Humor in Webcare Interactions: Impacts on Focal Customer Satisfaction and Positive Word-of-Mouth Intentions

In an era where digital communication continues to redefine the landscape of customer service, the use of humor in webcare emerges as a potential strategy for companies to influence the dynamics of customer interactions. This thesis therefore studies the underexplored role of humor in webcare, sheds light on its complex effects on customer service evaluations, and provides strategic insights for businesses striving to enhance interactions with online customers. This research adds to the existing literature on humor in webcare by investigating the reactions of complaint posters, as well as the use of self-enhancing humor against aggressive humor. Through a comprehensive literature review and experimental research, this study examines these two humor styles influence focal customer satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth intentions in webcare interactions. The research uses a 2 (self-enhancing humor vs aggressive humor) by 2 (provision of compensation vs no provision) between-subjects design to analyze data collected in the online survey and test the hypotheses. In the context of a complaint about a faulty phone, the findings show that the use of self-enhancing humor in the company’s response, despite being a positive form of humor, does not lead to better customer service evaluations than aggressive humor. Then, anxiety relief was not found to moderate the relationship between humor and customer service evaluations. Furthermore, male customers were not found to have significantly more positive reactions to aggressive humor compared to female customers. Finally, no interaction effect between humor and compensation could be identified when compensation was offered in the humorous reply. Following the quantitative analysis, theoretical implications and managerial recommendations are presented.