Too busy to help: Antecedents and outcomes of interactional justice in web-based service encounters

• Web-based live-chat support services are one promising and growing in popularity means toward improving customer service.
• We study the success factors of such services using service marketing and justice lenses of analysis.
• We apply SEM techniques to data collected from users of live-chat support services of two libraries.
• The findings suggest that interactional justice is an important success driver, which is diminished by the perceived busyness of the service provider.
• The findings also suggest that this effect is moderated by the duration of the live-chat session.
• Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Customer service is an important aspect of virtually all organizations. Thus, many try to find ways to improve it. Web-based live-chat support services are one promising means toward this end. However, such services and their success factors have been rarely studied. This study bridges this gap. It builds on justice and service marketing theories, and examines key factors that drive intentions to continue using web-based live-chat support services and to provide positive word-of-mouth. The results suggest that these outcomes are increased through interactional justice perceptions, which are diminished by the perceived busyness of the service provider. It is also suggested that the latter effect is moderated by the duration of the live-chat session; when the session is long the effect is stronger. Data collected from 86 users of a library web-based live-chat service were analyzed with structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques and support this view. Implications for research and practice are discussed.