Service Recovery Experience Research Articles

Customer’s social cognition in service recovery satisfaction with human vs robot agent

Purpose Service failures evoke negative customer emotions, which human agents respond to through emotional labor. In turn, customers empathize with the human agent, providing a satisfying service recovery experience. However, robot agents could replace human agents and replicate emotional labor strategies. This study addresses whether customers empathize with apologetic robot agents and how it would affect the service recovery experience. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on emotional labor, social cognition and justice theory, two online scenario-based experiments (N1 = 411; N2 = 253) were designed in which customers watched a video simulating an interaction with a human or a robot agent during a service recovery procedure. Findings Study 1 shows that robot agents handle emotionally driven service recovery interactions and prompt desirable postrecovery behaviors (e.g. brand loyalty). Study 2 identifies customers’ empathy and compassion as mediators, explaining the effect of normative empathic display on customers' perceptions of interactional justice and behavioral intentions. Practical implications Robot agents are reliable substitutes for human agents in handling service recovery procedures. Customers can empathize with robot agents, leading to satisfying service experiences. Originality/value This study demonstrates customers’ capacity to empathize with robot agents during a service recovery procedure. It is also the first application in service research of the EmpaToM experimental procedure from social neuroscience to explore the social cognition dynamic between customers and service agents at the service encounter.

Understanding The Impact Of Gestures To Mitigate The Negative Impact Of Service Failure

This research paper delves into the significant role that gestures play in the context of service recovery tactics, exploring how they affect brand perception, customer happiness, and loyalty development. This study embarks on a journey to uncover their profound influence on forming customer perceptions after instances of service failure by engaging in a thorough exploration of a variety of gestures, including polite interactions, compassionate responses, active listening, and efficient service delivery. The study carefully examines the nuanced ways that various gestures affect emotional regulation, drive customer satisfaction levels, affect retention rates, direct online suggestions, and word-of-mouth referrals by using a meticulously designed approach. Customer satisfaction plays a crucial part in the inquiry which is considered as a key element that shapes repurchase intentions as well as loyalty. The study reveals particular behaviours through an empirical analysis that directly increase customer satisfaction, such as politeness and nice interactions, demonstrating their significant ability to improve the entire service recovery experience. Parallel to this, the research reveals deeper implications, showing how actions like empathy and engaged listening may develop good impressions through other channels even when they don't directly affect consumer satisfaction. This study provides organizations with practical knowledge to modify the service restoration paradigms by illuminating the nuanced subtleties of gesture dynamics in service recovery. Utilizing the consequences of this research, businesses may respond to service lapses with precision, tailoring their actions to the requirements of their customers. This comprehensive understanding equips companies to plan memorable client encounters, build long-lasting bonds, and solidify their positions in a cutthroat industry.

Misery loves company: evaluation of negative e-WOM effects at the post-service recovery stage

PurposeThe authors' research examines how negative electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) alters focal customers' post-recovery justice perceptions and attitudes to determine their future behavior with the service provider. Specifically, this paper develops and tests a conceptual model to investigate how negative e-WOM alters focal customers' perceptual and attitudinal outcomes after the service recovery experience. It also examines the post-recovery effect of negative e-WOM on focal customers’ willingness to patronize the service after their recovery experience.Design/methodology/approachTo test the hypotheses, two pretests and two experimental studies with created scenarios in the retail context were conducted.FindingsThe authors' findings reveal that services are judged during and well beyond failure and recovery occurrences. To maintain a loyal customer base, service managers should develop processes that address service complaints both within and beyond the service consumption stage. The authors also find that despite a favorable recovery, focal customers gravitate toward the failure experience and develop unfavorable attitudes toward the service provider, leading to likely defections.Originality/valueThe authors' research demonstrates the persuasive power of negative e-WOM at the post-service recovery stage, making a unique contribution to the service recovery literature. This research also contributes to the persuasive effect of negative e-WOM, demonstrating message context as a boundary condition of negative e-WOM effects. In general, the authors' work highlights the importance of understanding the psychological processes involved in eliciting the persuasive influence of negative e-WOM in the post-service recovery stage that may lead to the defection of “so-called” successfully recovered customers.

تأثير تجربة تعديل الخدمة على تغيير نيات المرضى وتناقل الكلام الإيجابي في المستشفيات الخاصة في الكويت: تأثير التزام المريض كمتغير وسيط

Objectives: Touchpoints of the service recovery experience in private hospitals in Kuwait were identified and validated. Then, a research model was developed to study the effect of service recovery experience on patient’s switching intentions and positive word of mouth with patient commitment as a mediator. Method: Service recovery touchpoints of patient experience were identified by focus group and a sample of private hospital patients in Kuwait was recruited using a snowballing sampling procedure with an online-survey platform. The proposed research model was validated via two-stage structural equation modeling in AMOS 27 statistical software. Path analysis examined the mediating effects of patient commitment in the examined relationships. A sample of 171 patients in private hospitals in Kuwait was recruited for the exploratory factor analysis [EFA] and a separate sample of 976 patients was recruited for the confirmatory factor analysis [CFA]. Results: The findings confirmed a significant direct effect of service recovery experience on patients’ positive word of mouth and a significant indirect effect through patient commitment as a mediator. On contrary, service recovery experience was related to patients’ switching intentions only through the indirect link of patient commitment, which provided support for the full mediation model. Conclusion: Private hospitals should pay much attention to service recovery experience and allocate resources across critical touchpoints to enhance patient relationship.

Decoding consumers' CSR scepticism: service recovery experience perspective

PurposeThis study examines the impact of the brand's corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers' brand experience and, in turn, consumers' intention of word-of-mouth (WoM). The study also investigates customer satisfaction with service recovery (CSATR) as a boundary condition for the proposed relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a survey-based research design to test the conceptual model. A structured questionnaire was distributed to the participants through a survey link. A total of 276 valid responses were used and analysed using Smart PLS3, a structural equation modelling technique.FindingsResults of this study demonstrate that perceived CSR have a positive impact on brand experience which eventually affects the WoM intention. Also CSATR moderates the relationship between brand experience and WoM such that satisfaction (dissatisfaction) with service recovery enhances (reduces) the effect of brand experience on WoM.Practical implicationsManagers can use CSR as a communication tool to enhance consumers' brand experience and focus on service recovery as a successful service recovery can enhance WoM over and above CSR.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate brand experience as a mediator of CSR and WoM from the lens of signalling theory. The study also tries to address the scepticism of the consumers related to WoM for a brand's CSR by incorporating the service aspect into the CSR.

Effects of Service Recovery Expectation and Recovery Justice on Customer Citizenship Behavior in the E-Retailing Context.

Customer citizenship behavior in the online shopping environment is vital to the success of e-retailers. However, it is unclear whether and how service recovery expectation and recovery justice predict customer citizenship behavior in e-retailing settings. Grounded on the expectation confirmation theory and social exchange theory, this study examined the influence of service recovery expectation and recovery justice on customer citizenship behavior with a serial mediation of recovery expectation confirmation and post-recovery satisfaction. A total of 774 samples from e-shoppers with most impressive (N = 401) and most recent (N = 373) service recovery experience were collected to test the hypotheses using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping procedures. This study reveals that service recovery expectation has a negative impact on recovery expectation confirmation, while recovery justice positively affects recovery expectation confirmation, which is further positively correlated with post-recovery satisfaction and customer citizenship behavior. Moreover, recovery expectation confirmation and post-recovery satisfaction play a serial mediation in the relationship between service recovery expectation and recovery justice, and customer citizenship behavior. Our study contributes to the growing body of customer citizenship behavior literature by offering an alternative perspective (i.e., service recovery) to understand what encourage or impede customer citizenship behavior, and expands service recovery literature by combining service recovery expectation and recovery justice into a framework and revealing the expectation–confirmation mechanism through which they influence post-recovery satisfaction in online shopping setting.

Difficulty is a possibility: turning service recovery into e-WOM

PurposeThis study aims to identify the factors of service recovery strategy that affect customer satisfaction. In addition, this study aims to explore the relationship between consumer satisfaction with service recovery and electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) in the online context.Design/methodology/approachA self-administered questionnaire is designed and administered through an online survey. This study evaluates the proposed framework through structural equation modeling with online survey data from 425 samples in the context of online buying.FindingsThe results show that explanation, effort, response speed, problem-solving and apology are the components predicting service recovery strategy. These factors have impacts on customer satisfaction with service recovery and also generate e-WOM about service recovery experiences. This study significantly contributes to not only practical insights but also the expansion of expectation confirmation theory and social exchange theory regarding online service failures.Research limitations/implicationsSamples from non-internet shoppers are not collected because this study focuses on consumers referring to purchase online. Testing this conceptual model for other populations, such as non-online consumers, including the moderating effect of gender, age and education on the relationships proposed in the model may be an interesting extension. Moreover, this study does not distinguish different types of online retailers.Practical implicationsThis study highlights the significant effect of customer satisfaction with service recovery on e-WOM. That is, managers should focus on not only making customers satisfied with their initial purchase but also enhancing customer satisfaction with service recovery in case the service failure occurs to encourage positive interaction among customers. This case will also improve the organizational image of a firm.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the identification of service recovery actions that focus on the roles of employees in dealing with service failures and their impacts on customer satisfaction in the online shopping context. In addition, the findings provide a greater understanding of the importance of customer satisfaction on e-WOM.

Research on the influence of compensation methods and customer sentiment on service recovery effect

With the development of Internet technology, online retailing has become a part of people's life, but there is still a lack of research on the service recovery of online retail. This study adopts the scenario experiment method to conduct an empirical study. The service recovery scenario is designed as 2 × 2, the subjects are required to choose a most similar scene and fill in the questionnaire according to their own service recovery experience of online shopping service. This study discusses the influence mechanism of compensation methods and customer sentiment on service recovery effect in online retail service recovery situation. The results show as follows: compared with utilitarian compensation, spiritual compensation has a greater positive impact on customer positive emotions, and spiritual compensation is more effective in reducing negative emotions; positive and negative emotions of customers have positive and negative effects on customer satisfaction after service recovery, and customer satisfaction after service recovery is the preparation and prelude to the formation of customer loyalty. The research results can provide a reference for online retailers to formulate feasible and effective service recovery strategies, improve the effect of service recovery, and promote the healthy development of online retail business model.

Managing service recovery experience: Effects of the forgiveness for older consumers

The research studies empirically the role that fairness plays in shaping emotional and behavioral forgiveness among older U.S. consumers (55 years of age and older). A theoretical model is proposed and tested that proposes, consistent with theory on emotions, that perceptions of justice affect behavioral forgiveness through emotional forgiveness. An alternative theory questions whether the effects of justice are totally mediated by emotion. Comparative results support the latter model. The cognitive perceptions of justice display a stronger effect compared to the mediated effect through emotional forgiveness. Additionally, an examination of moderation by psychological age suggests that relatively old and young (psychologically) consumers react in the same manner. While clearly, service managers need to be sensitive to the emotions of senior customers, the results here suggest a stronger role for cognitive perceptions of justice. Thus, service providers need to provide senior consumers with clearly understandable explanations for any service failure and explain how the recovery efforts will compensate for the failure.

サービス・リカバリー経験の意義―職業人としての成長・消費者としての意識変化―

サービス・リカバリー経験の意義―職業人としての成長・消費者としての意識変化―

The effect of CSR on consumer behavioral responses after service failure and recovery

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the interconnection between the consumer perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its effect on the post-recovery satisfaction and loyalty after service failures.Design/methodology/approachAn intercept survey has been conducted during June to August, 2015, in the Delhi NCR area of India. The respondent to the survey includes the hotel customers who have experienced the service failure in the previous one year. The convenience sampling method has been used with the structured questionnaire. To test the proposed model, structural equation modeling is applied.FindingsThe finding of the present study provides the empirical evidence of the existence of a relationship between perceived CSR and customer post-recovery satisfaction and loyalty influenced by trust.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study has suffered from the recall biases in the survey data. Although the responses were gathered from respondents on the basis of their actual service recovery experience in the preceding year, recall bias may have influenced the responses. The present study highlights a salient role of CSR initiatives, wherein managers can understand the influence of perceived in CSR and analyze the service recover encounters and ensure that recovery process improves the customer perception of CSR.Originality/valueThis study reinforces the significance of consumer perceived CSR and its effect on post-recovery satisfaction and loyalty after service failures.

Rectifying Failure of Service: How Customer Perceptions of Justice Affect Their Emotional Response and Social Media Testimonial

The purpose of this study is to examine how perceived justice affects a customer’s emotional response during the process of rectifying a service failure and the effect of that response to word-of-mouth recommendations posted on social media. Specifically, this study develops and tests a theoretical model which connects service recovery encounters in restaurants (justice and emotion), incidents of sharing opinions in social networks (electronic world-of-mouth), and re-patronage intention. A survey queried customers who had a service recovery experience at a casual dining restaurant and also were social media users. The survey produced 811 valid responses. Confirmatory factor analysis and the structural equation modeling tested the proposed model and research hypotheses. The findings of the study reveal that perceived justice affects customers’ loyalty (e-WOM and re-patronage intention) through emotions generated during the recovery from a failure in service. Among the three justice attributes (distributive, procedural and interactional), only distributive justice showed an impact on emotions during service recovery encounters. The study provides a foundation for future hospitality research investigating social media as a communicative tool for service recovery, and suggests strategies for the industry’s practitioners. This research contributes to the literature of emotional response and social media in the service recovery process by linking restaurants’ service and customers’ perceptions toward justice, emotion, opinions on social media.

Recovering service failure through resource integration

Customers and employees can co-create a resolution following a service failure through integrating their resources. Their activities and interactions during resource-integration shape the customers' service recovery experiences. Prior research overlooks resource integration between all involved actors in a co-created service recovery process. This research details the process with two empirical studies. Study 1 is a qualitative analysis of narratives of service recovery experiences; Study 2 is a quantitative assessment of scenario-based survey data. The results show that a favourable service recovery experience is resulted from integrating all involved actors' resources in a mutually beneficial manner. Three key resources are financial compensation, service skills including communication and timing. Our findings indicate that co-created service recovery fails in the absence of just one resource or mismatches in their integration. The combined studies reveal that customers use their justice perceptions to assess activities and interactions for resource integration in service recovery.

Emotional antecedents and outcomes of service recovery

Purpose– The purpose of this study was to investigate the service recovery experience in the luxury hotel industry by introducing emotions as a predictor of future behavioural intention and to compare traditional cognitive measures of satisfaction following a recovery process with measures based on affect.Design/methodology/approach– A mixed-methods approach was adopted comprising a main quantitative study, preceded by an exploratory qualitative study.Findings– The study provides further support for the use of emotions in understanding consumer behaviour following a service failure.Research limitations/implications– As an abstract concept, we have only limited physical, measurable manifestation of emotions, and the construct is difficult to operationalise in social sciences research. Furthermore, this research has required retrospective self-reporting of emotions.Practical implications– The use of emotions can provide a better diagnostic tool for understanding attitudes that customers go away with following a service failure, rather than concentrating on cognitive measures of performance.Originality/value– The study has provided further support for the use of emotions in understanding consumer behaviour following a service failure.

The Role of Emotions in Translating Perceptions of (In)Justice into Postcomplaint Behavioral Responses

There is widespread recognition in the literature that perceived (in)justice plays an important role in driving postcomplaint behavioral responses to service recovery experiences. However, this literature has evolved with little cross-reference to emotion research. This is problematic because much of psychology research has argued that emotion is the central mechanism through which a sense of (in)justice is translated into subsequent behavior. The current study seeks to address this issue by explicitly considering the role of perceived (in)justice in the elicitation of consumer emotions following service recovery encounters. Specifically, using survey data, the role of emotions in translating perceptions of (in)justice into subsequent postcomplaint behaviors (e.g., repurchase intention, negative word-of-mouth communication and third-party action) is investigated. Results provide empirical evidence for the contention that emotions act as mediators of the relationship between perceived justice and postcomplaint behaviors. These findings have significant implications for the theory and practice of service recovery management.

The role of cognition and affect in the formation of customer satisfaction judgements concerning service recovery encounters

Abstract It is widely accepted that justice perceptions play an important role in shaping customers' evaluations of service recovery experiences. However, this stream of justice research has evolved with little cross‐reference to emotion research. The current paper seeks to address this issue by explicitly considering the role of perceived justice in the elicitation of recovery‐specific consumer emotions. Specifically, we develop and test a model suggesting that perceived justice represents a cognitive appraisal dimension, which helps to explain the elicitation of positive and negative emotions during and/or after service recovery encounters. Furthermore, we argue that customer satisfaction with service recovery (i.e. recovery satisfaction) is based partly on cognitive (i.e. perceived justice based) and partly on affective responses. Support for the proposed model is provided through findings from an empirical study showing that both cognitive and affective influences work to create the recovery satisfaction judgement. This finding has significant implications for the theory and practice of service recovery management. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.