Service recovery

1. Achieving Service Recovery and Obtaining Customer Feedback

2. Learning Objectives Uncover customer complaining behaviour Design effective service recovery strategies Determine the usefulness of service guarantees Outline front line staff response to abusive and/or opportunistic customer behaviour Create institutionalized systematic learning from feedback

3. Customer Complaining Behaviour

4. Customer Response Categories to Service Failures Service Encounter is Dissatisfactory Take some form of Public Action Take some form of Private Action Take No Action Complain to the service firm Complain to a third party Take legal action to seek redress Defect (switch provider) Negative word-of-mouth Any one or a combination of these responses is possible

5. Understanding Customer Responses to Service Failure Why do customers complain? What proportion of unhappy customers complain? Why don’t unhappy customers complain? Who is most likely to complain? Where do customers complain? What do customers expect once they have made a complaint?

6. Customers Often View Complaining as Difficult and Unpleasant (Fig 13.2)

7. Three Dimensions of Perceived Fairness in Service Recovery Process Procedural Justice Interactive Justice Outcome Justice Complaint Handling and Service Recovery Process Justice Dimensions of the Service Recovery Process Customer Satisfaction with Service Recovery

8. Customer Responses to Effective Service Recovery

9. Importance of Service Recovery Plays a crucial role in achieving customer satisfaction Tests a firm’s commitment to satisfaction and service quality Employee training and motivation is highly important Impacts customer loyalty and future profitability Complaint handling should be seen as a profit centre, not a cost centre

10. The Service Recovery Paradox Customers who experience a service failure that is satisfactorily resolved more likely to make future purchases than customers without problems (Note: not all research supports this paradox) If second service failure occurs, the paradox disappears—customers’ expectations have been raised and they become disillusioned Severity and “recoverability” of failure (e.g., spoiled wedding photos) may limit firm’s ability to delight customer with recovery efforts Best strategy: Do it right the first time

11. Principles of Effective Service Recovery Systems

12. Components of an Effective Service Recovery System Do the job right the first time Effective Complaint Handling Identify Service Complaints Resolve Complaints Effectively Learn from the Recovery Experience Increased Satisfaction and Loyalty Conduct research Monitor complaints Develop “Complaints as opportunity” culture Develop effective system and training in complaints handling Conduct root cause analysis = + Close the loop via feedback

13. Strategies to Reduce Customer Complaint Barriers Complaint Barriers for Dissatisfied Customers Strategies to Reduce These Barriers Inconvenience Hard to find right complaint procedure Effort involved in complaining Put customer service hotline numbers, e-mail and postal addresses on all customer communications materials Doubtful Pay Off Uncertain if action will be taken by firm to address problem Have service recovery procedures in place, communicate this to customers Feature service improvements that resulted from customer feedback Unpleasantness Fear of being treated rudely Hassle, embarrassment Thank customers for their feedback Train frontline employees Allow for anonymous feedback

14. How to Enable Effective Service Recovery Be proactive—on the spot, before customers complain Plan recovery procedures Teach recovery skills to relevant personnel Empower personnel to use judgment and skills to develop recovery solutions

15. How Generous Should Compensation Be? Rules of thumb for managers to consider: What is positioning of our firm? How severe was the service failure? Who is the affected customer?

16. Service Guarantees

17. Service Guarantees Help Promote and Achieve Service Loyalty Force firms to focus on what customers want Set clear standards Highlight cost of service failures Require systems to get and act on customer feedback Reduce risks of purchase and build loyalty

18. How to Design Service Guarantees Unconditional Easy to understand and communicate Meaningful to the customer Easy to invoke Easy to collect Credible

19. Types of Service Guarantees Single attribute-specific guarantee One key service attribute is covered Multiattribute -specific guarantee A few important service attributes are covered Full-satisfaction guarantee All service aspects covered with no exceptions Combined guarantee All service aspects are covered Explicit minimum performance standards on important attributes

20. Discouraging Abuse and Opportunistic Behaviour

21. Dealing with Customer Fraud Treating all customers with suspicion is likely to alienate them TARP found only 1 to 2 percent of customer base engages in premeditated fraud—so why treat remaining 98 percent of honest customers as potential crooks? Insights from research on guarantee cheating Amount of a guarantee payout had no effect on customer cheating Repeat-purchase intention reduced cheating intent Customers are reluctant to cheat if service quality is high (rather than just satisfactory) Managerial implication Firms can benefit from offering 100 percent money-back guarantees Guarantees should be offered to regular customers as part of membership program Excellent service firms have less to worry about than average providers

22. Learning from Customer Feedback

23. Key Objectives of Effective Customer Feedback Systems Assessment and benchmarking of service quality and performance Customer-driven learning and improvements Creating a customer-oriented service culture

24. Customer Feedback Collection Tools Total market surveys Post-transaction surveys Ongoing customer surveys Customer advisory panels Employee surveys/panels Focus groups Mystery shopping Complaint analysis Capture service operating data

25. Key Customer Feedback Collection Tools: Strengths and Weaknesses ( Table 13.3) COLLECTION TOOLS FIRM PROCESS TRANSACTION SPECIFIC ACTIONABLE REPRESENTATIVE RELIABLE POTENTIAL FOR SERVICE RECOVERY FIRST HAND LEARNING COST EFFECTIVENESS LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT TOTAL MARKET SURVEY (INCLU. COMPETITORS) ANNUAL SURVEY ON OVERALL SATISFACTION TRANSACTIONAL SURVEY SERVICE FEEDBACK CARDS MYSTERY SHOPPING UNSOLICITED FEEDBACK (e.g., COMPLAINTS) FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS SERVICE REVIEWS Source : Adapted from Jochen Wirtz and Monica Tomlin, “Institutionalizing Customer-Driven Learning Through Fully Integrated Customer Feedback Systems.” Managing Service Quality ,10, no.4 (2000): p. 210.

26. Entry Points for Unsolicited Feedback Frontline employees Intermediaries acting for original supplier Managers contacted by customers at head/regional office Complaint cards deposited in special box or mailed Telephone or e-mail Complaints passed to company by third-party recipients Disseminate the information to relevant parties to take action Immediately Track over time

27. Summary Customer can complain by taking public action, private action or no action at all Components of an effective recovery system include: Doing it right the first time Effective complaint handling Identifying service complaints Resolving complaints effectively Learning from the recovery experience Service guarantees should be unconditional, easy for customers to understand and invoke Dealing with abusive and/or opportunistic customer behaviours is dealing with customer fraud, most customers are honest, but guarantees should be monitored Institutionalized systematic learning from feedback delivers valuable feedback to management