The effect of emotional provider support on angry versus anxious consumers

This paper examines the trend in service firms to integrate an emotional dimension into provider responses to consumer emotions. An empirical study showed that such a strategy is effective only if the consumer coping demonstrates an emotional engagement with the service episode. Because both angry and anxious consumers cope primarily by planful problem solving (i.e., attempting to resolve the situation and attain their consumption goal), provider responses that offered solutions (instrumental support) were more effective than responses that offered emotional support. Further, angry consumers were emotionally engaged with the situation while anxious consumers emotionally disengaged from it. Consequently, provider response that included emotional support and instrumental support was the most effective for angry consumers, but there was no benefit to also including emotional support for anxious consumers. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.