Help or Hurt? How Response Satisfaction Shapes the Impact of Managerial Responses on Future Customer Engagement

Abstract

Managerial responses to online reviews not only influence the customers who receive them, but also are kept online as a public reference, influencing future customer engagement. This research investigates how businesses can enhance their response strategies by considering the satisfaction of potential customers (observers). To reconcile inconsistencies in the existing literature on the effectiveness of managerial responses, we introduce response satisfaction of potential customers as a key moderator. Analyzing data from a leading travel platform in China, our study shows that response satisfaction significantly moderates the impact of managerial responses on both review volume and valence. Specifically, while MR-Ns can increase overall review engagement, their effect is most beneficial when perceived satisfaction is high, which helps reduce additional negative feedback and promote a more positive review sentiment. Conversely, responses to positive reviews drive higher review valence when response satisfaction is relatively low, suggesting that overly polished responses may dampen their effectiveness. These results indicate that businesses should prioritize crafting satisfactory responses to negative reviews, while responses to positive reviews may require less attention to satisfaction metrics. We further provide businesses with strategic insights to optimize their response efforts by identifying key factors that influence response satisfaction and developing a machine-learning model to predict it. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Keywords: managerial response, response satisfaction, online reviews, customer engagement, moderating effect