Service failure and loyalty: an exploratory empirical study of airline customers

Bejou, David; Palmer, Adrian

doi:10.1108/08876049810202339

Cited by 194 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…At least, service providers should understand customers' early indicators of switching. Bejou and Palmer (1998) demonstrate that the effect of a service failure is in how it affects trust and commitment between the parties in a relationship. They refer to Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (1987) and their identification of five stages in a relationship.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Switching Processes in Customer Relationships

Roos¹

1999

Journal of Service Research

258

238

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Service providers today are largely concerned with attracting and retaining customers. There are several reasons for this. Competition for customers is fierce in most industries, and as a consequence margins have become smaller. It is difficult to attract customers' attention when there is no coherent distinguishing theme, and moreover, many service providers voluntarily choose to be similar in appearance as well as in product range. Second, it is more profitable to sell to regular customers than constantly to acquire new ones (Rust and Zahorik 1993;Storbacka, Strandvik, and Grönroos 1994). Therefore, there is an increasing need to understand why customers switch to complement our knowledge about whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied.Interestingly, it has been shown that although customers may express their satisfaction, they nevertheless frequently seem to switch service providers (Liljander, Roos, and Strandvik 1998;Roos 1996Roos , 1998). This is because the level of satisfaction may indicate different messages (Stauss and Neuhaus 1996). Where competition is intense, Jones and Sasser (1995) found substantial differences in loyalty between satisfied and completely satisfied customers. Completely satisfied customers seem often to have had a long-term relationship with a firm's representative. This finding supports Grönroos's (1993) proposition that a stable customer base is a good measure of customer satisfaction.In a recent article, Bolton (1998) argues that there is no acceptance of service failures in relationships that are sustained over time. In other words, long-lasting relationships do not tolerate any service failures and relationships with many service failures are past relationships. In her study on the duration of customer relationships, carried out in the cellular communication industry, Bolton points out the significance of customer satisfaction in connection to switching. She argues that constantly occurring failures decrease the duration of the relationship, even though customers perceive satisfactory recovery. In other words, customers update their relationships according to an anchoring and adjustment process. Switching intentions occur rarely among those perceiving no problems with their service provider. Moreover, resolved problems cause less frequent switching intentions than unresolved prob-

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Switching Processes in Customer Relationships

Roos¹

1999

Journal of Service Research

258

238

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“…There is agreement in the literature that a relationship is negatively influenced by service failures (Bejou and Palmer, 1998;Weun et al, 2004). However, there is division regarding whether a relationship of high quality magnifies or buffers the effect of a service failure (Bejou and Palmer, 1998;Hess et al, 2003).…”

Section: Service Failures and Customer Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 71%

Customer relationship satisfaction and revenge behaviors: Examining the effects of power

Mdakane¹,

Muhia²,

Rajna³

et al. 2012

Afr. J. Bus. Manage.

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A customer's revenge can significantly impact a company's reputation. After a service failure, a desire for revenge is created and customers can decide to either commit direct or indirect revenge. With direct revenge, customers have a direct altercation with the company's staff and albeit negative, it allows companies the opportunity for service recovery. Indirect revenge, on the other hand, is much more damaging where customers partake in negative Word Of Mouth (WOM) both online and offline. Therefore, better understanding customer revenge behaviour is important for marketing managers. Two key issues have not been resolved in the customer revenge debate: first, what the influence of relationship quality is. Does relationship quality negatively impact desire for revenge or the so-called "love is blind" approach; or does relationship quality increase the likelihood of desire for revenge and eventual revenge behaviour; or the "love is hate" approach. The second issue is what the role of consumer power and empowerment has on whether consumers partake in direct or indirect revenge. Through a self-completion survey, this study finds support for the "love is blind" approach, finding that relationship satisfaction reduces the desire for revenge. In addition, it shows that power was positively related to customers' desire for revenge and empowerment positively related to their direct revenge behaviours, the better of the two evils. The study outlines how firms can use customer relationship management to manage customer satisfaction and empowerment in order to protect their equity and reputation in the event of a service failure.

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“…Successful service recovery has an influence on customer satisfaction (Smith et al, 1999;Zeithaml et al, 1996) and customer loyalty (Bejou & Palmer, 1998;Maxham & Netemeyer, 2002). Kelley, Hoffman and Davis (1993) suggested that attempts should be made to recover from a service failure.…”

Section: Service Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the Influence of Service Recovery Satisfaction on Destination Loyalty: A Structural Equation Modelling

Mohamad¹,

Abdullah²,

Mokhlis³

2011

JSD

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Total tourists' holiday experiences to a certain extent are affected by their experiences staying at a hotel. Although service providers strive for "doing it right" the first time, but service failures are inevitable in the hospitality industry. Most service providers usually undertake to recover the service failure, through efforts such as giving explanation, compensations and apology, when service failures occur. The main aim of this research is to explore the drivers of service recovery satisfaction among foreign tourists. Therefore, the primary focus of this research is to empirically test the performance of a pre-developed service satisfaction measurement in the hotel industry. The paper proposes a structural model of service recovery satisfaction on destination loyalty. Randomly-selected respondents from the population of international tourists departing from international airports were selected to be involved in the study. Initially, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to test the factorial validity of constructs. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), using AMOS, was used to test the goodness of the proposed hypothesised model designed to measure the performance of the identified factors as being attributed of service recovery satisfaction and destination loyalty. The results supported the proposed model: service recovery satisfaction has a significant influence on destination loyalty.

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Service failure and loyalty: an exploratory empirical study of airline customers

Abstract: Percentage of respondents 1-2 2-3 >3 Key Small mistake Big mistake Figure 3. Percentage of respondents still trusting their airline following a service failure Analyses of buyer-seller relationships Early stages of a relationship

Cited by 194 publications

References 36 publications

Switching Processes in Customer Relationships

Switching Processes in Customer Relationships

Customer relationship satisfaction and revenge behaviors: Examining the effects of power

Examining the Influence of Service Recovery Satisfaction on Destination Loyalty: A Structural Equation Modelling

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