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Demonstrates a method for examining service failures and recovery strategies in service industries and provides a typology of service failures and recoveries in the restaurant industry. Based on 373 critical incidents collected from restaurant customers, uses the critical incident technique (CIT) to identify 11 unique failure types and eight different recovery strategies. Additional data regarding the magnitude of the service failure, the service recovery rating, the lapsed time since the failure/recovery incident, and customer retention rates were also collected. Presents this information along with managerial and research implications.

This paper reports on a study investigating key attributes of service recovery strategies in internet shopping mall. In theses day, service recovery has received important attention in the service operation management literature. Service recovery involves those actions designed to resolve problems, alter negative attitudes of dissatisfied consumers and to ultimately retain these customers. The study examined that service recovery strategies (apology, compensation) impact on the customer satisfaction. And customer satisfaction impacts on customer loyalty with SEM (Structural Equation Modeling). This study can be used a strategic implication for internet shopping mall managers to develop successful service recovery strategies.

Service recovery strategies have been identified as a critical factor in the success of service organizations. This study develops a conceptual framework to investigate how specific service recovery strategies influence the emotional, cognitive and negative behavioral responses of consumers, as well as how emotion and cognition influence negative behavior. Understanding the impact of specific service recovery strategies will allow service providers to more deliberately and intentionally engage in strategies that result in positive organizational outcomes. This study was conducted using a 2×2 between-subjects quasi-experimental design. The results suggest that service recovery has a significant impact on emotion, cognition and negative behavior. Similarly, satisfaction, negative emotion and positive emotion all influence negative behavior but distributive justice has no effect.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of attributions on the efficacy of service recovery strategies in preventing customer defection following a service failure.

The empirical investigation is carried out on the retail banking industry with a final sample of 448 real cases of customer retention or defection after a service failure.

The results of the study not only highlight the relevance of intentionality as an additional factor in explaining customer defection, but also show the effects of some attributional dimensions (intentionality and controllability) on the efficacy of some recovery strategies (redress, apology and explanation) applied by companies to prevent post-complaint customer defection.

The efficacy of the recovery strategies depends on the causal attributions that the customer makes about the service failure.

This study analyzes not only the effects of traditional dimensions of attribution (stability and controllability), but also the additional effect that intentionality attributions may have on actual customer defection (not intentions). Moreover, it analyzes their effects on the effectiveness of recovery strategies in preventing customer defection. Most of these effects have never been empirically analyzed in the literature.

This paper aims to address the gaps in service recovery strategy assessment. An effective service recovery strategy that prevents customer defection after a service failure is a powerful managerial instrument. The literature to date does not present a comprehensive assessment of service recovery strategy. It also lacks a clear picture of the service recovery actions at managers’ disposal in case of failure and the effectiveness of individual strategies on customer outcomes.

Based on service recovery theory, this paper proposes a formative index of service recovery strategy and empirically validates this measure using partial least-squares path modelling with survey data from 437 complainants in the telecommunications industry in Egypt.

The CURE scale (CUstomer REcovery scale) presents evidence of reliability as well as convergent, discriminant and nomological validity. Findings also reveal that problem-solving, speed of response, effort, facilitation and apology are the actions that have an impact on the customer’s satisfaction with service recovery.

This new formative index is of potential value in investigating links between strategy and customer evaluations of service by helping managers identify which actions contribute most to changes in the overall service recovery strategy as well as satisfaction with service recovery. Ultimately, the CURE scale facilitates the long-term planning of effective complaint management.

This is the first study in the service marketing literature to propose a comprehensive assessment of service recovery strategy and clearly identify the service recovery actions that contribute most to changes in the overall service recovery strategy.

The authors propose focusing on e‐commerce service failure and recovery through the presentation of failure and recovery strategies employed by e‐commerce service firms.

The authors employ the critical incident technique using 377 customer responses to present ten e‐tail failures and 11 e‐tail recovery strategies used by e‐commerce service firms. The authors also present data on post‐recovery satisfaction levels and propensity to switch behavior.

Findings indicate that: e‐tail customers experience different types of service failure relative to traditional retail settings; e‐tail firms employ a different series of recovery strategies relative to traditional retail settings; and post‐recovery switching by e‐tail customers can be high even with satisfying experiences.

This paper strengthens the existing failure and recovery literature by presenting data on the largest growing sector of the service industry. These findings will have value to traditional firms looking to expand to e‐commerce channels in addition to e‐commerce firms currently experiencing customer dissatisfaction.

Through means of an empirical study of service recovery in US retail banking this paper aims to examine the link between satisfaction and various recovery strategies.

A total of 310 bank customers responded to a survey addressing customer demographics, levels of satisfaction, types of recovery strategies, and service recovery employees. Frequencies, chi‐square analysis and correspondence analysis were used to analyze the data.

The findings show no significant difference in recovery strategies or satisfaction by customer age, gender, or tenure with bank. However, the degree of customer satisfaction was strongly influenced by the type of recovery strategy used by the bank. The results indicate that recovery efforts are best directed toward empathic listening and fixing the problem rather than apologizing or making atonement.

This study of service recovery in US retail banking provides useful information on the link between satisfaction and various recovery strategies.

Focuses on an empirical investigation of service failures and service recovery in retail banking. Different types of failures, and the recovery strategies used by Greek banks to respond to them, were identified using the critical incident technique. A survey questionnaire was then developed to measure customers’ perceptions of the magnitude of service failures and the effectiveness of service recovery strategies. A number of research hypotheses were tested relating to customers’ evaluations of particular banking failures and recovery strategies, their previous experience of failures, demographic variables, and relationships with their banks. Service failures were found to be of varying importance and different service recovery strategies more effective for particular failures; further, customers with long relationships or high deposits with their banks were more demanding with respect to service recovery.

This paper aims to examine how stealing thunder, apology and compensation influence customer loyalty in a service failure context, and how trust mediates these relationships.

The study adopted a scenario-based between-group experimental design involving 300 customers.

The results indicated that stealing thunder, apology and compensation have a joint effect on customer loyalty. Specifically, this study found a significant positive impact of stealing thunder on loyalty; a two-way interaction effect of compensation and stealing thunder on loyalty; and a three-way interaction effect on loyalty. Additionally, trust mediated the relationship between service recovery attributes (stealing thunder, apology and compensation) and customer loyalty.

This study introduces a new service recovery method called Stealing Thunder, which is commonly used in the fields of law and communication and is the first to assess stealing thunder as a proactive/preemptive strategy to handle service failures and its impact on customer loyalty. The study found that when stealing thunder was present, compensation had no influence on customer loyalty. Moreover, when stealing thunder was present, compensation had no impact on loyalty when apology was not present. However, compensation had a significant effect on loyalty when stealing thunder and apology were not present. This study finds the value of including proactive/preemptive strategies (stealing thunder) along with regular service recovery strategies (e.g. apology and compensation) in the service recovery process. Results show that service recoveries that include stealing thunder help service failure recovery significantly by increasing customer’s trust.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of organizational justice‐based recovery strategies and the mode of communication used following a service failure on key organizational variables including customer satisfaction, loyalty, and complaining behavior.

A scenario‐based experiment was used to depict a service failure and recovery experience involving a fictitious cellular phone provider. The scenario manipulated the type of organizational justice‐based recovery strategy and the mode of communication used during the recovery process. Surveys were used to measure participants' reactions to the experience.

The results of the study suggest no difference between the effect of justice‐based strategies on overall customer satisfaction or loyalty. However, participants who communicated in‐person or with a toll‐free number were more satisfied with the communication than those who used e‐mail. Customers were more likely to engage in informal negative word‐of‐mouth behavior than formally complaining to the company.

Future research should investigate the length of the recovery process, whether or not the problem was successfully solved, and the effect of customers' communication mode preference. Scenario‐based experiments need to be replicated using real life service encounters/simulations.

Implications for organizations developing recovery strategies include: the cost of the recovery effort; utilizing multiple channels to increase formal complaining; and differences between in‐person and technological strategies.

The present study investigated both service recovery and communication mode using an experimental manipulation.