Smile or pity? Examine the impact of emoticon valence on customer satisfaction and purchase intention

Emoticons are pictorial/textual depictions of facial expressions used in marketing communications. Little is known about how customers interpret positive or negative emoticons used by customer service employees in service failure contexts. We investigate the impact of emoticon type on customer satisfaction and re-purchasing intention, and examine the sequential mediating role of perceived sincerity and willingness to forgive. Results show that the use of a negative emoticon in a response leads to a higher level of customer satisfaction and re-purchasing intention than responses with a positive emoticon. We further demonstrate that customers perceive that the presence of a negative emoticon in a response is more sincere and generates a higher level of forgiveness than those responses that use positive emoticons, but only when the communal relationship is salient in the customer’s mind. Our findings offer important theoretical and practical implications in service failure contexts.