Warned yet ignored: when customer guilt amplifies or attenuates negative word-of-mouth in group service settings

Customer forewarnings (i.e. proactive alerts about potential service problems) are a common but understudied service recovery strategy. Two experiments examine how ignored forewarnings before group service failures influence consumers’ emotions and revenge-motivated negative word-of-mouth (NWOM). Results indicate that forewarnings, even when ignored, reduce NWOM compared to no forewarnings. Without forewarnings, anger drives high NWOM. However, ignored forewarnings induce guilt, decreasing NWOM unless responsibility is shared among group members, which paradoxically amplifies NWOM. This study reveals guilt’s dual role in shaping retaliation, contributing theoretically by highlighting conditions under which forewarnings shift blame attribution and negative emotions, ultimately protecting firms from online backlash.