Customer-to-Customer Interactional Justice: A New Challenge for Service Recovery via Social Media

Abstract

The authors identify how customer-to-customer online incivility may negatively impact service recovery initiatives that take place via social media. In particular, the authors posit that such behavior necessitates the need to recognize and measure a new form of perceived justice: customer-to-customer interactional justice. Study 1 uses a content analysis to first examine the frequency of online incivility across multiple firms’ social media pages. Study 2 develops a new measure for the customer-to-customer interactional justice construct, which assesses the degree of fair treatment between customers when uncivil communications occur. Study 3 then models the new construct to evaluate its impact on other forms of organizational justice perceptions during a service recovery via social media. Theoretical implications include extending the perceived justice framework to include a customer-to-customer component. Managerial implications include the need for firms to manage customer-to-customer interactions when uncivil behavior occurs on corporate social media channels. Failure to do so may harm how customers perceive a company’s service recovery efforts.