Last Chance to Listen: Listening Behaviors and their Effect on Call Center Satisfaction

Call centers have become an important element in the service recovery process. Listening is an essential skill in these voice-to-voice service encounters. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of three types of listening behaviors (attentiveness, perceptiveness, and responsiveness) on call center satisfaction and future purchase intention. The data collection involved recontacting hotel guests (n = 282) who had lodged complaints with the customer call center for the sponsoring hotel company. The authors' findings indicate that attentiveness and perceptiveness might be the most salient dimensions of listening behavior in the context of service recovery. In addition, the authors provide some evidence of the usefulness of offering tangible compensation to dissatisfied hotel guests.