All words have consequences: Concrete versus abstract language in management response to hotel guest reviews

Abstract

Hospitality managers increasingly respond to hotel guest reviews to achieve customer satisfaction and cultivate customer relationships. Conventional wisdom suggests that concrete language is more effective in customer service encounters. However, little is known whether, when and why abstract versus concrete management response is more effective in achieving customer satisfaction. We adopt a mixed-method approach with a big data study based on a sample of 1,253,668 reviews from 2306 hotels and two scenario-based laboratory experiments. We show that abstract (versus concrete) management response fosters greater customer satisfaction when it addresses positive (versus negative) reviews or is from a senior manager (versus junior staff). When responding to positive (versus negative) reviews or issued by a senior manager (versus junior staff), the abstract (versus concrete) response enhances customers’ perceived warmth (versus perceived competence). Our findings provide meaningful guidelines for the hospitality and tourism industry.