Customer behavior and adoption · Empirical survey study of customers reporting complaint experiences, testing perceived-justice dimensions.
Customer Evaluations of Service Complaint Experiences: Implications for Relationship Marketing
Stephen S. Tax, Stephen W. Brown, Murali Chandrashekaran (1998). Customer Evaluations of Service Complaint Experiences: Implications for Relationship Marketing. Journal of Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299806200205.
Plain-English take
Complaint-handling satisfaction was determined by distributive, procedural and interactional justice; the study provides evidence that recovery evaluations shape relationship outcomes. For your marketing: Use as a behavioral mechanism or experiment-design reference, not a direct forecast for a SaaS funnel.
How much weight to give this
2.5/5 Evidence needs cautious interpretation
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
Empirical survey study of customers reporting complaint experiences, testing perceived-justice dimensions.
Customers who had recently complained about a service; the publisher record describes complaint experiences.
Judged from the publisher-described design and comparison; inspect the paper for complete analysis.
Publisher page and abstract were retrieved directly; full text was not assumed open.
Double-blind? Blinding was not established from the retrieved publisher record.
Research question
What the authors investigated
How do customers evaluate service complaint experiences, and which justice dimensions explain satisfaction and relationship outcomes?
Design
Empirical survey study of customers reporting complaint experiences, testing perceived-justice dimensions.
Sample and setting
Customers who had recently complained about a service; the publisher record describes complaint experiences.
Reported result
What the study found
Complaint-handling satisfaction was determined by distributive, procedural and interactional justice; the study provides evidence that recovery evaluations shape relationship outcomes.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
The setting is complaint episodes and the design is survey/associational; it does not identify a randomized recovery intervention or establish causal retention effects.
Possible founder application
Use as a behavioral mechanism or experiment-design reference, not a direct forecast for a SaaS funnel.
Evidence access
Publisher record and abstract retrieved; consult the linked paper for full methods and tables.
SAGE/APA indexed abstract and publisher record identify the empirical complaint-experience study and the three justice dimensions. Direct publisher-page retrieval was recorded on 2026-10-09; this profile uses the publisher abstract/metadata and does not claim independent review of unavailable full text.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.