What Drives Customer Loyalty with Complaint Resolution?

Abstract

Even though customer satisfaction and loyalty have been studied at length, few if any studies have focused on antecedents to customer loyalty for dissatisfied complaining customers. In this article, a theoretical model focusing on negative affect, satisfaction with complaint resolution, and corporate image as antecedents to customer loyalty is proposed and tested empirically. First, satisfaction with complaint resolution has a positive impact on customer loyalty. Complaint resolution is thus an important element of the company’s customer retention strategy. Second, negative affect caused by the initial service failure has a negative impact on satisfaction with complaint resolution and customer loyalty. From this finding, one can imply that the customer starts the resolution process from a deficit. Finally, corporate image has a positive impact on customer loyalty. Thus, corporate image plays a role not only in attracting new customers but also in retaining existing dissatisfied customers.