Complex service recovery processes: how to avoid triple deviation

Abstract

Purpose -This article seeks to develop a new framework to outline factors that influence the resolution of unfavourable service experiences as a result of double deviation. The focus is on understanding and managing complex service recovery processes. Design/methodology/approach -An inductive, explorative and narrative approach was selected. Data were collected in the form of narratives from the field through interviews with actors at various levels in organisations as well as with customers in a high-touch service industry. The data form the analysis of double and triple deviation situations and complex service recovery processes. Findings -The study identifies four factors that influence complex service recovery processes and outcomes in double deviation situations: communication, competence, time, and service system. The resulting theoretical conceptualisation of the recovery process from the customer's perspective emphasises customer perceived control, sense of coherence, and meaning. Together, these factors shape customers' perception of complex service recovery experiences. Research limitations/implications -The empirical study is limited to the context of restaurant services. However, the findings might generalise analytically to other labour-intensive, high-touch services that rely on face-to-face interactions between customers and the service employees in triple deviation situations. Practical implications -The different roles in a complex service recovery process must be managed constantly and in light of actors' resource integration in double deviation situations, as part of value co-creation. Service organisations should develop a shared understanding of what factors result in favourable complex service recovery processes, to avoid triple deviations. Originality/value -The paper offers extended understanding of complex service recovery processes through a new, empirically grounded conceptualisation of double service recovery to avoid a triple deviation.

Service recovery's impact on customers next-in-line

“…First, the results indicate that observing an unsatisfactory recovery usually decreases the observing customers' outcomes, just as prior research shows that an unsatisfactory service recovery decreases the complaining customers' outcomes (e.g. Edvardsson et al, 2011;Van Vaerenbergh et al, 2012). However, the results suggest that a satisfactory service recovery has different impacts on complaining and observing customers.…”

“…For example, Edvardsson et al (2011) propose a model outlining the behavior of different actors in a complex service recovery process. Their model examines multiple service recovery encounters between a service provider (represented by employees and managers) and a complaining customer.…”

Recovering service failure through resource integration

“…Too often, predefined solutions and standardized procedures fail (Edvardsson, Tronvoll, & Hoykinpuro, 2011). The studies presented in this research show that employees can contribute to but also, to some extent, manage successful service recovery processes by involving customers and exploiting their resources.…”

Co-Creating Value from IT in a Contracted Public Sector Service Environment: Perspectives on COBIT and Val IT

“…In marketing research, there has been less emphasis on the product-dominant approach and more on the service-dominant aspect of value delivery, where value co-creation is shaped by social structures, processes, and forces (Vargo and Lusch 2008;Edvardsson et al 2011). Herein, the customer is central, being perceived as ''connected, informed, and active'' to the extent that ''the system of company-centric value creation'' no longer yields optimal results (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004, 4).…”