“Tipping Required”: Development of a Model to Understand Customer Reactions to Non-Voluntary Tipping Systems

This paper examines customer response to non-voluntary tipping systems as an emerging trend in the servicescape. A non-voluntary tipping system is a form of service inclusive pricing (e.g., increasing menu prices, automatically charging a percentage of tip on the final bill regardless of table size). Across four experiments, results suggest that non-voluntary tipping leads to higher customer anger than voluntary tipping, which leads to lower return intentions. The results also show a larger difference in customer response (customer anger, return intentions) to non-voluntary and voluntary tipping systems under high service quality than low service quality. The mediating role of the components of self-determination theory (autonomy, relatedness, competence) is discussed

The Role of Blocked Gratitude in Non-Voluntary Tipping

Purpose: Non-voluntary tipping (e.g., automatic gratuity) has received growing attention in the service industry. Existing research suggests customers respond unfavorably to non-voluntary tipping, yet little research has examined why. The current studies address this question, with particular interest in response to non-voluntary tipping under high quality service. Design/methodology/approach: Two scenario-based experiments tested the proposed hypotheses in between-participants design using ANOVA, hierarchical regression, and PROCESS. Findings: Study 1 showed that non-voluntary tipping resulted in higher negative emotions, which led to lower return intentions. Surprisingly, the negative effect of non-voluntary tipping was as strong (or stronger) under high (vs. low) quality service. To understand this counterintuitive effect, study 2 developed and tested two competing process models (i.e., blocked vengeance vs. blocked gratitude). Supporting the blocked gratitude model, results revealed that non-voluntary tipping hinders customers’ ability to reward service employees, undermining positive emotions, and lowering return intentions. Research limitations/implications: Current work was conducted in two settings using two scenario-based experiments. Hence, additional settings with non-scenario-based studies are encouraged. Practical implications: The present work cautions managers considering a move to non-voluntary tipping to be aware of its negative effects, especially when the service quality is high. The blocked gratitude model suggests that managers should clarify methods available for customers who wish to reward good service. Originality/value: This paper is the first to examine customer response to non-voluntary tipping under different levels of service quality, and the underlying emotional mechanisms

Why and when witnessing uncivil behavior leads observers to punish frontline employees and leave the firm

The present studies examined observer responses to failed recoveries following a service failure in a restaurant setting. Study 1 demonstrated that, relative to a neutral response, a negative server response increased desire for revenge and negative firm attitudes, which reduce tipping and return intentions, but revealed no benefits of a positive server response. Study 2 highlighted the full buffering effect of management apology on firm-related outcomes (attitudes, return intentions) which did not extend to employee-related outcomes (desire for revenge, tipping). Study 2 also supported a structural model in which negative server responses generate perceived deontic injustice, which predicts desire for revenge and firm attitudes, which in turn predict tipping and return intentions. By including outcomes more directly reflecting “revenge seeking” (tipping), and testing the most comprehensive structural model to date, the present work contributes to a fuller understanding of how customers respond to observed service failures

How Third Party Observers Respond to Overheard Service Failures: Implications for Frontline Service Employees and the Firm

Frontline service employees and unhappy customers have generally been the main focus of the service failures research. It is established that service failures are difficult to prevent and are costly to a firm. Therefore, effective service recoveries have been proposed such as apology or compensation. The recent research extended the service failures literature by focusing on a broader audience during service failures: third party observers in the servicescape. The current work investigates the degree to which overhearing another customer’s interaction with a service employee following a service failure will impact third party observers’ evaluations of the service employees and the businesses in general. Our general hypothesis is that third party observers will likely to punish the service employee and the establishment after witnessing a failed recovery toward another customer. We test our hypotheses across three studies with experimental designs. In Study 1, 524 undergraduate business students imagined that they were enjoying their meal at a restaurant and they overhear an interaction between the server and another customer at an adjacent table. Participants read one of the nine scenarios that manipulate customer complaint (low, high, high-repeat) and server’s response (positive, neutral, negative) and then participants indicated likelihood to tip the server, percentage of tip they would give the server, and desire for revenge toward the server. The results show that participants were less likely to tip the server and give a lower percentage of tip when the server’s response to the complaining customer was negative. We also found that desire for revenge increases when the server responds negatively, which is the cause for the subsequent outcomes. Study 2 tested responses of third party observers toward the server and the restaurant. In Study 2, in addition to the measures used in Study 1, 423 undergraduate business students indicated their likelihood to return and recommend the restaurant, and their attitude toward the restaurant as a potential underlying mechanism. The results replicated the results of Study 1 in terms of tipping and desire for revenge toward the server. Study 2 also showed that participants were less likely to return and recommend the restaurant when the server’s response was negative. The underlying mechanism for this effect is unfavorable attitude toward the restaurant as a function of server’s negative response to the complaining customer. Study 3 tested management intervention as a solution to the third party punishment toward the establishment. In addition to the manipulations of customer complaint (low, high) and server’s response (negative, neutral), we manipulated management intervention in which a manager apologized from the complaining customer (vs. no management intervention). We recruited 398 participants from Amazon MTurk and they read one of the eight scenarios. The measures were identical to those in Study 2. While replicating nearly all of our findings in previous studies, the results showed that when a manager intervenes and apologizes from the complaining customer, third party observers are no longer likely to punish the restaurant but they still punish the server. Results offer theoretical and practical insights to researchers and service providers. Theoretically, the present results strongly suggest that third party punishment occurs during overheard service failures, and that there is a clear negativity bias operating, with observers weighing negative information more heavily than positive information. Though not directly addressed, it is also likely that responsibility attributions and role expectations play a pivotal role in driving the observed results. It is possible that third party observers attribute the service failure to the server (or at least the firm) and hold default expectations that servers should address the problem and not respond in a negative manner. First practical implication is that service employees should avoid responding negatively to a customer complaint regardless of the severity of the complaint or they will face third party punishment. Second, the punishment will be directed not only toward the service employees but also toward the establishment. Thus, utilizing each punishment during employee training is likely to improve employee motivation to avoid failing to recover a service failure. Third, results indicate that service employees do not get rewarded for responding positive to a customer complaint, as there is no difference between neutral and positive server response. This suggests that service employees do not need to try extra hard to please the customers. Finally, third experiment showed management apology as a way to make up for the server’s negative response and nullify third party punishment toward the establishment (but not toward the server)

Convincing the Skeptics: Concrete Claims with Supporting Images Persuade Skeptical Consumers to Support Companies Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives

Skepticism has been identified as one of the main impediments to successful CSR communication and previous research has established a robust effect of individual differences in ad skepticism on negative responses to advertising. However, little work has explored how ad skepticism impacts responses to CSR communication. Integrating work on CSR communication and ad skepticism, the present work advances a conceptual model addressing how concrete CSR claims and images supporting those claims can override skeptical consumers’ less favorable response to CSR advertising. Results show that highly skeptical consumers (a) respond less favorably to CSR ads than less skeptical consumers, overall; (b) respond more favorably to CSR ads that contain a combination of concrete (vs. vague) CSR claims and images (vs. no images) supporting those claims; and (c) respond as favorably as less skeptical consumers when ads feature concrete CSR claims with supporting images. Additional results reveal that images are especially effective among highly skeptical consumers because skeptical consumers have a reduced ability to visualize advertising claims. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Climate Change:What Psychology Can Offer in Terms of Insights and Solutions

Can psychological science offer evidence-based solutions to climate change? Using insights and principles derived from the literature on social dilemmas and human cooperation, we discuss evidence in support of three solutions: crossing the borders of thought, time, and space. First, borders of thought could be crossed by using persuasion that is concrete and tailored to local circumstances and by highlighting information about people’s efforts as evidence against the myth of self-interest. Second, borders of time could be crossed by using kinship cues, which can help make the future less distant, and relatively uninvolved advisors, who may help make the future salient. And third, borders of space could be crossed by showing group representatives how they might benefit from a frame of altruistic competition—focusing on the benefits of being seen as moral and global in orientation. Our overall conclusion is that psychological science can offer evidence-based solutions to climate change

CSR Initiatives Mitigate Negative Reactions to Service Failures When Customers Share the Firm’s Values

The present paper investigates whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) promotes positive responses to service failures among value-aligned customers. Study 1 finds that customers are less likely to experience anger and spread negative word of mouth following a service failure when a firm engages in high (donating 15% of profits to environmental conservation) but not low levels of environmental CSR (donating 2% of profits), but only if customers are high in environmental concern. Study 2 explores the benefits of CSR policies targeting a broader range of beneficiaries and CSR policies offering customers choice over the firm’s CSR allocations. Results demonstrate that, compared to a No CSR policy, both CSR policies increase perceived value overlap with the firm, but that CSR with choice has a stronger effect on customers’ emotions and intentions. Specifically, CSR with choice reduces anger and regret over choosing the firm, and increases guilt over harming the firm, emotions which subsequently reduce negative word of mouth and increase positive word of mouth and repurchase intentions. Results suggest that a CSR policy that offers customers choice over CSR allocations can encourage more positive cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses following service failures

Relating trait self-control and forgiveness within prosocials and proselfs: Compensatory versus synergistic models

Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier

Social Value Orientation, Expectations, and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas:A Meta-analysis

Interdependent situations are pervasive in human life. In these situations, it is essential to form expectations about the others' behaviour to adapt one's own behaviour to increase mutual outcomes and avoid exploitation. Social value orientation, which describes the dispositional weights individuals attach to their own and to another person's outcome, predicts these expectations of cooperation in social dilemmas—an interdependent situation involving a conflict of interests. Yet, scientific evidence is inconclusive about the exact differences in expectations between prosocials, individualists, and competitors. The present meta-analytic results show that, relative to proselfs (individualists and competitors), prosocials expect more cooperation from others in social dilemmas, whereas individualists and competitors do not significantly differ in their expectations. The importance of these expectations in the decision process is further highlighted by the finding that they partially mediate the well-established relation between social value orientation and cooperative behaviour in social dilemmas. In fact, even proselfs are more likely to cooperate when they expect their partner to cooperate

Cooperation and Trust Across Societies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust among strangers in the provision of public goods may be key to understanding how societies are managing the COVID-19 pandemic. We report a survey conducted across 41 societies between March and May 2020 (N = 34,526), and test pre-registered hypotheses about how cross-societal differences in cooperation and trust relate to prosocial COVID-19 responses (e.g., social distancing), stringency of policies, and support for behavioral regulations (e.g., mandatory quarantine). We further tested whether cross-societal variation in institutions and ecologies theorized to impact cooperation were associated with prosocial COVID-19 responses, including institutional quality, religiosity, and historical prevalence of pathogens. We found substantial variation across societies in prosocial COVID-19 responses, stringency of policies, and support for behavioral regulations. However, we found no consistent evidence to support the idea that cross-societal variation in cooperation and trust among strangers is associated with these outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. These results were replicated with another independent cross-cultural COVID-19 dataset (N = 112,136), and in both snowball and representative samples. We discuss implications of our results, including challenging the assumption that managing the COVID-19 pandemic across societies is best modeled as a public goods dilemma