Chinese Management StudiesComplaints and perceptions of failure recovery in buffet restaurants: A link to familycommunication for adolescent customersJane Lu Hsu Vikki Wei-Ting Chiu

Article information:To cite this document:Jane Lu Hsu Vikki Wei-Ting Chiu, (2008),"Complaints and perceptions of failure recovery in buffetrestaurants", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 2 Iss 4 pp. 243 - 259Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506140810910917

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Complaints and perceptionsof failure recoveryin buffet restaurants

A link to family communicationfor adolescent customers

Jane Lu Hsu and Vikki Wei-Ting ChiuDepartment of Marketing, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

Abstract

Purpose – Complaint handling has the great influence on customer retention and provides a chancefor businesses to improve service quality. This study intended to reveal the complaint actions ofadolescent customers and perceptions of failure recovery in buffet restaurants with a linkage of familycommunication patterns.

Design/methodology/approach – A consumer survey was administered in the metropolitan areaof Taipei. Quota sampling procedure was applied following the age and gender distribution of thepopulation between the ages of 13 and 19. Consent from parents was obtained prior to the survey.

Findings – Based on the results of the study, adolescent customers with high concept- and highsocio-orientation were prone to complain for dissatisfaction. Private actions were preferred byadolescent customers to express dissatisfaction, followed by using the internet or through actions ofparents. For service recovery, adolescents preferred to have discounts, followed by free desserts. Theresults indicated that adolescents were more straightforward and they wanted to have compensationsimmediately. Furthermore, service recovery satisfaction showed a positive relationship with repeatpurchases. Adolescent customers who were satisfied with service or food compensations would belikely to have repeat purchases. Nevertheless, adolescents who were unsatisfied with the service orfood recovery did not totally cease purchasing.

Practical implications – Buffet managers should give inducements to encourage adolescents tocomplain spontaneously. Buffet managers may offer discounts for the current consumption ratherthan coupons for next patronage. Adolescent customers with concept- and socio-orientation willprovide useful information for buffet managers to improve their service quality.

Originality/value – This study provides new insights into the area that has not been studiedexclusively, complaint behavior of adolescent customers in buffet restaurants.

Keywords Adolescents, Customers, Consumer behaviour, Complaints, Restaurants, Taiwan

Paper type Research paper

1. IntroductionService failure handling is an imperative task for customer relationship management.Dealing with adolescent customers can be challenging due to their familiarity with theweb and wireless networks as well as their behavioral characteristics of beingjudgmental. Managing customer complaints is a way of enhancing buyer-sellerrelationships, augmenting customer satisfaction levels, and encouraging repeatpatronage. For service providers, complaints could be viewed as valuable suggestionsfor service-quality improvement, but when complaints were merely criticism, thedamage caused by the false accusation could cost the business a fortune.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

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Chinese Management StudiesVol. 2 No. 4, 2008

pp. 243-259q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

1750-614XDOI 10.1108/17506140810910917

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Customer complaints are considered as consumer-initiated market information(Kasouf et al., 1995). Although recognizing how to fulfill needs of customers is easierthan knowing why customers become unsatisfied, given the potential damage causedby unfair judgment, the importance of revealing factors influencing consumercomplaints cannot be overemphasized (Bodey and Grace, 2006). Complainers andnon-complainers were found to be different in that non-complainers were moredisconfirmation-influenced (Oliver and DeSarbo, 1988). On the contrary, complainerswere more likely to have repeat purchases with higher levels of loyalty (Eccles andDurand, 1998). In case of service failure, service recovery reduces harmful impact oncustomer relationship management (Boshoff, 1997). Operational strategies need to bespecified for various types of customers, satisfied versus dissatisfied or complainersversus non-complainers. Day et al. (1981) stated that non-complainers may damagepotential customers in information dissemination of dissatisfaction. How to encouragenon-complainers to voice their opinions remains a challenge for service providers?

Kau and Loh (2006) stated that effective service recovery could result in highersatisfaction levels. Customers who were not satisfied with the complaint handlingprocess could form negative attitudes toward service providers (Hart et al., 1990) andcould generate negative word-of-mouth effects (Stauss, 2002). Effective recoveryprocedures lead to future profitability (Mattila and Cranage, 2005).

In interpersonal communications, family communication patterns are fundamentalelements in forming communication styles for the young generation. Familycommunication patterns were found to be key features in consumer socialization(Moschis, 1985). For service providers, dealing with customers of the young generationcould be a different scenario. Are adolescent customers prone to become dissatisfiedwith services? Are adolescent customers likely to disseminate information ofdissatisfaction to others through the web or wireless networks? What do unsatisfiedadolescent customers expect in service failure recovery? Are certain familycommunication patterns linked to complain behavior?

The young generation influence parents directly or indirectly in decisions (Caruanaand Vassallo, 2003). McNeal and Yeh (1990) pointed out that parents in Taiwan werewilling to spend a large amount of money on children. Since fewer children are bornand raised in families in Taiwan, children are well supported in families. It is commonthat when the young generation enters colleges, parents in Taiwan are willing to payfor tuitions and living expenses throughout the college education.

Adolescents in Taiwan make their own purchasing decisions. Statistics from theDirectorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (2003) indicated thatapproximately 92.64 percent adolescents had allowances from parents or salariesearned from part-time jobs. The purchasing power of adolescents in the market cannotbe underestimated. Being customers of their own, adolescents have experienced how toreact when services provided were not satisfactory.

Moschis et al. (1977) emphasized the uniqueness of adolescents in a way of makingdecisions on their own. Suggestions of family members were taken into considerationsby adolescents in case the purchases were of high value (Moschis et al., 1977). Parentsare the primary socialization agents for the young generation and are influential onadolescents’ consumption (Ward et al., 1977; Moschis, 1985). In the relevant literature,family communication patterns in different countries were examined to reveal distinctinfluences on children’s purchasing power (Rose et al., 2002). Bakir et al. (2005)

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discussed the effects of family communication patterns and parental control onchildren’s television viewing behavior. Although family communication patterns havebeen applied in the research of relational development between parents and the younggeneration, how family communication patterns are linked to complaint behavior ofadolescents has been left unstudied and is what this research is undertaken to examinein addition to adolescent perceptions of failure recovery in buffet restaurants.

Dining has been an important aspect in the Chinese culture. For family gatherings,all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants are often the choices. Namkung and Jang (2008)pointed out that how to keep satisfied customers was considered as the most importanttask for restaurants. Karatepe and Ekiz (2004) stated that service recovery in thehospitality industry was still in the stage of development. In this study, the objective isto explore how adolescent customers express personal opinions of dissatisfaction inbuffet restaurants and their perceptions of failure recovery with a link to familycommunication patterns.

Nørgaard et al. (2007) found out that family food decision making was a joint activitythat children aged 10-13 would participate in the process and influence everyday foodbuying decisions. Caruana and Vassallo (2003) indicated that children of concept-orientedfamily communication patterns would be more influential on purchasing decisions thanchildren of socio-oriented family communication patterns. In the literature, howadolescents in different family communication patterns complain upon experiencingdissatisfaction as well as reactions to failure recovery in buffet restaurants were notdiscussed exclusively. The findings in this study provide new insights into behavioralpatterns of adolescent customers that could be used as a foundation for further researchrelated to adolescent complaint behavior. Marketing strategies are provided for managersof buffet restaurants for an understanding of handling complaints of adolescent customers.

2. Theoretical background and hypotheses2.1 Family communication patternsFamily communication is a basis of consumer socialization (Rose et al., 1998). Moschis et al.(1984) pointed out that family communication regarding consumption is noteworthy andsignificant in the socialization of adolescents. In interpersonal communications,Newcomb’s co-orientation model has been applied to explain interpersonal relations(Moschis, 1985). Family communication patterns were developed from the Newcomb’sco-orientation model (Figure 1). The stress on A-B relations evolved into the firstdimension, socio-orientation, which is symbolic of harmonious, deference, obedience, andpleasure relationships. The stress on A-X relations evolved into the second dimension,concept-orientation, which represents initiative, positive, and independent evaluation. Thesocio-oriented parents maintain authorities to their children, but concept-oriented parentshand decision-making power over to their children. The two dimensions, socio- andconcept-orientation, then form four types of communication patterns:

(1) Laissez-faire. Parents emphasize neither socio-orientation nor concept-orientation.They spend little time communicating with their children about consumer issues.Children with this type of communication are prone to be influenced by externalsocialization agents such as peers or the media (Bakir et al., 2005).

(2) Protective. Parents are high socio-oriented but low concept-oriented. They limittheir children to exposure to the media and do not encourage children to haveown opinions. Parents request their children to obey the seniority.

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(3) Pluralistic. Parents are low socio-oriented but high concept-oriented. Instead ofhaving vertical communication, parents emphasize horizontal parent-childrelationships. Parents put their children in a controversy environment andencourage the young generation to make resolutions on their own. Children arerespected for by their parents and are encouraged to discuss ideas openly.

(4) Consensual. Parents emphasis both socio- and concept-orientation. Children areencouraged to develop independent thinking, but parents maintain theauthoritative control within the family.

2.2 Complaint actionsDay and Landon (1977) classified consumer complaint behavior into two hierarchies.The first level discriminates between action and non-action. The second leveldiscriminates between public and private action. Private action is to end the patronageor to generate negative word-of-mouth. Public action involves seeking compensation,taking legal action, or relying on the action of the third-party. Day and Landon (1977)believed that people with political liberty were prone to take public actions. Confidenceis also an influencing factor for those who take public actions (Bearden and Teel, 1983).Customers who lack of confidence are likely to be dubious about taking a complaintaction because they cannot predict reactions to the complaint behavior from serviceproviders. Furthermore, Bearden and Teel (1983) stated that consumers could beunwilling to complain overtly due to fear of embarrassment and avoidance ofconfrontations with the firms.

Based on family communication patterns, McLeod and Chaffee (1972) mentionedthat children in concept-oriented families were more confident. Dumlao and Botta(2000) also indicated that young adults with high concept-orientated communicationpatterns tended to be courageously, but high socio-oriented young adults were likely toacclimatize certain actions. Rose et al. (2002) stated that family communication wasrelated to purchase influence of children. Caruana and Vassallo (2003) concluded thatchildren of concept-oriented parents had an influence on decisions, but those with

Figure 1.Family communicationpatterns

A B

X

X

A B

X

A BA B

XHigh

Low

High

Protective

Pluralistic

Laissez Faire

Consensual

Concept-orientation

Socio-orientation

Notes: A – The child; B – The parent; X – Topic under discussion. Arrowsindicate relations stressed in a particular family communication patternSource: McLeod and O'Keefe (1972)

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socio-oriented parents would not express personal preferences in decisions. Based onthe relevant literature of family communication patterns, the hypotheses H1 and H2 ofthis study are stated as follows:

H1. Adolescents with high concept-oriented family communication patterns arelikely to express personal opinions of dissatisfaction.

H2. Adolescents with high socio-oriented family communication patterns areunlikely to express personal opinions of dissatisfaction.

2.3 Service recoveryService recovery is regarded as part of quality management to maintain relationshipswith customers (Schweikhart et al., 1993). Positive correlations between customersatisfactions and repurchase intentions that led to future profitability were verified(Simon and Kraus, 2005). Proper responses to failures enhance customer loyalty(Hart et al., 1990). Spreng et al. (1995) concluded that a successful recovery would havea positive influence on post-recovery satisfaction and repeat purchase intention.Boshoff (1997) mentioned that effective customer complaint handling such as servicerecovery could be not only beneficial but also effective in increasing levels of customerloyalty. Eccles and Durand (1998) stated that proper service recovery would maximizecustomer retention. Since this study was undertaken to examine how adolescentcustomers react to failure recovery in buffet restaurants, specific hypotheses H3 andH4 are stated as follows:

H3. Adolescent customers who are satisfied with the service failure recovery arelikely to have repeat purchases.

H4. Adolescent customers who are unsatisfied with the service failure recoveryare unlikely to have repeat purchases.

Customers’ judgment of service quality is useful information for service providers(Cronin and Taylor, 1992). Organizations with improved service quality would receivehigher economic returns (Aaker and Jacobson, 1994). Oliver (1977) first pointed outthe concepts of expectation and disconfirmation. Parasuraman et al. (1985) definedservice quality as the difference between customers’ expectations and perceptionsbased on the concepts of disconfirmation. Satisfaction exists when expectations aregreater than perceptions. On the contrary, if expectations are greater than perceptions,the service quality is less satisfactory.

3. Methods3.1 Questionnaire designConsumer survey was administered to generate data for this study. The questionnaireincluded statements of family communication patterns, complaint actions regardingservice failures and food failures, satisfaction with failure recovery, repurchaseintentions, and demographics.

3.1.1 Family communication patterns. Statements of family communicationpatters in the questionnaire were from Moschis and Moore (1979), including fiveitems measuring the socio-oriented dimension and eight items measuring theconcept-oriented dimension. A total of 13 questions of family communication patterns

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were designed using four-point Likert scales. A score of 1 represents least agreementwith the statement and a score of 4 represents most agreement with the statement.Original family communication pattern statements were measured using five-pointLikert scales. Owing to the fact that Asian respondents are more likely to select thecentral scale than American respondents in answering questions using theodd-numbered Likert scales, and Taiwanese respondents had the highest percentagethan other Asian respondents choosing the middle scale (Yeh et al., 1998), the originalfive-point Likert scales of family communication patterns were modified to four-pointLikert scales in order to increase variations of responses.

3.1.2 Complaint actions. Questions related to complaint actions in the questionnairewere divided into service and food failures. Each part included one private, five public,and six parental action items revised from Day and Landon (1977). The study revisedcertain public actions through parents for adolescent customers due to thecharacteristics of adolescents’ parental dependence in Taiwan.

3.1.3 Satisfaction with failure recovery. Four failure recovery items were included inthe questionnaire, offering coupons for next patronage, offering discounts for thecurrent services, giving free desserts, and providing apologies. These options wereobtained based on in-depth discussions with several adolescent customers prior toquestionnaire design. Buffet restaurant managers were further consulted about theoptions offered in restaurants for failure recovery. In this study, the recovery actionswere applied to service- and food-related failures. A score of 1 represents least satisfiedwith the statement and a score of 4 represents most satisfied with the statement.

3.1.4 Repurchase intentions. The same four items of recovery were included forrepeat purchase intentions. These yes/no type of questions were utilized to knowwhether respondents would have intentions to return to the same restaurants ifmanagers offered such compensations.

3.2 Data collectionA trial survey was conducted to examine adequacy of wording in the questionnaire.The formal survey was administered in Taipei from December 24, 2007 to January 4,2008. Quota sampling was applied following the distribution of the population betweenthe ages of 13 and 19. Questionnaires were mailed to three junior high schools andthree senior high schools after obtaining consent from the school administration. Somerespondents aged 19 were personally surveyed at the shopping district of Taipei MRTstation and university campuses in Taipei area. Respondents needed to have parentalagreements for the participation in the survey, and had at least one unsatisfiedexperience in buffet restaurants while dining out with family members in theprevious six months prior to participating in the survey. The number of surveyedrespondents was 482, and the total valid samples were 400. Main reason for surveyedrespondents to be considered as invalid was due to incomplete answers.

4. Results4.1 DemographicsTotal valid samples included equal numbers of female and male respondents, 200 foreach gender. The average age of respondents was 15.95 years old. Frequencies ofdining out for respondents were 1.6 times per month. Personal allowance was NTD2,513 per month on average. Average monthly family income was NTD 75,937.

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4.2 Family communication patternsResults of factorized family communication patterns are listed in Table I. Two dimensions,the socio- and concept-oriented, were considered to be appropriate to explain familycommunication patterns of adolescents in Taiwan. Exploratory factor analysis using themaximum likelihood method with the varimax rotation was applied in the data analysis.Using the exploratory factor analysis, no prior conjecture of the structure in underlyingdimensions is needed, which is different from confirmatory factor analysis thatdimensionality is predetermined. Furthermore, results generated using the exploratoryfactor analysis could reflect the underlying dimensions in the dataset.

Items with loadings less than 0.3 were excluded from the analysis, and the underlyingdimensions were re-analyzed. Two of the original statements were deleted in the factoranalysis due to low loadings on dimensions. The reliability coefficient, Cronbach’s a, wasutilized to measure the internal consistency of the dimensions. The value of Cronbach’s acoefficient of each dimension was above 0.7, indicating acceptable reliability on dimensionsof family communication patterns in this study. Following the fourfold framework basedon McLeod and Chaffee (1972), we classified family communication patterns intolaissez-faire, protective, pluralistic and consensual using median splits. Figure 2 shows thenumber of respondents with unsatisfying experiences in buffet restaurants in eachquadrant of family communication patterns. Owing to few missing data in the familycommunication statements, 15 observations were excluded from the factor analysis andwere not included in Figure 2, the quadrant of family communication patterns.

4.3 Complaint actionsThe complaint actions taken by respondents in each complaint classification areshown in Figure 3. The three circles represent different complaint actions of

Items Concept-oriented Socio-oriented Cronbach’s a

Parents ask what I think about things parentsbought for themselves 0.78 0.01 0.75Parents ask my opinions before buying familythings 0.77 20.07 0.76Parents ask what I think about buying things formyself 0.66 0.08 0.77Parents talk about consumption with me 0.55 0.05 0.77Parents ask my preference before buying thingsfor me 0.54 20.10 0.78Parents tell me where to buy different things 0.46 0.15 0.79Parents tell me not to buy certain things 0.06 0.81 0.71Parents tell me what things I cannot be allowedto buy 0.01 0.79 0.71Parents tell me what things I should or shouldnot buy 0.11 0.76 0.72Parents complain when they do not like somethings I brought for myself 20.08 0.45 0.79Parents want to know what I do with my money 0.05 0.43 0.79Variance explained 0.45 0.49Cronbach’s a 0.80 0.78

Note: Cumulative variance is 94 percent

Table I.Factors of family

communication patterns

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respondents. The overlaps within circles indicate multiple complaint actions byadolescent customers. Several more frequent complaint actions taken by adolescentcustomers were listed in Table II. Whether the complaint actions taken were private,public, or parental were indicated in Table II. Private action was the most often

Figure 2.Family communicationpatterns of adolescentsin Taiwan

LowSocio-Orientation

HighSocio-Orientation

LowConcept-Orientation

Laissez Faire26.23%(n=101)

Protective21.04%(n=81)

HighConcept-Orientation

Pluralistic28.05%(n=108)

Consensual24.68%(n=95)

Median=2.80

Median=2.83

Figure 3.Frequencies of complaintactions due todissatisfaction

Service-related

Parental Actions

Private Actions Private ActionsPublic Actions Public Actions

N=0

N=17 N=6

N=158

N=1N=32N=59

Food-related

Parental Actions

No complaint: N=136 No complaint: N=112

N=1

N=25 N=4

N=152

N=0N=24N=43

Complaint actions

Servicefailures(percent) Complaint actions

Foodfailures(percent)

1. Tell friends (private) 97.71 1. Tell friends (private) 97.542. Complain to attendants through

parents (parental) 62.202. Complain through the internet

(public) 58.103. Complain through the internet

(public) 58.783. Complain to attendants through

parents (parental) 57.754. Complain to attendants by

oneself (public) 49.864. Complain to attendants by

oneself (public) 54.585. Complain through company web

site (public) 45.425. Complain through company web

site (public) 50.35

Table II.Percentages of complaintactions more likely to betaken by adolescents

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applied for adolescent customers to express personal feelings of dissatisfaction inbuffet restaurants. Owing to parental dependency of adolescents in Taiwan,complaining through parents and using the internet were commonly utilized foradolescent customers to voice dissatisfaction.

4.4 The linkage between family communication and complaint actionsMean factor scores of family communication dimensions in different complaint actionsin service failures were listed in Table III. With statistically significant Wilks’ l andANOVA F-values, different complaint classifications were revealed. In concept-orientedcommunication dimension, adolescents who were prone to complain through private,public, or parental actions were likely to have relatively high-mean scores in thesegments of pluralistic and consensual communication patterns. In the socio-orientedcommunication dimension, adolescents who were likely to complain could be reflected inhigh-mean scores in segments of protective and consensual communication patterns.

Scheffe’s test was applied in this study, and the results indicated that for eachdimension of family communication, respondents in certain segments would haverelatively high-mean scores. Complainers in high concept-oriented segments (pluralisticand consensual) scored higher than those complainers in low concept-oriented segments(laissez-faire and protective) in the dimension of concept-oriented family communicationorientation. Similarly, complainers in high socio-oriented segments (protective andconsensual) scored higher than those complainers in low socio-oriented segments(laissez-faire and pluralistic) in the dimension of socio-oriented family communicationorientation. Using dummy coded concept- and socio-oriented variables (low versushigh), bivariate x 2 test result indicated significant difference among complaintrespondents in four segments (x 2 ¼ 244.0, p-value , 0.01).

Similar results were found in food failures (Table IV). High-mean scores ofconcept-oriented (socio-oriented) dimension would be reflected in complaintrespondents of high concept-oriented (socio-oriented) segments. Using dummy codedconcept- and socio-oriented variables (low versus high), bivariate x 2 test resultindicated significant difference among complaint respondents in four segments(x 2 ¼ 266.0, p-value , 0.01). The hypothesis H1 that adolescents with highconcept-oriented family communication patterns are likely to express personalopinions of dissatisfaction was supported, but the hypothesis H2 that adolescents withhigh socio-oriented family communication patterns are unlikely to express personalopinions of dissatisfaction was rejected.

4.5 Service failure recoveryThe level of satisfaction for service or food failure recovery varied. As shown inFigure 4, offering discounts or free desserts could generate relatively high levels ofsatisfaction. Offering coupons for the next patronage was satisfied by less adolescentcustomers, either in service failures or food failures. Consequently, adolescentcustomers preferred to have compensations immediately for failure recovery ratherthan for the next purchases.

4.6 The linkage between service and repeat purchase intentionsThe connection between satisfaction and repeat purchase intentions was listed inTable V. Higher percentage of respondents satisfied with compensations was in the

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Ser

vic

e-re

late

dA

NO

VA

Sch

effe

’s1.

Pro

tect

ive

2.L

aiss

ez-f

aire

3.P

lura

list

ic4.

Con

sen

sual

Fp-

val

ue

com

par

ison

Com

plainers

(n¼

51)

(n¼

57)

(n¼

80)

(n¼

56)

Family

communication

orientation

Con

cep

t-or

ien

ted

20.

782

0.69

0.66

0.63

120.

51,

0.01

*(3

,4)

.(2

,1)

Soc

io-o

rien

ted

0.71

20.

652

0.66

0.75

108.

15,

0.01

*(4

,1)

.(2

,3)

Wil

ks’l¼

0.16

85,F¼

114.

40,p-

val

ue,

0.01

Private

complainers

(n¼

4)(n

¼8)

(n¼

7)(n

¼5)

Family

communication

orientation

Con

cep

t-or

ien

ted

21.

252

0.65

1.13

0.47

25.3

6,

0.01

*(3

,4)

.(2

,1)

Soc

io-o

rien

ted

0.50

20.

342

0.63

0.50

5.07

,0.

01*

(1,

4).

(2,

3)W

ilk

s’l¼

0.12

73,F¼

11.4

2,p-

val

ue,

0.01

Private

andpubliccomplainers

(n¼

10)

(n¼

13)

(n¼

16)

(n¼

4)Family

communication

orientation

Con

cep

t-or

ien

ted

20.

762

0.72

0.68

0.17

18.4

6,

0.01

*(3

,4)

.(2

,1)

Soc

io-o

rien

ted

1.08

20.

692

0.79

0.65

20.4

0,

0.01

*(1

,4)

.(2

,3)

Wil

ks’l¼

0.16

54,F¼

18.4

8,p-

val

ue,

0.01

Private

andparentalcomplainers

(n¼

3)(n

¼6)

(n¼

11)

(n¼

5)Family

communication

orientation

Con

cep

t-or

ien

ted

21.

042

0.60

0.55

1.03

13.8

3,

0.01

*(4

,3)

.(2

,1)

Soc

io-o

rien

ted

0.30

20.

652

0.63

0.60

5.35

,0.

01*

(4,

1).

(3,

2)W

ilk

s’l¼

0.18

87,F¼

8.68

,p-

val

ue,

0.01

Private,publicandparentalcomplainers

Family

communication

orientation

Con

cep

t-or

ien

ted

20.

702

0.70

0.61

0.65

70.7

4,

0.01

*(4

,3)

.(1

,2)

Soc

io-o

rien

ted

0.67

20.

722

0.63

0.81

78.9

1,

0.01

*(4

,1)

.(3

,2)

Wil

ks’l¼

0.15

70,F¼

74.6

8,p-

val

ue,

0.01

Note:

* In

dic

ates

sig

nifi

can

ceat

:0.

01le

vel

Table III.Family communicationorientation towardcomplaint actions inservice failures

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(n¼

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(n¼

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communication

orientation

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20.

882

0.67

0.77

0.42

22.0

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*(3

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0.62

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andpubliccomplainers

(n¼

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(n¼

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(n¼

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(n¼

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Family

communication

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20.

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0.66

0.52

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(n¼

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(n¼

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(n¼

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(n¼

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(n¼

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Table IV.Family communication

orientation towardcomplaint actions in

food failures

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category of repeat patronage, both in service failures and food failures. The studyhypothesized positive relationships between satisfaction and repeat purchases. Hence,H3 of this study was supported.

In general, adolescent customers would cease patronage while they felt unsatisfiedwith the compensations. The results indicated that discount and desserts offered forthe service failure recovery would generate repeat patronage, whether adolescent

Return patronage intention

Satisfaction with compensationCease patronage

(percent)Repeat patronage

(percent) x2 test p-value

Service-relatedCoupon n ¼ 175 n ¼ 225Dissatisfaction (n ¼ 147) 67.43 32.57 125.97 ,0.01 *

Satisfaction (n ¼ 253) 12.89 87.11Discount n ¼ 135 n ¼ 265Dissatisfaction (n ¼ 58) 31.85 68.15 49.49 ,0.01 *

Satisfaction (n ¼ 342) 5.66 94.34Dessert n ¼ 154 n ¼ 246Dissatisfaction (n ¼ 90) 48.05 51.95 93.76 ,0.01 *

Satisfaction (n ¼ 310) 6.5 93.50Apology n ¼ 144 n ¼ 256Dissatisfaction (n ¼ 133) 65.28 34.72 103.99 ,0.01 *

Satisfaction (n ¼ 267) 15.23 84.77Food-related

Coupon n ¼ 175 n ¼ 225Dissatisfaction (n ¼ 209) 85.14 14.86 134.91 ,0.01 *

Satisfaction (n ¼ 191) 26.67 73.33Discount n ¼ 135 n ¼ 265Dissatisfaction (n ¼ 102) 48.89 51.11 58.68 ,0.01 *

Satisfaction(n ¼ 298) 13.58 86.42Dessert n ¼ 154 n ¼ 246Dissatisfaction (n ¼ 146) 63.64 36.36 79.56 ,0.01 *

Satisfaction (n ¼ 254) 19.51 80.49Apology n ¼ 144 n ¼ 256Dissatisfaction (n ¼ 166) 72.92 27.08 91.47 ,0.01 *

Satisfaction (n ¼ 234) 23.83 76.17

Note: *Indicates significance at: 0.01 level

Table V.Service recoverysatisfaction withcompensation andrepeat purchases

Figure 4.Relative frequencies ofrespondents satisfied withcompensation

Satisfaction

85.50%(n=342) 77.50%

(n=310)63.25%(n=253)

66.75%(n=267)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Coupon Discount Dessert Apology

Service-related

Perc

enta

ge

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Perc

enta

ge

Satisfaction

58.50%(n=234)47.75%

(n=191)

63.50%(n=254)

74.50%(n=298)

Coupon Discount Dessert Apology

Food-related

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customers would be satisfied or unsatisfied with the compensations. In food failures,adolescent customers who were unsatisfied with recovery of offering discounts wouldhave repeat patronage. For those who were satisfied with compensations, repeatpatronage was almost certain for the majority of respondents. The study indicatedthat, overall, dissatisfaction with compensations when failures occurred was notsignificantly related to the behavior of ceasing patronage. Compensations should beoffered whenever failures occurred, and discount and desserts seemed to work foradolescent customers in a way to enhance the willingness to return to the samerestaurants. Hence, H4 of this study was partially supported.

5. Discussion5.1 Theoretical implicationCaruana and Vassallo (2003) indicated that children of concept-oriented familycommunication patterns would be more influential on family purchasing decisions.Positive correlations between customer satisfactions and repurchase intentions werediscussed in the literature (Simon and Kraus, 2005). However, how adolescents in differentfamily communication patterns complain due to dissatisfaction as well as how they reactto failures in buffet restaurants were not examined exclusively in the literature.

The findings in this study provide new insights into adolescent customer compliantbehavior and its link to family communication patterns. Adolescents are at the age toexpress dislikeness critically in personal opinions. The findings in this study thatadolescent customers have tendencies to voice dissatisfaction through private, public,or parental actions fill in the gap in the relevant literature of adolescent complaintbehavior and the link to family communication patterns.

Although adolescents who dine out with family members in buffet restaurants maynot be the persons who pay for the meals, adolescent customers who feel unsatisfiedwith food or service would not hesitate to express personal opinions. This area is muchleft uninvestigated in the literature and the findings in this study shed light onbehavioral reactions of unsatisfied adolescent customers which could be used to formbaselines for further research.

5.2 Managerial implicationOwing to the fact that adolescents are rarely the persons who pay for the meals at buffetrestaurants if they are with family members, the complaints of adolescent customers oftenare not in the center of attention in customer relationship management. Consideringinfluences of adolescents within families on decisions, unsatisfied adolescent customerscould be influential that the whole family would switch to other restaurants.

Managers in buffet restaurants need to understand the potential damage caused bydissatisfaction of adolescent customers in customer retention. Since adolescentcustomers communicate with parents in either high concept- or socio-oriented familycommunication patterns, paying attention to criticism of adolescent customers inbuffet restaurants could be a way to enhance overall customer relationships.

Managers need to encourage adolescent customers to voice dissatisfaction andprovide compensations once food- or service-related failures were recognized. Findingsin the study provide new insights into complaint behavior of adolescent customers inbuffet restaurants. Managerial implications based on the results of the study are listedas follows:

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. For adolescent customers, private complaint action is a common way to expressdissatisfaction of dining out in a buffet restaurant. Since complaints offered achance for managers to convert dissatisfied customers into loyal ones (Johnstonand Mehra, 2002). Buffet restaurant managers should give inducements toencourage adolescent customers to complain spontaneously. Managers shouldpay more attention to the message left on the internet and further handlecomplaints in a timely manner.

. Adolescent customers with high concept- and high socio-oriented familycommunication patterns are prone to raise opinions of dissatisfaction. This typeof adolescents is the ones with independent thinking while parents remain theauthoritative control within families. The results indicated that buffet managersshould handle this type of adolescent customers more cautiously in order not todamage the goodwill. Furthermore, complaints are constructive and beneficial ina way for buffet restaurants to enhance satisfaction of customers. Adolescentcustomers with high concept- and socio-oriented family communication patternsmay provide useful suggestions for buffet restaurant managers to improvequality of service and food.

. Adolescent customers would like practical compensations right at the timefailures occurred. Buffet managers may offer discounts for the currentconsumption rather than coupons for the next patronage. Findings in the studyindicate that satisfaction with failure recovery could enhance repeat patronage.

6. ConclusionThis study intended to reveal complaint behavior of adolescent customers in buffetrestaurants and reactions to failure recovery with a link to family communicationpatterns. Based on the results of the study, adolescent customers with highconcept-oriented and high socio- family communication patterns were proneto complain once dissatisfaction occurred. Private actions were preferred byadolescent customers to express dissatisfaction, followed by using the internet orthrough actions of parents.

For service recovery, adolescent customers preferred to have discounts, followed byfree desserts. The results indicated that adolescents were more straightforward andwanted to have compensations immediately after food- or service-related failuresoccurred. Furthermore, service recovery satisfaction was linked with repeat patronage.Adolescent customers who were satisfied with compensations would be likely to havebehaviors of repeat patronage. Nevertheless, adolescents who were unsatisfied withthe service or food recovery did not totally cease the patronage.

7. Limitation and suggestions for future researchLimitations of this study are that the data were collected in one area. The results foundin this study may not be applicable to other cultural settings. Future research needs toextend sampling frame to include consumers from various backgrounds to revealdifferences of adolescent complaint actions as well as satisfaction of failure recovery inbuffet restaurants. Effective and useful mechanism for adolescent customers toexpress dissatisfaction need to be discussed in future studies.

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Corresponding authorJane Lu Hsu can be contacted at: jlu@dragon.nchu.edu.tw

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