Don’t Humor Me! Customers’ Moral Perceptions Toward Companies’ Humorous Responses in Social Media Service Recovery

Abstract Past research has proposed humor as an innovative complement to recovery strategies in social media complaint handling, as it can bring benefits to the company, such as increased social media engagement from other customers. However, these studies focused on the perspective of customers who are not directly affected by service failures. The current research suggests that humorous recovery poses a dilemma as it may be perceived and responded to differently by focal customers (i.e., those who experience service failures). Drawing on benign violation theory, we argue that humorous recovery will be less favored by focal customers due to the stressful situations they are experiencing, thereby impeding recovery effectiveness. Findings across a series of experimental studies indicate that humorous recovery reduces focal customers’ perceptions of company morality, primarily due to the increased likelihood of such responses being perceived as sarcastic. This decrease in perceived company morality subsequently heightens negative affect, leading to reduced focal customer forgiveness. Nevertheless, the negative effects of humorous recovery can be minimized under certain circumstances. First, companies should use humorous recovery only when the service failure is less relevant to the company’s core business. When the service failure is highly relevant to the core business, humorous recovery becomes counterproductive, regardless of the cause of the failure. Second, humorous recovery timing is crucial. Specifically, humorous recovery is more morally acceptable after the service failure has been resolved. When used before the service failure has been resolved, humorous recovery is less appropriate, further undermining its effectiveness.