Understanding the Impact of Tie Strength on Customer's Perceived Justice and Satisfaction: Insights from Service Failures in Customer-Firm Interactions

The frequent interaction between customers and firms generates tie strength (TS) among them, which may be impaired due to service failures, as organizations are not exempt from such scenarios. With using survey-based data from 348 Ecuadorian costumers with service failure experience, this research aims to demonstrate the moderating effect of TS (high versus low) on the relationship between perceived justice dimensions and complaint and cumulative satisfaction (CUS), thus extending our understanding of justice theory and relationship marketing. The results reveal that when the customer's TS to the firm is strong (versus weak), the moderating effect influences the relationship between distributive justice perception and CUS. Additionally, under the influence of strong ties, the relationship between both procedural and interactional justice and complaint satisfaction is strengthened. On the contrary, low levels of ties affect the evaluations of the recovery processes and procedures, as well as the handling of complaints regarding time and speed implemented by firms, without achieving an impact on customer behavior. These findings have important implications, as they highlight the need for managers to consider the type of relationship with the existing customers when designing and implementing recovery strategies. © 1973-2011 IEEE.