Service failure and recovery in UK theme parks: the employees’ perspective

Abstract

The focus of this article is the perspective of customer contact‐employees on service failure and service recovery. Data were collected, using a critical incident methodology, from a sample of font‐line employees in UK theme parks. They described service failures and subsequent service recoveries, both satisfactory and dissatisfactory, which were categorised in relation to employee response to service delivery system failures, employee response to customer needs and requests, unprompted employee actions and problem customers. The findings revealed a diversity of service failures and recovery actions, and implications for theme park managers are discussed, with respect to managing the delivery of service and the role of customer‐contact employees with regard to training, empowerment and team‐building activities.