Service Recovery Readiness in Australian Hospitality and Leisure Operations

A case study on service recovery: Frontline employees’ perspectives and the role of empowerment

“…Johnston and Michel (2008) recognise the key role of frontline employees in the service recovery process, as they are usually the targets of customer complaints, but sometimes the employee may not even be authorised to solve the failure (Bowen and Johnston, 1999). Although the perspective of employees on the service recovery process is an important aspect, it has received surprisingly limited attention in research into service recovery (Suh, Barker, Pegg & Kandampully, 2005). Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, except for the study of Bowen and Johnston (1999), all the other studies on employee recovery represent a quantitative research approach, lacking the voice of the employees.…”

“…2005) indicate that the company's empowerment and recovery strategies 'encourage service employees to adopt initiatives to go beyond their call of duty, and to recover from service mishaps, while gaining important failure-related information to prevent future mishaps' (p. 49). As the authors note, it is possible to commence service recovery before, during or after the service failure happens (Suh et al, 2005).…”

“…Suh et al (2005) argue that empowerment issues in companies are too often handled on a day-to-day operational level rather than on a strategic decision-making level. The empowerment of staff may lead to a significant incline in costs (Bradley & Sparks, 2000), because, according to Ro and Chen (2011), adequate organisational supporting systems, including service training, service rewards, and service standards communication, are needed for increasing employee empowerment.…”