Abstract
COVID-19's waves of change continue to be visible in today's business practices, such that concerns have been raised about the potential misuse of the crisis as an excuse for poor service. This study builds on Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and Service Quality (SERVQUAL) Theory to investigate public beliefs and sentiments regarding businesses that may be using COVID-19 as an excuse for offering bad levels of service quality. Using a big data approach, thematic, sentiment and emotion analyses were performed on 1,904 consumers' comments scraped from YouTube videos discussing the phenomenon. Our results suggested that belief is a four-theme structure comprising of: the COVID rules are illogical; 2) companies taking advantage to reduce costs/effort; 3) general incompetence and poor service; and 4) customers inconvenienced by COVID service reductions. Moreover, the majority of sentiments were negative, resembling emotions like helplessness, fear and frustration. Overall, the synthesis of thematic, sentiment, and emotion analyses presented a cohesive narrative of public dissatisfaction and distrust towards the handling of service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.