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Full-Text Articles in Marketing

Minimizing The Ratchet Effect: Why Reciprocity Preserves Customer Satisfaction In Service Environments, Kyle A. Huggins, Val Larsen Jan 2023

Minimizing The Ratchet Effect: Why Reciprocity Preserves Customer Satisfaction In Service Environments, Kyle A. Huggins, Val Larsen

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2023

This paper focuses on a fundamental problem for marketers: the ratchet effect. The ratchet effect occurs when actual service performance is perceived to be significantly higher than service expectations, causing dissonance and resulting consumer guilt. If left unattended, consumers relieve their guilt by increasing the perceived state of expectations for subsequent visits. Known as the ratchet effect, this causes a dilemma for the service business as they consistently strive to improve service performance. Using equity theory, our experimental study explores whether businesses can break the ratchet effect by providing mechanisms of reciprocity for consumers to respond at little or no …


Customer Satisfaction And Its Impact On The Future Costs Of Selling, Leon Gim Lim, Kapil R. Tuli, Rajdeep Grewal May 2020

Customer Satisfaction And Its Impact On The Future Costs Of Selling, Leon Gim Lim, Kapil R. Tuli, Rajdeep Grewal

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although scholars have established that customer satisfaction affects different dimensions of firm financial performance, a managerially important but overlooked aspect is its effect on a firm’s future cost of selling (COS), that is, expenditures associated with persuading customers and providing convenience to them. Accordingly, this study presents the first empirical and theoretical examination of the impact of customer satisfaction on future COS. The authors propose that while higher customer satisfaction can lower future COS, the degree to which a firm realizes this benefit depends on its strategy and operating environment. Analyzing almost two decades of data from 128 firms, the …