This study investigates how restaurants use transparency to rebuild trust when responding publicly to 1-star Google reviews in three English-speaking contexts: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. A corpus of 1,500 business replies was compiled from restaurants rated 4 stars or higher, posted in 2024-2025 across major urban centres. Using corpus-assisted discourse analysis, the study combines keyword, collocation, and concordance analysis to examine a selection of transparency markers (e.g., “explain” , “because”, “reason”) and trust markers (e.g., “honest” “ensure” , , “acknowledge”). Results show broad convergence in public complaint replies: restaurants tend to make accountability visible through apology, recognition of the complaint, explanation, and references to follow-up. At the same time, national styles differ in tone and emphasis: UK replies are more formal and restrained, US replies more personal and reassurance-oriented, and Australian replies more direct, friendly, and action-focused.
TRANSPARENCY AND TRUST IN CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGEMENT: A cross-cultural study of restaurant responses to online complaints
Gianmarco Vignozzi
Primo
2026-01-01
Abstract
This study investigates how restaurants use transparency to rebuild trust when responding publicly to 1-star Google reviews in three English-speaking contexts: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. A corpus of 1,500 business replies was compiled from restaurants rated 4 stars or higher, posted in 2024-2025 across major urban centres. Using corpus-assisted discourse analysis, the study combines keyword, collocation, and concordance analysis to examine a selection of transparency markers (e.g., “explain” , “because”, “reason”) and trust markers (e.g., “honest” “ensure” , , “acknowledge”). Results show broad convergence in public complaint replies: restaurants tend to make accountability visible through apology, recognition of the complaint, explanation, and references to follow-up. At the same time, national styles differ in tone and emphasis: UK replies are more formal and restrained, US replies more personal and reassurance-oriented, and Australian replies more direct, friendly, and action-focused.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
