Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of organizational justice-based recovery strategies and the mode of communication used following a service failure on key organizational variables including customer satisfaction, loyalty, and complaining behavior. Design/methodology/approach -A scenario-based experiment was used to depict a service failure and recovery experience involving a fictitious cellular phone provider. The scenario manipulated the type of organizational justice-based recovery strategy and the mode of communication used during the recovery process. Surveys were used to measure participants' reactions to the experience. Findings -The results of the study suggest no difference between the effect of justice-based strategies on overall customer satisfaction or loyalty. However, participants who communicated in-person or with a toll-free number were more satisfied with the communication than those who used e-mail. Customers were more likely to engage in informal negative word-of-mouth behavior than formally complaining to the company. Research limitations/implications -Future research should investigate the length of the recovery process, whether or not the problem was successfully solved, and the effect of customers' communication mode preference. Scenario-based experiments need to be replicated using real life service encounters/simulations. Practical implications -Implications for organizations developing recovery strategies include: the cost of the recovery effort; utilizing multiple channels to increase formal complaining; and differences between in-person and technological strategies. Originality/value -The present study investigated both service recovery and communication mode using an experimental manipulation.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine behavioral changes by consumers (i.e. changing time of day they contact a firm, requesting a domestic service provider, and ceasing doing business with the firm) when faced with being provided a service from abroad. Design/methodology/approach -Data were collected from a pre-recruited internet panel of 394 American consumers. Hierarchical regression analysis, including demographic and psychographic variables, was employed to determine which variables were instrumental in predicting behavioral changes among consumers when being provided a service from abroad. Findings -The results suggest that American consumers are wary of services offshoring and that psychographic variables (boycott issue importance and negative word of mouth) are more instrumental than demographic variables in predicting behavioral changes by consumers.Research limitations/implications -Future research should examine consumer attitudes about services offshoring from populations in countries other than the US, and in relation to different types of services and the importance of those services to consumers. Practical implications -Implications for firms include assessing their customer's perceptions of offshoring, proactively communicating with customers about offshoring practices, and providing customers with some control over their service interactions. Originality/value -Previous researchers have highlighted the benefits of services offshoring to firms but also hypothesized that consumers may react negatively when provided services from abroad. In this research, it is found that consumers will change the way they interact with a firm when faced with being provided a service from abroad.

Customers completed a survey that measured their satisfaction with an organization, with each of its three units, and with processes performed by each of the units. Means and correlations were analyzed to determine the processes that had the greatest potential to improve customer satisfaction through the application of traditional psychological interventions. A framework for assessing and using customer satisfaction data is presented.

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Purpose -Prior research has determined that consumers are opposed to services offshoring. The purpose of this paper is to determine the likelihood that consumers would choose a domestic vs an offshore service provider if asked to pay more, wait longer, or sacrifice service quality. Design/methodology/approach -The cost, time to wait, and quality of services provided (for two different services: taxes and customer service) were varied to determine respondent likelihood to choose a domestic as opposed to an offshore service provider when asked to pay more, wait longer, or sacrifice the quality of the service in return for access to a domestic service provider. Data were collected via survey research, using an internet panel. Findings -Results of repeated measures analysis indicated that customer loyalty to the domestic service provider significantly decreased as the cost or time to interact with a domestic service provider increased or the quality of service provided by the offshore service provider increased.Research limitations/implications -The research results signify that while customers, in general, may be opposed to services offshoring, they will "defect" or show less loyalty to the domestic service provider when asked to sacrifice time or money for that access. Respondents were asked to react to each trade-off as individual factors. Future research might combine these factors to determine interrelated tradeoffs. Practical implications -The research results signify that while customers, in general, may be opposed to services offshoring, they will "defect" or show less loyalty to the domestic service provider when asked to sacrifice time or money for that access. Originality/value -The paper extends research with regard to consumer reaction to service offshoring and provides insight into the trade-offs consumers might be willing to incur in return for access to domestic service providers. The paper is of value to practitioners and academic researchers.