Rejecting consumer complaints in customer encounters on Twitter - the case of English and Polish brand communication

Abstract The following study focuses on strategies of denial and evasion of company responsibility used in responding to complaints, negative and critical comments posted by consumers on English and Polish brand profiles on Twitter. The analysis shows that despite the face-threat these acts may pose to the consumer and, consequently, to the company’s image, the companies do not refrain from using strategies denying the complainable and disagreeing with the customer. The study shows that companies resort to a range of sub-strategies of evasion and denial of blame, such as referral to external circumstances and regulations, thanks, blaming a third party, statements of unawareness of the complainable, simple denial of the complainable, expression of personal opinion or criticism of the consumer, among others. The study indicated differences between the English and Polish profiles as to the range and frequency of use of the strategies of rejecting consumers’ complaints. The Polish corpus offers a greater occurrence and a wider range of evasion and denial strategies used in reaction to consumers’ negative or critical opinions and complaints.