How to placate the disgruntled.

• Position: Customer Relations - Brief article

Sometimes less is more when it comes to placating disgruntled customers, maintain Tulane University researchers in the A.B. Freeman School of Business, New Orleans, and it all depends on whether the customer is an optimist or pessimist.

According to Harish Sujan, professor of marketing, retailers often assume that "more is better" when it comes to appeasing unhappy customers. For example, it is thought that offering a replacement rather than a fix of a defective product is a wise business practice, as is adding a gift to compensation for a shirt ruined in dry cleaning.

However, sometimes more can be worse, Sujan indicates, especially if the customer is an optimist. In a study where a hotel failed to give the customer the type of room requested, being offered a free night's stay seemed an overly generous resolution to some customers, triggering their suspicions of...