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The purpose of this paper is twofold: to examine generational differences in complaint and post-recovery behaviors after service failures and recoveries, and to investigate the key factors that relate to Generation Y consumers’ responses.

In a two-stage approach, Study 1 investigates generational differences in the complaint and repurchase behaviors of a vast sample of more than 36,000 customers. Study 2 examines which factors influence Generation Y consumers’ decisions to complain and to repurchase.

Across four generational cohorts (the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y), consumers in Generation Y are the most likely to complain about service failures and repurchase after a satisfactory service recovery. The service recovery paradox thus is a generational feature. Generation Y’s unique characteristics – being tech savvy, heavily influenced by peers, and untrusting of brands – relate closely to their complaint and repurchase patterns. These prolific users of social media tend to stay with a service provider after experiencing satisfactory recovery but are more inclined to complain.

This study contributes to service management literature by revealing generational differences in customers’ complaint behavior and responses to recovery efforts, while also testing repurchase behavior rather than just behavioral intentions. This study provides valuable insights into the unique factors that influence Generation Y consumers’ complaint and post-recovery responses.

Service recovery has attracted increasing attention in recent years as a result of the premise that service failures are inevitable, but dissatisfied customers are not. However, many methodological obstacles, e.g. the question of how failure and recovery incidents are collected, have not been overcome yet. In this article, the author suggests a process approach by which not only dissatisfied or complaining customers are surveyed but due attention is paid to a representative sample of both satisfied and dissatisfied customers. This approach is supported by the corresponding results, which is not surprising, since failure incidents and recoveries are indeed specific to indvidual processes. An analysis of the effect of good recoveries resulted in the recovery paradox being found in all but one process type.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of complaint behaviour and service recovery satisfaction on consumer intentions to repurchase through internet channels.

Using survey data from large consumer samples from 15 European countries, the authors classify consumers according to: whether they had negative experiences with online purchases, whether they complained, and whether they were satisfied with the complaint handling. A logistic regression analysis assesses the effects of these experiences on repurchase intentions.

Remarkable differences arise among the consumers with respect to intentions to repurchase on the internet. Consumers with negative experiences who complained expressed higher repurchase intentions than consumers with no reason to complain and also than consumers who had negative experiences but did not complain. Yet the highest repurchase intentions arose among consumers who complained and expressed satisfaction with the complaint handling, in support of the service recovery paradox in an online setting.

This project is one of the first empirical studies of the consequences of dissatisfaction and complaints related to online purchase behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of recovery and strength of recovery on satisfaction and voice behaviors.

Two role‐playing experiments involving product failure followed by recovery at a video store were conducted. Data collected from students were analyzed using t‐tests and ANOVA.

Relationship satisfaction after a strong recovery was higher than it would have been, had the failure not occurred in the first place. In the case of store satisfaction, the original level was restored but not exceeded. Furthermore, customers appear to have an expectation threshold for customer recovery. A recovery effort that fell below this threshold led to sharply lower expectations. On the other hand, a customer recovery far beyond the customers' expectation threshold was no more effective than one that just exceeded it. Product satisfaction was lower regardless of the strength of recovery. Internal voice behaviors were higher following a customer recovery but a stronger recovery did not lead to any more internal voice behaviors than a weak recovery. External voice behaviors were not affected by a customer recovery.

The key to managing complaints in companies is to find just the right amount to spend for recovery. If the recovery is below the customer's expectation threshold, she will be dissatisfied. On the other hand, a recovery much above the customer's expectation threshold will not lead to any greater satisfaction, any more internal voice behaviors, or any fewer external voice behaviors.

The study looks at the influence of recovery on satisfaction with respect to store, relationship, and product. It also looks at the effect of recovery on internal and external voice behaviors.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of service recovery experiences on customer engagement in negative word-of-mouth (WOM) in the hotel industry and explore the psychological motives and mediating mechanisms driving consumer behavior.

A scenario-based experimental design on Qualtrics was used, with a pre-test (N = 200). The main study data were collected using Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform.

Findings reveal that negative service experiences lead to higher engagement in negative WOM compared to positive and satisfactory recovery service experiences. Even well-executed recovery efforts may not completely eliminate negative WOM. The mediating role of emotional responses is substantiated, as heightened negative service experiences result in more intense negative emotional responses, leading to increased engagement in negative WOM.

The study emphasizes the importance of service recovery strategies and the need for businesses to consistently strive for exceptional service quality. It also highlights the complexity of customer reactions to service experiences, suggesting that further research is needed to explore the factors that minimize negative WOM across various service contexts.

In the last ten years, businesses taking advantage of market deregulation, call‐centre, intranet and internet technology have broken traditional marketing norms and path‐dependent customer management practices. These businesses offer substantially lower prices and good customer service. In spite of anecdotal evidence of the high level of service complaints in the press, these businesses are expanding rapidly by growing the market and by taking share from traditional suppliers. Service failure recovery and complaint management are two areas which are extensively re‐designed by such businesses. This paper aims to identify and examine such new practices. The authors suggest that the traditional “customer‐centricity” model is being replaced by a “customer‐compliance business model” (CCBM) of service provision. This new model and its propositions defy conventional thinking in the areas of service recovery and complaint management.

Available data and research are reviewed, in an attempt to understand CCBM. Differences with the customer‐centricity model are discussed.

CCBM cannot be explained adequately by current assumptions in marketing. It breaks commonplace marketing expectations about service failure and recovery.

The emphasis is on explaining innovations in service recovery and complaint management.

Companies which operate the CCBM model are of growing importance to developed, service‐oriented economies. The paper builds on evidence to show how CCBM businesses have abandoned or minimised costly customer centricity and have broken past norms and conventional marketing thinking and practice.

The scarcity of research in this area is explained by the recent, rapid evolution of these new model businesses. The study reveals and makes sense of important trends in service provision, distinct from and incompatible with normative arguments in some academic writings that advocate service recovery excellence.

To determine the impact of service recovery on consumer evaluations of service delivery.

An experiment investigated consumer responses to three dimensions of perceived fairness of recovery efforts: redress, responsiveness, and empathy/courtesy.

Results revealed that higher levels of redress independently increase positive consumer responses. It was further found that the interaction of employee responsiveness and courtesy can also have a dramatic impact on consumer evaluations. Satisfaction was highest and negative word‐of‐mouth (WOM) intentions were lowest only under conditions of high responsiveness and courtesy. Additionally, an interaction between courtesy and tangible rewards significantly decreased the level of negative WOM.

The research offers empirical support for the “service recovery paradox” suggesting effective post‐recovery efforts may not only counteract bad service experiences, but may increase satisfaction beyond levels held before the service failure.

Key elements for the proper structuring of a service recovery process are identified for management.

Previous research has found that interactional justice and distributive justice are critical factors influencing customer satisfaction after a service recovery. In addition, previous service recovery research has found that satisfaction is an important determinant of key outcome variables such as trust, commitment, and negative word‐of‐mouth. The current study extends previous research by investigating the role of service failure severity within the existing framework of service recovery research. The results indicate that service failure severity has a significant influence on satisfaction, trust, commitment, and negative word‐of‐mouth. The results also provide partial support for a moderating influence of service failure severity. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.

The intention-behavior gap that occurs when one’s actions do not align with their intentions has been the topic of interest of many researchers. However, the effects of the various constructs that influence the intention-behavior gap in service failure and recovery remain under-explored to date. To fill this gap, this study aims to examine the relationship between switching intention (i.e. intention) and customer exit (i.e. behavior) and the moderating roles of failure severity and service recovery satisfaction.

To test the proposed hypotheses, the authors used a longitudinal panel involving 821 customers who actually experienced a service failure and recovery in 38 fitness centers in Brazil. The data analysis is composed of logistic regression and cross-tabulation.

The results confirmed the significant role of switching intention on customer exit and the moderating effect of failure severity (but not service recovery satisfaction) in the relationship between switching intention and customer exit. Most of all, switching intention had low explanatory power for customer exit, confirming the presence of the intention-behavior gap. The authors further identified a weaker presence of the intention-behavior gap for female (vs male) customers and for those who experienced process failure (vs outcome failure).

Although the authors confirmed the intention-behavior gap, the biggest proportion of the variance remains unexplained. Thus, it is important to explore the roles of other possible drivers, moderators and mediators.

As switching intention is not a strong predictor of customer exit, managers should not assume that those who appear to be on the verge of switching will immediately exit the service provider.

As researchers question the explanatory power of intention for actual behavior, this paper confirms that there is an intention-behavior gap in service failure and recovery. Moreover, given that most researchers have focused on the positive outcomes of service recovery efforts, such as customer loyalty and commitment, studying negative outcomes, including switching intention and customer exit, is a key contribution of this research.

Previous research suggests that the compensation offered to customers after a service failure has to be substantial to make customer satisfaction surpass that of an error-free service. However, with the right service recovery strategy, it might be possible to reduce compensation size while maintaining happy customers. The aim of the current study is to test whether an anchoring technique can be used to achieve this goal.

After experiencing a service failure, participants were told that there is a standard size of the compensation for service failures. The size of this standard was different depending on condition. Thereafter, participants were asked how much they would demand to be satisfied with their customer experience.

The compensation demand was relatively high on average (1,000–1,400 SEK, ≈ $120). However, telling the participants that customers typically receive 200 SEK as compensation reduced their demand to about 800 SEK (Experiment 1)—an anchoring effect. Moreover, a precise anchoring point (a typical compensation of 247 SEK) generated a lower demand than rounded anchoring points, even when the rounded anchoring point was lower (200 SEK) than the precise counterpart (Experiment 2)—a precision effect.

Setting a low compensation standard—yet allowing customers to actually receive compensations above the standard—can make customers more satisfied while also saving resources in demand-what-you-want service recovery situations, in particular when the compensation standard is a precise value.