Coding emotions in complaint behavior: Comparing the Shaver et al. and Richin's consumption emotions sets

Emotions are part of everyday life and how we feel influences our behavior as a parent, child, partner, friend, employee, employer, consumer, and service provider. While there is extensive knowledge of decision-making in consumer behavior, little is known about consumer emotional responses (Bagozzi, Gopinath & Nyer, 1999) and the impact this has on organizations. Complaints that are not handled effectively can result in substantial damage to a company, both materially and to its reputation and relationships, in particular third party complaints which have a significant impact on organizations. This chapter provides a taxonomy of emotions expressed in complaint behavior to third parties based on analyses of transcripts of four focus groups' discussion of service failures and the events and feelings leading to complaint behavior to a third party. Our research demonstrates that consumers will pursue a service encounter gone wrong for days or months, feeling intense emotions that create severe physical consequences, even when the money at stake is trivial. We propose that the emotional motivations for complaints may be more powerful in driving behavior than previously recognized and that organizations need to address emotional concerns in a more-informed manner to achieve more effective complaint handling.