When pushing back is good: the effectiveness of brand responses to social media complaints

Conventional wisdom suggests that brands should respond in an accommodative way to consumer complaints. However, this research shows that observers of the communication between complainants and brands on social media may prefer a defensive response under specific conditions. Thus, this study helps managers to find optimal responses to social media complaints, thereby minimizing negative consequences. We introduce a previously unexamined key moderator that takes account of the observer perspective: the benefits sought in the context of a complainant–brand interaction (e.g., brand presences in social media). Hence, we differentiate hedonic from utilitarian contexts and we note the distinct observer benefits and corresponding preferences. A field study and a series of experiments show that a defensive response can be superior in hedonic contexts but inferior in utilitarian ones. We also show how response strategy indirectly affects observers’ behavioral consequences and identify complaint reasoning and brand communication style as relevant boundary conditions.