Explaining the effect of justice and empathy on the forgiving behavior of the consumer: Investigating the moderating role of the relationship with the seller

Customer forgiveness is an important strategy for service companies to improve and recover services. The purpose of this study is to explain the effect of justice and empathy on the forgiving behavior of the consumer by considering the moderating role of the relationship with the Seller. The present study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of nature and method and is cross-sectional. The population of this study is Internet taxi customers who were selected using Cochran's formula, 187 people. The data collection tool is a questionnaire that is distributed in person. In this study, content validity and Convergent construct validity and divergent validity were measured and the reliability was obtained by calculating Cronbach's alpha factor coefficients and combined reliability. Spss25 and Smart Pls2.0 software were used for data analysis. The results show that justice and empathy have a positive and significant effect on consumer forgiveness and consumer forgiveness has a positive and significant effect on forgiving behavior and the period of relationship with the Seller is able to moderate the impact of consumer forgiveness on forgiving behavior. By creating empathy and justice, the consumer can be forgiven. If the company provides inappropriate services, the customer can see forgiving behaviors. Justice and empathy in customer relationships and the duration of customer relationships are important factors in consumer forgiveness behaviors.If companies apply empathy and justice in their relationships with Seller, if they also rendered inappropriate services, the consumer forgives them instead of taking revenge and displays forgiving behaviors.