The Effect of Tone of Voice in Webcare for Service Failure on Consumer Tolerance
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This study classifies the tone of voice in webcare context into two categories: a corporate voice, and conversational human voice. The different tone of voices is associated with the notion of consumer tolerance via justice perception theory(i.e. distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice). We collected data from Chinese consumers during November 2024. A total of 295 valid samples were collected. The study participants were given the scenario involving service recovery situation when failure occurred during the airline booking process. We used IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0 for the analyses for descriptive statistics, validity and reliability, correlation, paired sample t-test and mediating effect. Our analysis found that the conversational human voice had a greater effect than the corporate voice on both distributive justice and interactional justice, but not on procedural justice. This is because, in the context of Chinese culture, characterized by high power distance, a greater acceptance of hierarchy, deference to authority, and centralized decision-making, a formal tone(i.e. corporate voice) is regarded as more respectful and reliable from the consumer’s standpoint. Justice theory perceptions were significant mediators in the causal pathway between the tone of voice to consumer tolerance. The study results indicated that companies may want to adopt natural, humanistic and intimate communication style when they are dealing with consumer complaints, but in terms of carrying out these procedures, it would be better to adopt formal styles to build and boost consumer’s trust and confidence.
Abstract
This study classifies the tone of voice in webcare context into two categories: a corporate voice, and conversational human voice. The different tone of voices is associated with the notion of consumer tolerance via justice perception theory(i.e. distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice). We collected data from Chinese consumers during November 2024. A total of 295 valid samples were collected. The study participants were given the scenario involving service recovery situation when failure occurred during the airline booking process. We used IBM SPSS Statistics 27.0 for the analyses for descriptive statistics, validity and reliability, correlation, paired sample t-test and mediating effect. Our analysis found that the conversational human voice had a greater effect than the corporate voice on both distributive justice and interactional justice, but not on procedural justice. This is because, in the context of Chinese culture, characterized by high power distance, a greater acceptance of hierarchy, deference to authority, and centralized decision-making, a formal tone(i.e. corporate voice) is regarded as more respectful and reliable from the consumer’s standpoint. Justice theory perceptions were significant mediators in the causal pathway between the tone of voice to consumer tolerance. The study results indicated that companies may want to adopt natural, humanistic and intimate communication style when they are dealing with consumer complaints, but in terms of carrying out these procedures, it would be better to adopt formal styles to build and boost consumer’s trust and confidence.