Timing and compensation strategies in service recovery

Abstract

Purpose A combined model involving the intensity of negative emotions and the strategic combinations (timing and means) of service recovery is developed. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performances of these different combinations through customer satisfaction, repurchase intention and fitting curves between the two under hotel service scenarios. Design/methodology/approach A 2 (recovery timing: immediate/delayed) × 2 (recovery means: psychological/economic) × 3 (type of service failure: failure in a delivery system/failure in responding to customer needs/improper employee behavior) between-subject experimental design was used with 456 participants. Findings The results suggest that immediate and economic recovery effectively raises the service recovery evaluations from customers with low-intensity negative emotions, whereas delayed and psychological recovery helps customers with high-intensity negative emotions to give higher evaluations. Originality/value When service failures happen, the strategies for and timing of recovery directly influence customers’ service recovery evaluations. This study sheds light on the role that negative emotions play in the process of service recovery and provides implications for service industry managers.

Overcompensation as a service recovery strategy: the financial aspect of customers’ extra effort

“…This in turn gives the company a second chance to provide a high-quality service experience to the client and to increase postcomplaint client satisfaction. Tang et al (2018) propose a more situation-based strategy, as they emphasize that different pairings of recovery timing and strategy should be employed adjusted to the state of emotion of customers.…”

The Role of Service Providers’ Resilience in Buffering the Negative Impact of Customer Incivility on Service Recovery Performance

“…SRP refers to "frontline service employees' perceptions of their own abilities and actions to resolve a service failure to the satisfaction of the customer" [24]. Correctly addressing customer discontent can lead to a host of positive outcomes, including reinforced positive word-of-mouth advertising, increased repurchase intentions and eventually customer patronage [25][26][27][28][29]. This may generate benefits for the whole organization in terms of profitability afterwards by fostering long-term seller-customer relationships [30] and by decreasing customer acquisition expenses [31].…”

Perceived TMT transformational leadership and a service recovery culture: the moderating role of gender diversity

“…In the case of this study, one stream recognizes that not all service encounters meet expectations and can, in fact, fail. Service failures occur when customer perceptions of service expectations and quality are not met (Hocutt et al, 2006;Hur et al, 2016;Tang et al, 2018). The service recovery literature explores specifically how firms do or do not respond to service failures across various points of failure (Hoffman et al, 2016;Hocutt et al, 2006;Hur and Jang, 2016;Tang et al, 2018).…”

“…However, despite best efforts, firms can and do fail to meet expectations for quality customer service. Such instances are referred to as "service failures" (Hocutt et al, 2006;Hoffman et al, 2016;Hur and Jang, 2016;Tang et al, 2018). Hence, when customer service efforts fail, a service recovery culture can be a critical driver to help firms ultimately revise customer attitudes, resulting in continued patronage, retention and loyalty-even beyond the degree before the failure (De Matos et al, 2007;Gonzalez et al, 2010Gonzalez et al, , 2014McColl-Kennedy and Sparks, 2003).…”