The impact of customer controllability and service recovery type on customer satisfaction and consequent behavior intentions

Abstract

ABSTRACTCustomer participation in service failure recovery has gained increasing attention as today’s customers are actively engaged in the service process. However, limited research examines customer participation and their satisfaction with the service recovery effort. The current study examines the customer controllability regarding service failure to determine customer satisfaction and behavior intention toward service recovery approaches. The study results show it is unwise to assume that every service recovery situation will need the same type of service recovery strategies without considering the service failure or problem from the customer’s side. Also, the findings demonstrate that once a service failure happens, customers’ perceived controllability has the capacity to influence their level of participation and evaluation outcomes in the service recovery process. Theoretically, this study indicates that the interaction effects occurring between customers’ perceived controllability and their participation in resolving service failures are dependent upon each other. Managerial implications are also discussed.