White Lies and Pardons: The Role of Consumer Forgiveness in Relationships with Service Providers

This paper investigates what happens in a consumer/service provider relationship when the provider intentionally deceives the customer. More concretely, the current research explores how consumers react to different levels of deception on the part of the service provider. Furthermore, how does the consumers relationship with the brand impact how they respond to the deception? After experiencing a significant deception, is the committed consumer more likely to forgive the provider with whom they have a strong relationship, or will a stronger relationship result in a more pronounced perception of betrayal and thus cause a greater negative response between the customer and the firm? Results indicate that those who were devoted to the relationship did indeed not display negative psychological effects or generate negative firm attitudes after a firm significantly misbehaved. On the other hand, those less devoted reported a decrease in attitude toward the brand and suffered increased negative mood following the bad behavior. This pattern fits with the idea that individuals often treat their preferred brands as relationship partners.