The impact of selected customer characteristics and response time on E-complaint satisfaction and return intent

Customer service centers have become an important element in the complaint-handling process. In response to the changing needs of the Cyber customer, many hospitality companies have put the power to complain in the hands of their customers via e-mail complaints. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of customers' technology readiness or enthusiasm and response time on satisfaction with the complaint handling process and return intent. The data collection involved re-contacting hotel guests (n=446) who had lodged a complaint with the sponsoring hotel company via e-mail. Our findings indicate that satisfaction with the problem handling and repurchase intentions are directly related to the time taken to respond. Moreover, technology enthusiasts were more demanding of an immediate response than their counterparts, who tend to be less responsive to advances in information technology. Implications to electronic complaint management systems are briefly discussed.