire for revenge will decrease at a very slow rate. I think that it is really beneficial for managers to read about the implications of online public complaining.

Overall this article was very in depth and helps companies to understand how their consumers react and retaliate over time depending upon loyalty. I am looking forward to the guest lecture to learn more first hand experience from Yany and his colleagues.

The information in this article will be increasingly useful to companies as the digital age progresses. Unsatisfied customers can express their dismay on compliant websites or through user-generated content sites – and the possibilities are growing. If businesses understand the effect unhappy customers or negative word-of-mouth can have, they may be able to take correcting actions to minimize dissatisfaction. I hope to learn more about Gregoire’s study during his presentation today.