Self‐service technology complaint channel choice

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to explore consumers' motives for their choice of complaint channel in the context of self‐service technology (SST) failure. Traditional and evolving communication channels are considered.Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative self‐report data from consumers who had recently experienced dissatisfaction with SSTs were collected via an open‐ended survey question. Three independent coders used a deductive and inductive iterative process to code the data.Findings – The findings suggest that both consumer complaint behaviour (CCB) theory and media richness theory (MRT) help to explain consumers' motivation for channel choice. However, consumers' choice appears to be motivated to a greater degree by convenience rather than task‐medium fit.Research limitations/implications – This study was set solely in the SST context and explored consumers' hypothetical complaint channel choice, not actual channel use. Future research could examine the actual performance of complaint channels as pe...