Evaluating Service Encounters: The Effects of Employee Responses on Service Failure and Recovery

Abstract

Service failure could still happen in spite of management efforts to prevent it. Earlier studies have shown that a service failure can still end up satisfying customers through the efforts of the frontline employees. This empirical study investigates how the performance of the frontline employees affects customer satisfaction after a service recovery, specifically, customer’s propensity to recommend the service firm. The primary purpose of the study is to determine whether the same dimensions that affect perceived service quality (namely, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, empathy and tangibility) of a service performance also applies to service recovery performance evaluation. Using confirmatory factor analysis on the items of SERVPERF, results showed that a customer who was satisfied with the service employee’s performance on the recovery process will most probably recommend the service firm to others even after a service failure. The results also indicate that while the service quality items are all significantly different from zero, only the reliability and assurance dimensions meaningfully affect the customer’s satisfaction during the recovery process. It seems that, for this study, not all of the dimensions in the SERVPERF survey that affect perceived service quality of a service performance also apply to service recovery evaluation. Keywords - service failure, service recovery, frontline employees, assurance, Philippines