Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/49660 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
CeDEx Discussion Paper Series No. 2009-12
Publisher: 
The University of Nottingham, Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (CeDEx), Nottingham
Abstract: 
After an unsatisfactory purchase, many firms are quick to apologize to customers. It is, however, not clear why they should do that. As the apology is costless, it should be regarded as cheap talk and thus ignored by the customer. In this paper, we test in a controlled field experiment whether apologizing in fluences customers' subsequent behavior. We find that apologizing yields much better outcomes for the firm than offering a monetary compensation.
Subjects: 
apology
credulity
natural field experiment
JEL: 
C93
D82
L81
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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