Relatively little research has addressed the nature and determinants of customer satisfaction following service failure and recovery. Two studies using scenario-based experiments reveal the impact of failure expectations, recovery expectations, recovery performance, and justice on customers’ postrecovery satisfaction. Customer satisfaction was found to be lower after service failure and recovery (even given high-recovery performance) than in the case of error-free service. The research shows that, in general, companies fare better in the eyes of consumers by avoiding service failure than by responding to failure with superior recovery.

This research examines the impact of attributions regarding service failure and recovery on the relationship between satisfaction and service quality by studying a service failure in the hospitality industry resulting from overbooking. In addition, the impact of perceived justice on satisfaction and service quality is analyzed. Finally, the ability of superior recovery to completely mitigate the dissatisfaction resulting from low-harm service failure is addressed. In doing so, the relationship between satisfaction and service quality is clarified. Research hypotheses are critically evaluated through the use of a scenario-based experiment. Implications concern the ability of recovery to mitigate the harm caused by failure. Specifically, for managers in the hospitality industry, the study demonstrates a need to balance overbooking as a yield management tool against the need for organizations to assure service quality through reliability in their service products.

No abstract

In guaranteeing the satisfaction of undergraduate students with the instructor's performance, Gremler and McCollough in previous studies reported that undergraduate students generally approve of the concept of offering a student satisfaction guarantee for a course. Although they provided both qualitative and quantitative measures of students'attitudes concerning the guarantee, left unresolved is how students' attitudes toward the guarantee might possibly affect their attitudes toward their overall classroom experience, including their attitude of the instructor's efforts, their own efforts, and their satisfaction with classroom learning outcomes. This research presents and empirically evaluates a student satisfaction guarantee model. Lessons learned have implications not only for student satisfaction guarantees but for service guarantees in general.

Service guarantees, formal promises made to customers about the service they will receive, are rarely offered in university classes. In this article, the authors report on their experience in guaranteeing the satisfaction of undergraduate students with the instructor's performance. The rationale for, success of, and lessons learned from this pedagogical exercise are reviewed. In addition, detailed feedback from students gained through focus group interviews and a written student assignment regarding the guarantee is examined. General advice related to the guarantee is offered for instructors interested in guaranteeing their own performance.Shouldstudentsbetreatedascustomers?Canthelessonsof service quality be successfully applied to education? By applying service quality lessons to the classroom, can students and instructors gain a deeper appreciation of service marketing by becoming participant observers? If students are treated as customers, should their satisfaction be guaranteed?This study reports on an exercise in which we addressed the preceding questions by guaranteeing student satisfaction with our teaching performance. We begin by reviewing the literature on guarantees and present rationale for guaranteeing student satisfaction. Next, we present the satisfaction guarantee that we have offered in our classes. Using detailed qualitative feedback from students, we then evaluate the success of the exercise and report lessons we learned. Finally, we offer general advice to those interested in offering guarantees at their institutions.