Service recovery

Service recovery is an organization's resolution of problems from dissatisfied customers, converting those customers into loyal customers.[1] It is the action a service provider takes in response to service failure.[2] By including customer satisfaction in the definition, service recovery is a thought-out, planned process of returning aggrieved/dissatisfied customers to a state of satisfaction with an organization/service.[3] Service recovery differs from complaint management in its focus on immediate reaction to service failures. Complaint management is based on customer complaints, which, in turn, may be triggered by service failures.[4] But since most dissatisfied customers are reluctant to complain,[5] service recovery attempts to solve problems at the service encounter before customers complain or before they leave the service encounter dissatisfied. Both complaint management and service recovery are customer retention strategies.[6] Researchers recently proved that strategies such as value co-creation and follow-up can improve the effectiveness of service recovery efforts.[7]

  1. ^ James A. Fitzsimmons and Mona J. Fitzsimmmons: Service management: operations, strategy, information technology, 2011, 7th edition, p136.
  2. ^ Grönroos, Christian. "Service Quality: The Six Criteria of Good Perceived Service Quality." Review of Business 9, no. Winter (1988): 10-13.
  3. ^ Lewis, Barbara R. "Service Promises, Problems and Retrieval. Working Paper." Paper presented at the QUIS, Karlstad, 1996.
  4. ^ Stauss, Bernd, and Wolfgang Seidel. Complaint Management. The Heart of CRM. Mason, OH: Thomson, 2005.
  5. ^ Andreasen, Alain R., and Arthur Best. "Customers Complain-Does Business Respond?". Harvard Business Review 55, no. July–August (1977): 93-101.
  6. ^ Halstead, Diane, Edward A Morash, and John Ozment. "Comparing Objective Service Failures and Subjective Complaints: An Investigation of Domino and Halo Effects." Journal of Business Research 36, no. 2 (1996): 107-15.
  7. ^ Gohary, Ali , Hamzelu, Bahman and Alizadeh, Hamid. "Please explain why it happened! How perceived justice and customer involvement affect post co-recovery evaluations: A study of Iranian online shoppers." Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services Volume 31, July 2016, Pages 127-142.