Opportunistic customer complaining: Causes, consequences, and managerial alternatives

Should a hospitality firm yield to a customer complaint that is suspected [or even known] to be opportunistic? While the answer to this question varies based upon numerous factors, this conceptual article synthesizes multiple streams of empirical research to enumerate: (1) customer-centric, firm-centric [such as the influence of firm size], and relationship-centric determinants of opportunistic customer complaining; (2) means of detecting whether a complaint is opportunistic [such as through employee knowledge of operations]; and (3) potential consequences to the firm of yielding and not yielding to opportunistic complaints.

• Customers’ personality traits contribute to opportunistic complaining.
• Opportunistic complaining is more apt to occur in large firms.
• Opportunistic complaining is inversely related to customers’ justice perceptions.
• One-time transactions are more susceptible to opportunistic complaining.