Complaint behaviour in multichannel retailing: a cross-stage approach

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Frasquet ◽  
Marco Ieva ◽  
Cristina Ziliani
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Multichannel Retailing ◽  
Synergy Effects ◽  
Lock In Effect ◽  
Lock In ◽  
Post Purchase

PurposeThis paper analyses how the purchase channel and customer complaint goals affect the sequential choice of post–purchase complaint channels when customers experience a service failure followed by a service recovery failure (double deviation).Design/methodology/approachAn online survey involving a scenario manipulation was conducted with 577 apparel shoppers. The study employs multi-group latent class analysis to estimate latent customer segments within both online and offline groups of shoppers and compare latent classes between the two groups.FindingsThe results show that the purchase channel has a lock-in effect on the complaint channel, which is stronger for offline buyers. Moreover, there is evidence of channel synergy effects in the case of having to complain twice: shoppers who complain in store in the first attempt turn to online channels in the second complaint attempt, and vice versa. Complaint goals shape the choice of complaint channels and define different shopper segments.Originality/valueThe present study is the first to adopt a cross-stage approach that analyses the dependencies between the purchase channel and the complaint channel used on two subsequent occasions: the first complaint after a service failure and the second following a service recovery failure.

Guest preferences for service recovery procedures: conjoint analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung Hyun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Conjoint Analysis ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Failures ◽  
Service Failure And Recovery ◽  
Upper Level

Purpose The ongoing challenge for hospitality firms is not to avoid service failures completely but rather to find effective ways of recovering from them. The purpose of this paper is to adopt conjoint analysis to examine guest preferences for service recovery actions that are taken simultaneously and the effect of such actions in the context of hotels in order to seek answers to the following research questions: what type of compensation bundle is most preferred by guests? and How effective are compensations in terms of recovery satisfaction, especially with regard to subsequent behavioral intentions? Design/methodology/approach In order to study guest preferences for compensation, choice-based conjoint (CBC) experiments were used. The CBC survey method involves presenting respondents with several hypothetical scenarios that include numerous combinations of compensation attributes. The survey sample was recruited through web-based panels run by a marketing firm. The online survey was designed and built in the Sawtooth Software platform. Conjoint analysis was carried out. Findings The conjoint analysis results show that among the different compensation attributes, consumers preferred discounts the most, followed by corrective actions and loyalty points. Among the discount levels, consumers favored “free one night certificate for a future stay” over “100 percent off one night’s room bill.” Regarding loyalty points, consumers desire more points than fewer points. In terms of correction levels, consumers appear to desire an “upgrade to a suite” over just moving to another room or having the original room cleaned. Moreover, consumers prefer that service recovery be handled by upper-level management. Research limitations/implications Several limitations should be discussed. For example, the type of service failure studied was limited to a booked room not being clean upon check-in. Different types and magnitudes of service failures may result in a different set of preferences for compensation bundles. In addition, the compensation attributes and levels were limited in scope even though they were obtained from interviews with managers at midsize hotels. Other attributes and attribute levels can be included in future studies. Originality/value Although an abundant number of studies have been done regarding service failure and recovery, the extent to which service recovery needs to be carried out before it translates into actual recovery remains unanswered. Using conjoint analysis, the study identified exactly which bundle of compensation items was most preferred by guests.

Explanation information and source in service recovery initiatives

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Baker ◽  
Tracy Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Source Credibility ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Positive Outcome ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Full Account ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Failure And Recovery

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to specifically consider two interactional aspects that are likely to contribute to the success of an explanation of why a service failed: the adequacy of information provided and role of the person providing the information. Design/methodology/approach – Two empirical studies were conducted using a between-subjects 2 (information: low vs high) × 2 (employee: frontline vs manager) experimental design. The first study was designed to better understand when the information provided might have a more positive impact on the customer. The second study was conducted to understand why the effects exist. Findings – In Study 1, an interaction effect was seen that suggests that the most positive outcome is when the manager (vs the frontline employee) provides a full explanation (vs limited explanation) of the mishap. Results from Study 2 indicate that source credibility is in play. Research limitations/implications – Participants were asked to respond to service failure and recovery scenarios using the same service context. The means of the outcome variables suggest that the recovery effort could be improved upon with other methods. Practical implications – Contrary to suggestions that frontline employees be responsible to resolve service failures, our studies reveal that service recovery initiatives involving an explanation only are best received when the manager provides the customer a full account of what went wrong. Originality/value – This research provides empirical evidence of when and why more information regarding the cause of a service failure is most positively received by the customer.

Service recovery for moderate and high involvement services

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 331-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silke Bambauer-Sachse ◽  
Landisoa Eunorphie Rabeson
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Level Of Service ◽  
High Involvement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Failure Severity ◽  
Future Consumption ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine which level of tangible compensation for a service failure leads to high levels of customer satisfaction for moderate- versus high-involvement services as well as for different conditions of responsibility for the failure and failure severity. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a 4 (tangible compensation: gift, discount, credit for future consumption, refund) × 2 (responsibility for the failure: restaurant vs customer) × 2 (failure severity: low vs high) × 2 (involvement: moderate vs high) design using scenarios in a restaurant context. Findings – The results reveal that, for moderate-involvement services, all types of compensation are equally appropriate, except for when customers are responsible for a severe failure. In this condition, they expect tangible compensation of higher benefit. For high-involvement services, the more severe the failure, the higher the benefit of tangible compensation should be, independent of responsibility. Practical implications – The findings suggest that managers should consider the level of service involvement as well as responsibility for and severity of the failure when choosing the level of tangible compensation. Originality/value – The results of this study provide new insights into how to choose appropriate and efficient service recovery measures.

When service providers fail: outsourcing help and consumer attitudes

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
Aaron Gazley ◽  
Hamish Simmonds
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Ethnocentrism ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Delivery Channel

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of outsourcing and offshoring on brand loyalty in a service recovery context. In addition, the effect that consumer ethnocentrism has on these relationships is examined. Design/methodology/approach An experiment was designed using a series of service recovery scenarios that manipulated whether the recovery effort was conducted by an in-house/outsourced or local/offshored party. Findings The study shows that while outsourcing service recovery within the home country has no effect on loyalty, outsourcing to an offshore location does. In addition, the effect of offshoring of loyalty is greater for consumers who hold ethnocentric tendencies. Practical implications This research suggests the need to consider the delivery channel of service recovery to recover a service failure and retain customer loyalty. The results show that outsourcing within a local country may be effective, but the risks associated with offshoring are much greater. Originality/value Despite previous attempts to understand outsourcing and offshoring in a range of service scenarios, their role in service recovery is not well understood. Similarly, the impact that ethnocentrism might have on this process is overlooked. This paper therefore responds to calls within business theory, practice and consults for further study in this under-researched area.

scholarly journals Why service recovery fails

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Michel ◽  
David Bowen ◽  
Robert Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Human Resources Management ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Recovery ◽  
Service Logic ◽  
Recovery Management ◽  
A Company

PurposeThe keys to effective service recovery are familiar to many throughout industry and academia. Nevertheless, overall customer satisfaction after a failure has not improved, and many managers claim their organizations cannot respond to and fix recurring problems quickly enough. Why does service recovery so often fail and what can managers do about it? This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachThe objective is to produce an interdisciplinary summary of the growing literature on service recovery, bringing together what each of the author's domain – management, marketing, and human resources management – has to offer. By contrasting those three perspectives using 141 academic sources, nine tensions between customer, process, and employee recovery are discovered.FindingsIt is argued that service recovery often fails due to the unresolved tensions found between the conflicting perspectives of customer recovery, process recovery, and employee recovery. Therefore, successful service recovery requires the integration of these different perspectives. This is summarized in the following definition: “Service recovery are the integrative actions a company takes to re‐establish customer satisfaction and loyalty after a service failure (customer recovery), to ensure that failure incidents encourage learning and process improvement (process recovery) and to train and reward employees for this purpose (employee recovery).”Practical implicationsManagers are not advised to directly address and solve the nine tensions between customer recovery, process recovery, and employee recovery. Instead, concentrating on the underlying cause of these tensions is recommended. That is, managers should strive to integrate service recovery efforts based upon a “service logic”; a balance of functional subcultures; strategy‐driven resolution of functional differences; data‐based decision making from the seamless collection and sharing of information; recovery metrics and rewards; and development of “T‐shaped” employees with a service, not just functional, mindset.Originality/valueThis paper provides an interdisciplinary view of the difficulties to implement a successful service recovery management. The contribution is twofold. First, specific tensions between customer, process and employee recovery are identified. Second, managers are offered recommendations of how to integrate the diverging perspectives.

The CURE scale: a multidimensional measure of service recovery strategy

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rania Mostafa ◽  
Cristiana R. Lages ◽  
Maria Sääksjärvi
Keyword(s):  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Telecommunications Industry ◽  
Comprehensive Assessment ◽  
Response Effort ◽  
Recovery Strategy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Path Modelling ◽  
Individual Strategies ◽  
Formative Index

Purpose – This paper aims to address the gaps in service recovery strategy assessment. An effective service recovery strategy that prevents customer defection after a service failure is a powerful managerial instrument. The literature to date does not present a comprehensive assessment of service recovery strategy. It also lacks a clear picture of the service recovery actions at managers’ disposal in case of failure and the effectiveness of individual strategies on customer outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Based on service recovery theory, this paper proposes a formative index of service recovery strategy and empirically validates this measure using partial least-squares path modelling with survey data from 437 complainants in the telecommunications industry in Egypt. Findings – The CURE scale (CUstomer REcovery scale) presents evidence of reliability as well as convergent, discriminant and nomological validity. Findings also reveal that problem-solving, speed of response, effort, facilitation and apology are the actions that have an impact on the customer’s satisfaction with service recovery. Practical implications – This new formative index is of potential value in investigating links between strategy and customer evaluations of service by helping managers identify which actions contribute most to changes in the overall service recovery strategy as well as satisfaction with service recovery. Ultimately, the CURE scale facilitates the long-term planning of effective complaint management. Originality/value – This is the first study in the service marketing literature to propose a comprehensive assessment of service recovery strategy and clearly identify the service recovery actions that contribute most to changes in the overall service recovery strategy.

Why didn’t it work out? The effects of attributions on the efficacy of recovery strategies

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 700-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Iglesias ◽  
Concepción Varela-Neira ◽  
Rodolfo Vázquez-Casielles
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Retail Banking ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Final Sample ◽  
Customer Defection ◽  
Recovery Strategies ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of attributions on the efficacy of service recovery strategies in preventing customer defection following a service failure. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical investigation is carried out on the retail banking industry with a final sample of 448 real cases of customer retention or defection after a service failure. Findings – The results of the study not only highlight the relevance of intentionality as an additional factor in explaining customer defection, but also show the effects of some attributional dimensions (intentionality and controllability) on the efficacy of some recovery strategies (redress, apology and explanation) applied by companies to prevent post-complaint customer defection. Practical implications – The efficacy of the recovery strategies depends on the causal attributions that the customer makes about the service failure. Originality/value – This study analyzes not only the effects of traditional dimensions of attribution (stability and controllability), but also the additional effect that intentionality attributions may have on actual customer defection (not intentions). Moreover, it analyzes their effects on the effectiveness of recovery strategies in preventing customer defection. Most of these effects have never been empirically analyzed in the literature.

The service recovery paradox in B2B relationships

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Hübner ◽  
Stephan M. Wagner ◽  
Stefan Kurpjuweit
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Subjective Perceptions ◽  
Service Recovery Paradox ◽  
Operating Level ◽  
B2b Relationships ◽  
Exploratory Model

Purpose This study aims to explore the service recovery paradox (SRP) in business to business (B2B) relationships. Previously, this phenomenon has been identified in consumer-facing industries. The research advances the marketing literature by highlighting the ways in which the antecedents of the service recovery paradox differ between B2B and consumer markets. Design/methodology/approach This research draws upon findings on the SRP in the consumer setting and service failure literature in business to consumer and B2B contexts. For the analysis, interview data were collected from 43 informants among clients and service providers in the aftermath of a service failure. Findings The authors propose an exploratory model of the SRP for B2B relationships. In the B2B setting the propensity of eliciting the SRP depends on (1) the characteristics of the service failure, (2) the attributes of the service recovery and (3) the shared subjective perceptions among boundary spanners. Practical implications Empowered operating-level employees, straightforward communication, immediate responses and action plans that ensure future conformance are the key factors to turn service failures into increased customer satisfaction. Originality/value This study is the first to transfer the SRP from consumer marketing into the B2B domain. Moreover, it derives an exploratory model of the SRP, which can be refined by future research.

Empowerment in service recovery: the role of self-regulation process of frontline employee

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 828-843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mo Zhang ◽  
Ruoqi Geng
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Exhaustion ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Job Engagement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Regulation Process ◽  
Recovery Satisfaction ◽  
The Impact

Purpose In accordance with the commitment–trust theory, employee attitudes and behaviours mediate the impact of empowerment on service recovery performance. The purpose of this paper is to extend the self-regulating process model and develop a structural framework that combines empowerment, self-regulation mechanisms (service recovery awareness, job engagement and emotional exhaustion) and post-recovery satisfaction. This framework explores how empowerment can lead to action of frontline employees (FLEs) in service recovery. Design/methodology/approach The authors test the hypotheses by investigating 290 pairs of FLEs and customers, who have service failure experience in the express mail industry, using structure equation modelling. Findings The findings show that empowerment enhances both service recovery awareness and job engagement. On the one hand, service recovery awareness has a positive impact on emotional exhaustion, which has a negative impact on post-recovery satisfaction. On the other hand, job engagement has a positive impact on performance. These results provide the whole picture of the double-edged effects of empowerment on FLEs in service recovery. Practical implications This paper indicates that managers should re-consider approaches to empowerment based on self-regulation process to enhance performance following service failure. Originality/value This study explores the dark side of empowerment in service recovery from a self-regulation perspective.

Reasons to switch: empowered vs less powerful bank customers

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 1441-1461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanette Carlsson Hauff
Keyword(s):  
Service Provider ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Financial Institution ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Switching Behavior ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Switching

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature of driving and impeding switching factors by operationalizing the catalyst factor of perceived power among customers. Acknowledging the importance of trust in a financial context, a trust-based framework for the analysis is used. The study explicitly analyzes factors of importance for subsequent switching of banks for empowered customers (i.e. savers) and low-on-power customers (i.e. borrowers). Design/methodology/approach The study measures factors driving or impeding switch of service provider, together with measures of trust and power using online survey methods. The sample is intended to focus on savers and borrowers, defined quantitatively as well as perception wise. Through a multi-group SEM analysis, differences between the samples of savers and borrowers are analyzed. The dependent variable was in both cases inclination to switch. Findings The paper manages to define differences between empowered and less empowered customers, such as borrowers and savers. The mediating effect of trust prevails only for borrowers: here, the only effect on switching behavior stems from a full mediation of stability through trust. For savers, direct influences of both service failure and lack of involvement on trust are of major importance. The importance of trust, however, is lacking; for the sample of savers, the link between trust and switching behavior is insignificant. Practical implications The results may be used as a tool box in order to address consumer switching behavior and mobility in the financial services market. The biggest obstacle for switching banks among savers is the low level of involvement. This has clear implications regarding how to increase switching, e.g., by raising interest. Focusing instead on borrowers, stability of the chosen financial institution turned out to be the most important factor. Originality/value This paper introduces a view on consumer switching behavior, taking into account differences regarding service provider relations (empowered savers vs less empowered borrowers) and the importance of trust in these two settings. The paper introduces trust as a mediator between switching behavior and four determinants: stability, personal relations, service failure and internet-related issues, and involvement.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document