An extended longitudinal study of the effects of a service guarantee

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Hays, Julie M.; Hill, Arthur V.
• 署名单位: University of St Thomas Minnesota; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• 发表日期: 2006
• 页码: 117-131
• 关键词: service recovery; complaint management; customer satisfaction; service guarantees; Empirical Research

摘要

This paper examines the long-term effects of a service guarantee on employee motivation, learning through service failure, and customer intention to return. Service guarantees have been hypothesized to positively affect customer perception of service quality (and/or customer intention to return) through their positive effect on both learning through service failure and employee motivation. However, there has been no long-term study of these effects. A longitudinal, empirical study was conducted to investigate the question of whether a service guarantee program is a short-term fix or a long-term solution. The service guarantee was found to have a positive, long-term effect on both employee motivation and customer intention to return. However, the service guarantee did not have a significant direct effect on employee perceptions of improvement through learning from service failure. This research highlights the need for organizations to make better use of the information and knowledge gained from invocations of a service guarantee and strongly supports using a service guarantee to improve customer loyalty and increase employee motivation.