Do you respond sincerely? How sellers''''responses to online reviews affect customer relationship and repurchase intention

摘要

For many online businesses,online reviews are crucially important to managing reputation,word-of-mouth sales,and,ultimately,their survival.Hence,more and more on line business owners are posting public responses to both positive and negative reviews.But do these responses change anything?And,if so,which types of responses are the most effective for strengthening customer relationship and increasing the chances of repeat business?With two surveys and a series of partial least squares-structural equation modeling(PLS-SEM)analyses,we tested three releva nt hypotheses to an swer these questions.The results show that when busi ness replies to online reviews with promotional information,consumers perceive the seller to be self-interested,and both relati on ship quality and repurchase intenti on decrease.However,sincere responses that do not contain promotional information,such as gratitude and apology,are highly correlated to positive relationship quality and the likelihood of future repeat business.These findings enrich the academic literature on on line reviews,and the recommendations stemming from our results should be of interest to any business that relies on their online reputation for survival.