The Impact Of Apology Style On Consumer Trust Repair

Corporate trust violation can damage consumer trust in a company and affect its sustainability.Apology is a common trust repair measure that can alleviate negative consumer sentiment,repair trust and promote forgiveness.With the growth of social networks,more and more companies are using social media platforms to apologize in a daily,colloquial way in order to regain consumer trust.When and how is this informal style of apology work? How can companies make effective apologies? This study aims to investigate the impact of apology style and trust violation type on trust repair and its underlying psychological mechanisms.Study 1(n = 220)used a 2(trust violation type: competence vs.integrity)x 2(apology style: formal vs.informal)between-subjects design in the context of a fictional food company to measure perceived warmth,perceived competence,forgiveness,and trust,and to explore the interaction between apology style and trust violation type on trust repair and the possible mediating mechanisms.Study 2(n=211)changed the contextual situation to test the research hypothesis again and to further explore the mediating role of perceived sincerity and the influence of perceived distinctiveness.The results showed that(1)trust violation type moderated the effect of apology style on trust repair,with informal apology style(vs.formal apology style)being more effective in trust repair and gaining more forgiveness and trust in the integritybased trust violation condition.(2)The interaction between apology style and type of trust violation influenced trust repair through the mediation of perceived warmth,with higher perceived warmth for informal apology style(vs.formal apology style)and better trust repair in the integrity-based trust violation condition.(3)The mediating role of perceived warmth worked primarily through the perceived sincerity component,with higher perceived sincerity and better trust repair for the informal apology style(vs.formal apology style)in the integrity-based trust violation condition.(4)The chain of perceived distinctiveness and perceived sincerity was significantly mediated by the informal apology style(vs.formal apology style)for the integritybased trust violation,with higher perceived distinctiveness of the apology,which in turn positively influenced perceived sincerity and resulted in better trust repair.The study verifies the role of apology style and trust violation type on trust repair,which helps to understand the effectiveness of apology style and its mechanism of action,and helps companies to better understand trust violation crisis situations and make appropriate responses to repair consumer trust.