scholarly journals Service failure and recovery strategies in the Balkans: an exploratory study

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 472-496
Author(s):  
Yllka Azemi ◽  
Wilson Ozuem ◽  
Geoff Lancaster
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Online Banking ◽  
Failure Recovery ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Service Failure And Recovery ◽  
Social Scientific

Purpose Despite scholarly effort to understand customers’ recovery evaluation, little progress is evident in deciphering how customers develop online failure/recovery perception. This paper aims to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach Social constructivism was the epistemic choice for this study. This approach is holistic and offers a comprehensive understanding of each side of the phenomena. This provided social scientific descriptions of people and their cultural bases and built on, and articulated what was implicit in interpretations of their views. Findings Online banking customer groups were identified as: exigent customers, solutionist customers and impulsive customers. Customers’ position in each group determined failure perception, recovery expectation and evaluation, and post-recovery behaviour. Comparisons were observed and discussed in relation to Albania and Kosovo. It was suggested that banks should expand their presence in social media platforms and offer a means to manage online customer communication and spread of online WOM. Research limitations/implications For exigent customers, the failure/recovery responsibility is embedded within the provider. This explains their high sensitivity and criteria to define a failure. Practical implications Online banking customers’ request of a satisfactory recovery experience included: customer notifications, customer behaviour, customer determination, and the mediator of request. 10;Providers should examine customer failure/recovery experiences in cooperation with other banks which should lead to a higher order understanding of customer withdrawal and disengagement activities. Social implications Post-recovery behaviour is linked to the decline of online banking usage, switching to new providers, and the spread of negative online and off-line word-of-mouth. Originality/value This is the first empirical study on online service failure and recovery strategy to provide information on customers’ unique preferences and expectations in the recovery process. Online customers are organised into a threefold customer typology, and explanation for the providers’ role in the online customer failure-recovery perception construct is presented.

The effect of CSR on consumer behavioral responses after service failure and recovery

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 583-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mobin Fatma ◽  
Imran Khan ◽  
Zillur Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Failures ◽  
Service Failure And Recovery ◽  
Recovery Satisfaction ◽  
One Year ◽  
Corporate Social

Purpose This paper aims to examine the interconnection between the consumer perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its effect on the post-recovery satisfaction and loyalty after service failures. Design/methodology/approach An intercept survey has been conducted during June to August, 2015, in the Delhi NCR area of India. The respondent to the survey includes the hotel customers who have experienced the service failure in the previous one year. The convenience sampling method has been used with the structured questionnaire. To test the proposed model, structural equation modeling is applied. Findings The finding of the present study provides the empirical evidence of the existence of a relationship between perceived CSR and customer post-recovery satisfaction and loyalty influenced by trust. Research limitations/implications The present study has suffered from the recall biases in the survey data. Although the responses were gathered from respondents on the basis of their actual service recovery experience in the preceding year, recall bias may have influenced the responses. The present study highlights a salient role of CSR initiatives, wherein managers can understand the influence of perceived in CSR and analyze the service recover encounters and ensure that recovery process improves the customer perception of CSR. Originality/value This study reinforces the significance of consumer perceived CSR and its effect on post-recovery satisfaction and loyalty after service failures.

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.

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.

What may lead you to recommend and revisit a hotel after a service failure instead of complaining?

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Aguilar-Rojas ◽  
Carmina Fandos-Herrera ◽  
Carlos Flavián-Blanco
Keyword(s):  
Hospitality Industry ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Interpersonal Justice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Successful Recovery ◽  
Intention To Revisit

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine how a failure in the treatment received by consumers influences their intention to revisit a hotel, to recommend a hotel or to complain to a third party. The authors analyse perceived interpersonal justice, the role played by past encounters and the influence of consumer gender in a hotel recovery process. Design/methodology/approach – Using experimentation methodology applied to the hotel sector, the authors present four scenarios in a 2 × 2 (interpersonal justice/no interpersonal justice, prior experience/no prior experience) design with a sample of 352 consumers. Findings – The results obtained highlight the importance of interpersonal justice in a situation of service failure and the influence that prior experience and gender exert in the context of the hospitality industry. The study provides empirical evidence that, in a service failure setting, behavioural intentions (word of mouth, third-party complaints and intention to revisit) are conditioned by three different consumer characteristics, one affective (perceived interpersonal justice of the service provided), one cognitive (knowledge as a result of prior experience) and one socio-demographic (gender, important because of the differences between male and female consumer behaviour). Originality/value – This study proposes using the social cognitive theory in a service recovery process within a hospitality industry context. This theory has been successfully exploited in different areas, but in marketing research (especially in studies about service failure and recovery), it has not been applied. However, its use in marketing is particularly interesting because, through the consideration of three variables (perceived interpersonal justice, prior experience and consumer gender), the service provider could obtain knowledge from consumers interactions to help develop a better and more successful recovery system.

In the eye of the beholder

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1087-1116
Author(s):  
Shahin Sharifi ◽  
Gerri Spassova
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Customer Information ◽  
Service Failure And Recovery ◽  
Self Construal ◽  
Public Nature ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of interdependent vs independent self-construal on service satisfaction, following the observation of failure and recovery experienced by a fellow customer. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted to test the research hypotheses. Findings After service failure, interdependent observers react less favorably compared to independent observers. After high recovery compensation, interdependent observers react more favorably compared to independent observers. The effects are driven by differences in perceived interactional and distributive justice. Research limitations/implications This study uses three scenario-based experiments to test the hypotheses. While providing greater control of the experimental conditions, the external validity of the results is to some extent sacrificed. Moreover, this research does not investigate observers’ reactions to the interactional aspect of recovery. Practical implications When handling service failure, firms are required to anticipate and address not only the responses of the target customers involved but also those of potential observers. Providers can accordingly use available customer information to gauge customers’ likely self-construal and to adjust their service delivery and recovery tactics. Providers can influence observing customers’ reactions by creating a servicescape that activates a desired self-construal. Originality/value This research is one of a few to examine the effect of service failure and recovery on observing customers, and the first to do so via the lens of self-construal. It contributes to the literature on service failure and recovery and the literature on self-construal and has practical implications for service providers. The value of this research is further highlighted given the increasingly public nature of services and the multicultural context of service delivery.

Service recovery satisfaction in offline and online experiences

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Raphael Odoom ◽  
George Cudjoe Agbemabiese ◽  
Robert E. Hinson
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Failures ◽  
Service Failure And Recovery ◽  
Recovery Strategies ◽  
Recovery Satisfaction ◽  
Empirical Tests ◽  
Service Managers

Purpose Given that the peculiar nature of the internet has introduced new dimensions of service delivery as well as new dimensions of service failures and recovery, the purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the relationships between recovery strategies and recovery satisfaction within offline and online settings. Design/methodology/approach Data for the empirical tests of our hypotheses were collected via offline and online (specifically Facebook and Twitter) samples of customers who have experienced some form of service failure and recovery measures from service providers within the past year. Findings The results indicate that recovery strategies largely influence recovery satisfaction among aggrieved customers. However, these are conditional and not invariant across the two settings. In the authors’ offline setting, in particular, apology did not show a statistically significant impact on recovery satisfaction, even though, along with compensation and explanation, this relationship was significant among the online sample. Originality/value The study offers practical implications for service managers within emerging economies on the various conditions where they can maximise their service recovery efforts (both offline and online) to generate optimum recovery satisfaction.

Consumer attitude towards service failure and recovery in higher education

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hardeep Chahal ◽  
Pinkey Devi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Consumer Attitude ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Computer Lab ◽  
Service Failures ◽  
Service Failure And Recovery

Purpose – This paper aims to explore consumer attitude towards service failure and recovery in the higher education in general and with respect to teaching, examination, library, computer lab, administration and infrastructure in particular. Design/methodology/approach – The data are collected from 120 students of three undergraduate colleges of University of Jammu using purposive sampling. Findings – The findings reveal that all recovery efforts pertaining to teaching, examination, library, computer lab, administration and infrastructure are significant in overcoming the respective service failures. Research limitations/implications – The present study is limited to address service failure and service recovery relationship with respect to teaching, examination, library, computer lab, administration and infrastructure and limited to three undergraduate colleges operating in Jammu city only. The sample of the study is small which needs to be considered before generalizing the results. Originality/value – This study makes a maiden attempt to identify service failure issues with respect to teaching, examination, library, computer lab, administration and infrastructure using quantitative methodology in higher education and role of service recovery strategies in monitoring and reducing service failure.

The role of collective angst during and after a service failure

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amro A. Maher ◽  
Rana Sobh
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Cultural Distance ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Failures ◽  
Service Failure And Recovery ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Viability ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the role of collective angst, the concern about the future viability of one’s group, during service failure and recovery. Design/methodology/approach – To test this objective the authors utilize an experiment to examine how Kuwaitis react to service failures when the front-line employee is a foreigner. Findings – The results indicate that collective angst is associated with greater anger following a service failure. The authors also find that collective angst moderates the impact of cultural distance on anger and recommendation intentions following a service-failure recovery attempt. More specifically, cultural distance leads to greater anger and lower intentions to recommend a service establishment for consumers that experience greater collective angst. Originality/value – The research provides the first attempt at examining how local consumers react to foreigner service providers, by examining how concern about the future vitality of one’s national group, in other words collective angst, affects such reactions.

Others service experiences: emotions, perceived justice, and behavior

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 552-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Mattila ◽  
Lydia Hanks ◽  
Chenya Wang
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Service Failures ◽  
Service Failure And Recovery ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Service Experiences

Purpose – Often, service failures are witnessed by other customers, but little is known about how consumers react to service recovery aimed at other customers. Using the deontic theory of justice, this paper aims to examine consumers' reactions to justice directed toward other customers. Design/methodology/approach – Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. Both were 2 x 2 between subjects quasi experimental designs using written scenarios and surveys. The scenarios depicted an observing customer witnessing a service failure and recovery happening to another customer. Findings – Results show that the valence of the recovery attempt impacted the observing customer's reactions and evaluations, and that the observer's processing frame and loyalty status of the victim impacted the observing customer's judgments of fairness and behavioral intentions. Originality/value – These results provide guidance to service providers by shedding light on the impact of service failures and recovery on surrounding customers.

Recovering co-created service failures: the missing link of perceived justice and ethicalness

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 921-935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuqin Wei ◽  
Tyson Ang ◽  
Nwamaka A. Anaza
Keyword(s):  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Ethical Perceptions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Perceived Justice ◽  
Service Failures ◽  
Fairness Theory ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Secondary Study

Purpose Drawing on the fairness theory, this paper aims to propose a conceptual framework that investigates how co-creation in the failed service delivery (coproduction intensity) and co-creation in the service recovery affect customers’ evaluation of the firm’s competence, justice and ethicalness, and ultimately their willingness to co-create in the future. Design/methodology/approach Tax services were chosen as the research context. A consumer panel consisting of individuals who live in the USA and have used tax preparation services within the past year was recruited. The first study explores what happens to customers’ ethical perceptions during a failed co-created service encounter. A secondary study investigates what happens to customers’ ethical perceptions in the event that the failed co-created service is recovered. Findings The findings show that customers’ perceptions of the firm’s abilities and ethics are impeded by coproduction intensity but favorably influenced by co-creation of recovery. Practical implications A sense of ethicalness and fairness is violated when co-created service failure occurs, but fortunately, practitioners can count on engaging customers in the service recovery process as co-creators of the solution to positively alter perceived ethicalness and fairness. Originality/value Failed co-created services represent an under-researched area in the marketing literature. Current investigations of co-created service failures have largely approached the notion of fairness from a perceived justice perspective without referencing ethical judgments. However, fairness is grounded in basic ethical assumptions of normative treatment. This research is among the first to highlight the importance of perceived ethicalness in the context of co-created service failure and recovery.

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