Service Failure Context Research Articles

Does anthropomorphism influence customers’ switching intentions in the self-service technology failure context?

Purpose To enhance customer experiences, firms are increasingly adding human-like features to their self-service technology (SST) machines. To that end, the purpose of the present study is to examine customer interactions with an anthropomorphic machine in a service failure context. Specifically, the authors investigate the joint effects of machine voice, an individual’s sense of power and the presence of other customers in influencing customers’ switching intentions following an SST failure. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors used a quasi-experimental design in which they manipulated voice type (anthropomorphic vs robotic) and the presence of other customers (present vs absent) in video-based scenarios while measuring customers’ sense of power. The scenarios reflected a service failure experience with a self-service kiosk at an airport. The authors tested the hypotheses using PROCESS analyses with the Johnson–Neyman technique. Findings Consumer reactions to SST failures vary depending on the degree of anthropomorphism associated with an SST machine, an individual’s sense of power and the presence of other customers. Research limitations/implications Field inquiry and an investigation in other SST contexts or of other anthropomorphic features are needed to generalize the findings. Practical implications Service providers targeting powerful consumers should consider the social presence of others when incorporating anthropomorphic features into their SST facilities. Originality/value This study is the first to examine consumer responses to service failures in an anthropomorphic SST context.

The Positive Effects of Customers’ Power on Their Behavioral Responses After Service Failure

Challenging the conventional perception that “power corrupts,” the authors assert that activation of customer power before a service encounter can lead to less negative behavioral manifestations toward a service provider after a service failure. Three experimental studies help substantiate this contention. Study 1 shows a sequential mediation process of how increased power leads to a more positive secondary appraisal and lessens the perceived severity of a failure. This process ultimately leads to (1) lower intentions for revenge and (2) lower demanded compensation. Study 2 solidifies these findings using stimuli for power inducement easily replicable by service managers. Study 3 establishes the boundary conditions and finds that the positive effects of power in postservice failure only holds for a single service failure context but not a double deviation context. This research offers an integrated explanation of how power leads to more positive behavioral actions through a sequential mediation effect involving cognitive appraisals. In doing so, this research sheds light on the nuances of power in affecting customer behavior. The practical method of activating perceived power may motivate service managers to apply it to buffer the potential negative effects of service failure. However, caution is advised, as such effects may diminish in the context of a series of failed resolution attempts.

Does Service Failure Context Matter? Customers’ Response to Service Recovery

Because service failures are difficult to avoid in the services context due to their characteristics, firms need to offer an adequate service recovery to compensate customers. Customer behavior may be affected either by the failure or its recovery. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of service failure severity in customers’ post-recovery behavior. The study comprises a sample of 40,813 customers, representing customers who had experienced a problem with the service provider and customers who had not. Empirical results showed that service failure severity has a significant negative influence in customers’ post-recovery repurchase behavior. Nevertheless, the influence differs across customers’ relationship age with the service. Additionally, they also provide evidence of when service recovery paradox is more likely to occur. This study contributes with relevant insights for practitioners. Since failure severity affects negatively customers’ post-recovery repurchase behavior, the classification of service failures by degree of severity is commended. Hence, firms should adopt different service recovery strategies depending on failures severity degree and customers’ relationship age with the firm. Customers’ segmentation should consider these characteristics in order to enhance complaints management and customer loyalty.

Behavioural responses to service encounter involving failure and recovery: the influence of contextual factors

This study investigates two features of customer satisfaction within the context of service failure and recovery: (i) the effect of perceived justice on customer satisfaction and (ii) the effect of customer satisfaction on repurchase intentions, negative word-of-mouth, and intention to complain. The study takes into account the influence of important contextual factors, including severity of failure, recovery responsiveness, attitude toward complaining, switching cost, and the relationship level. Based on a survey of 556 customers with complaints in Brazil, the results supported the influence of perceived justice on satisfaction and of satisfaction on behavioural responses. Specifically, findings revealed that perceived failure severity, attitude toward complaining, and switching costs were the more relevant contextual factors, as these were significantly associated with satisfaction, intention to complain, and negative word-of-mouth.

From disconfirmation to switching: an empirical investigation of switching intentions after service failure and recovery

This research proposes and empirically tests a customer switching intentions model from a disconfirmation perspective in a service failure and recovery context. Specifically, the research examines how initial (discrepancy between service failure expectation and service performance) and recovery (discrepancy between recovery expectation and recovery performance) disconfirmations influence satisfaction when a service failure occurs and a recovery offer is given, and subsequently impact switching intentions. The results support the hypotheses that both initial and recovery disconfirmations influence switching intentions via satisfaction. In addition, switching costs directly influence switching intentions and also moderate the effect of satisfaction on switching intentions.

A transactional model of forgiveness in the service failure context: a customer‐driven approach

Purpose – The concept of forgiveness has received significant attention in the fields of philosophy and psychology. However, little is known about the application of this concept in the business domain. To address this deficiency, this paper aims to conceptualise forgiveness as a customer coping strategy in the context of service failure incidents. Specifically, deriving from both theories of emotion and coping, this article proposes a conceptual framework of consumer forgiveness in service encounters.

The Role of Egoism in Customer Anger - A Not-for-Profit Service Failure Context

Despite considerable effort to make customers happy, things sometimes go wrong. When service failure occurs, the customers often experience negative emotion such as anger, outrage or sadness. Understanding customers’ negative emotions facilitates service providers to handle difficult situations, creating customers’ positive word of mouth and customer retention after the service failure. In a not-for-profit context, when service failure occurs, customers also experience negative emotions. However, whether customers are more sensitive to service failures in a not-for-profit context compared to those in a profit context has yet to be investigated. This paper examines differences between the determinants of customer anger towards service failures in a not-for-profit service failure setting. Amongst the negative emotions, anger is the one of the most extreme, potentially evoking aggressive customer reactions (Ekman, Levenson, & Friesen, 1983; Levenson, Ekman, & Friesen, 1990; Scherer, 1984). Applying the conceptual framework of customer anger proposed by Nguyen and McColl-Kennedy (2003a), this paper uses theories of cognitive appraisal and attribution to explain why and how the determinants of customer anger differentiate indifferent profit service settings (profit vs. not for profit service). This paper will: (1) review relevant literature – service failure typology, attribution theory and cognitive appraisal theory; (2) propose, test and analyse, using Bayesian Network analysis, a conceptual model; and (3) discuss the implications of the findings on not-for profit service settings.

The effect of intimacy on customer responses to service failure context: focusing on a hotel restaurants and family style restaurants

The effect of intimacy on customer responses to service failure context: focusing on a hotel restaurants and family style restaurants

The impact of firm reputation and failure severity on customers' responses to service failures

PurposeThis study seeks to investigate the impact of firm reputation for service quality on customers' responses to service failures. Firm reputation is defined as customers' perceptions of how well a firm takes care of customers and is genuinely concerned about their welfare.Design/methodology/approachAn experiment design methodology was utilized to test the conceptual model. The respondents were adult passengers waiting for flights at a major airport.FindingsOverall, the findings revealed that excellent reputations provide firms with a “buffering effect”, insulating them from some of the negative consequences of failures. Firm reputation moderated the relationship between failure severity and satisfaction, lowered attributions of controllability and stability, and led to higher repurchase intentions following service failures. Attributions of controllability and stability were related only to repurchase intentions; satisfaction did not fully mediate these relationships.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation is the use of an experimental methodology. Other methods would enhance the external validity of the findings.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study provide compelling evidence that a firm's reputation can be one of its most important assets. Carefully building and maintaining this reputation is paramount for continued success in any industry, but especially important for service firms where failures are inevitable.Originality/valueVery little research has examined the effects of firm reputation. This study contributes by testing the impact of firm reputation on customers' responses within a service failure context.

The negative effects of expecting to evaluate: Reexamination and extension in the context of service failure

Service managers implement customer satisfaction evaluation cards (CSECs) to help them better understand and serve their customers. Yet a robust finding from recent research is that consumers who expect to evaluate provide lower satisfaction ratings than customers who are asked to evaluate without prior notice. This article reports results of two experiments that examine the effects of expecting to evaluate (here, the CSEC effect) in the negative context of service failure. The experiments utilize thought-listing protocols to differentiate between vigilant processing (VPT) and negativity bias (NBT) theories and reinforce the internal validity of the CSEC effect. The studies also extend prior research by separating CSEC effects on evaluations of the service employee from CSEC effects on the service firm overall. Study 2 examines consequences of the CSEC effect not previously studied (switching, complaining, and negative word-of-mouth intentions) and extends external validity through an international replication. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Consumer responses to compensation, speed of recovery and apology after a service failure

This experimental study examined how the three dimensions of fairness (distributive, procedural and interactional) influence consumers' attributional processes, their post‐recovery satisfaction and behavioral responses (repatronage intent and negative word‐of‐mouth) in a service failure context that does not involve monetary costs to the consumer. Our results indicate that recovery outcomes (e.g. compensation), procedures (e.g. speed of recovery) and interactional treatment (e.g. apology) have a joint effect on post‐recovery satisfaction. Specifically, our findings suggest that compensation may not enhance satisfaction when the recovery process is well‐executed (an immediate response combined with an apology). Similarly, compensation failed to lessen dissatisfaction with a poor recovery process (a delayed response without apology). It thus seems that compensation is a poor substitute for a good recovery process. However, offering compensation was effective in increasing satisfaction in mixed‐bag recovery situations (delayed recovery with an apology, or immediate recovery without apology). Furthermore, we found that service recovery satisfaction acted as a full mediator between service recovery attributes (compensation, recovery speed and apology) and behavioral intentions (repurchase intent and negative WOM). Finally, our findings suggest that consumer attributions for stability and controllability for the failure vary across recovery efforts. Managerial implications for these findings are discussed.

The impact of staff empowerment and communication style on customer evaluations: The special case of service failure

Empowering front-line staff to deal with service failures has been proposed as a method of recovering from service breakdown and ensuring greater customer satisfaction. However, no empirical study has investigated consumer responses to empowerment strategies. This research investigates the effect on customer satisfaction and service quality of two employee characteristics: the degree to which the employee is empowered (full, limited, and none), and the employee's communication style (accommodative - informal and personal, and underaccommodative-formal and impersonal). These employee characteristics are studied within the context of service failures. Subjects were shown videotaped service scenarios, and asked to complete satisfaction and service quality ratings. Results revealed that the fully empowered employee produced more customer satisfaction than the other conditions, but only when the service provider used an accommodating style of communication. Fully empowered and nonempowered employees were not judged differently when an underaccommodating style of communication was adopted. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The impact of staff empowerment and communication style on customer evaluations: The special case of service failure

Empowering front-line staff to deal with service failures has been proposed as a method of recovering from service breakdown and ensuring greater customer satisfaction. However, no empirical study has investigated consumer responses to empowerment strategies. This research investigates the effect on customer satisfaction and service quality of two employee characteristics: the degree to which the employee is empowered (full, limited, and none), and the employee's communication style (accommodative–informal and personal, and underaccommodative–formal and impersonal). These employee characteristics are studied within the context of service failures. Subjects were shown videotaped service scenarios, and asked to complete satisfaction and service quality ratings. Results revealed that the fully empowered employee produced more customer satisfaction than the other conditions, but only when the service provider used an accommodating style of communication. Fully empowered and nonempowered employees were not judged differently when an underaccommodating style of communication was adopted. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Evaluating Service Encounters: The Effects of Physical Surroundings and Employee Responses

For consumers, evaluation of a service firm often depends on evaluation of the “service encounter” or the period of time when the customer interacts directly with the firm. Knowledge of the factors that influence customer evaluations in service encounters is therefore critical, particularly at a time when general perceptions of service quality are declining. The author presents a model for understanding service encounter evaluation that synthesizes consumer satisfaction, services marketing, and attribution theories. A portion of the model is tested experimentally to assess the effects of physical surroundings and employee responses (explanations and offers to compensate) on attributions and satisfaction in a service failure context.