Chapter 13Complaints and Service

Recovery

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Chapter Objectives

• Discuss the four different categories of service failure types.

• Explain customer complaining behavior, including the reasons customers do and do not complain and the outcomes associated with customer complaints.

• Describe the issues involved in mastering the art of service recovery.

• Understand the value of tracking and monitoring service failures and employee recovery efforts.

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Opening Vignette: Business Week Article

• The customer has taken justice into their own hands and become a consumer activist.

• BusinessWeek devoted a recent cover story to Consumer Vigilantes and the tagline: “Memo to Corporate America: Hell now hath no fury like a customer scorned.”

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Types of Complaints

Instrumental• expressed for the purpose of altering an

undesirable state of affairsNoninstrumental

• expressed without the expectation that an undesirable state will be altered

Ostensive• outer-directed complaints

Reflexive• Inner-directed complaints

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Types of Complainers

1. The Meek Customer2. The Aggressive

Customer3. The High-Roller

Customer4. The Rip-Off Customer5. The Chronic

Complainer Customer

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Why Do Customers Complain?

• Correct the problem• Emotional release from frustration• Regain some measure of control by

spreading negative word-of-mouth• Solicit sympathy • Test for consensus• Create an impression of being more

intelligent and discerning

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Why Don’t Customers Complain?

• Don’t know who to complain to• Don’t think it will do any good• May doubt their own subjective

evaluation• May accept part of the blame• May want to avoid confrontation• May lack expertise

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Complaining Outcomes

Voice• High => store manager• Medium => sales clerk• Low => no one associated with the store

• Exit• High => never purchases again• Medium => only purchases if other

alternatives are not available• Low => continues to shop as usual

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Complaining Outcomes

Retaliation

• High => tells lots of people and attempts to physically damage the store

• Medium => tells a few people and created minor inconveniences

• Low => does not retaliate at all

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Figure 13.2: Developing a Service Recovery Management

Program

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Figure 13.3: Types of Service Failure

Primary Failure TypePrimary Failure Type

Service Delivery System Failures

Customer Needs and Requests

Unprompted/Unsolicited Employee Actions

Problematic Customers

Service Delivery System Failures

Customer Needs and Requests

Unprompted/Unsolicited Employee Actions

Problematic Customers

Failure SubgroupsFailure SubgroupsUnavailable ServiceUnreasonably Slow ServiceOther Core Service Failure

“Special Needs” CustomersCustomer PreferencesAdmitted Customer ErrorDisruptive Others

Level of AttentionUnusual ActionCultural NormsGestalt

DrunkennessVerbal and Physical AbuseBreaking Company PoliciesUncooperative Customers

Unavailable ServiceUnreasonably Slow ServiceOther Core Service Failure

“Special Needs” CustomersCustomer PreferencesAdmitted Customer ErrorDisruptive Others

Level of AttentionUnusual ActionCultural NormsGestalt

DrunkennessVerbal and Physical AbuseBreaking Company PoliciesUncooperative Customers

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Service Failure Attribution: Indentifying the Root Cause

• Locus: the possible source of the failure including the service provider, the firm, the customer, or external forces

• Stability: the likelihood the service failure will recur

• Controllability: whether or not the firm had control over the cause of the failure

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Recovery Strategy Selection

What Should the Customer Receive to Offset the Failure?– Compensatory Strategies– Restoration Strategies– Apologetic Strategies– Reimbursement Strategies– Unresponsive Strategies

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Recovery Strategy Implementation

How Should the Recovery Strategy Be Presented to the Customer?

Perceived Justice • Distributive justice

• Outcomes (compensation)• Procedural justice

• Process (time)• Interactional justice

• Human content (empathy, friendliness)

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Art of Service Recovery

Service recovery paradox• Situation in which the customer rates

performance higher if a failure occurs and the contact personnel successfully recover from it than if the service had been delivered correctly in the first place

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Improve Service Recovery efforts

• Measure the costs

• Actively encourage complaints

• Anticipate needs for recovery

• Respond quickly

• Train employees

• Empower the front-line

• Close the loop

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mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright © 2011 Cengage Learning.  

©2011 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.