The effects of severity of failure and customer loyalty on service recovery strategies

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Craighead, CW; Karwan, KR; Miller, JL
• 署名单位: Auburn University System; Auburn University; University of South Carolina System; University of South Carolina Columbia; Clemson University
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 307-321
• 关键词: Service Operations; Service Recovery; survey research/design; critical incident technique; cluster analysis/hierarchical grouping

摘要

Service failures do not need to result in permanent negative consequences as long as effective recovery activities are undertaken. Unfortunately, existing research has been limited in providing information to support prescriptive approaches for applying specific service recovery techniques. By using data from a large sample (n = 861) of service failure incidents and employing the use of hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analysis, this exploratory study creates and analyzes empirical types of service failures. The derived failure types, or common situations faced by service providers, focus on customer loyalty and the severity of the failure, and may be visualized in a two-by-two matrix. Regression analysis is then used to demonstrate how effective recovery strategies and supporting activities should vary, based on the location of the failure within the matrix. The approach and results offer important implications for strategy and service support activities as well as a foundation for systematizing service recovery efforts.