Do it right this time: the role of employee service recovery performance in customer-perceived justice and customer loyalty after service failures

Integrating justice and customer service literatures, this research examines the role of customer service employees' behaviors of handling customer complaints, or service recovery performance (SRP), in conveying a just image of service organizations and achieving desirable customer outcomes. Results from a field study and a laboratory study demonstrate that the dimensions of SRP--making an apology, problem solving, being courteous, and prompt handling--positively influenced customer satisfaction and then customer repurchase intent through the mediation of customer-perceived justice. In addition, service failure severity and repeated failures reduced the positive impact of some dimensions of SRP on customer satisfaction, and customer-perceived justice again mediated these moderated effects.     

Customer service providers' attitudes relating to customer service and customer satisfaction in the customer-server exchange

The authors proposed and tested a model describing the relationship between customer service providers' perceptions and attitudes toward their service-related duties and their customers' perceptions of satisfaction with their service experiences. Results indicated that the perception of having standards for service delivery in an organization is strongly related to line-level employees' perceptions of support from coworkers and supervisors. Perceived support from coworkers was significantly related to service providers' customer orientation, whereas perceived support from supervisors showed a weaker relationship to a customer orientation. Ultimately, service providers' customer orientation was strongly related to customers' satisfaction with service. Finally, a set of post hoc analyses indicated that coworker and supervisory support explained a greater proportion of incremental variance in the model than did perceived organizational support alone.     

The role of cognition and affect in the formation of customer satisfaction judgements concerning service recovery encounters

• It is widely accepted that justice perceptions play an important role in shaping customers' evaluations of service recovery experiences. However, this stream of justice research has evolved with little cross‐reference to emotion research. The current paper seeks to address this issue by explicitly considering the role of perceived justice in the elicitation of recovery‐specific consumer emotions. Specifically, we develop and test a model suggesting that perceived justice represents a cognitive appraisal dimension, which helps to explain the elicitation of positive and negative emotions during and/or after service recovery encounters. Furthermore, we argue that customer satisfaction with service recovery (i.e. recovery satisfaction) is based partly on cognitive (i.e. perceived justice based) and partly on affective responses. Support for the proposed model is provided through findings from an empirical study showing that both cognitive and affective influences work to create the recovery satisfaction judgement. This finding has significant implications for the theory and practice of service recovery management.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The moderating effects of purchase importance in customer satisfaction process: An empirical investigation

Customer satisfaction continues to draw the interest of researchers and practitioners because it can lead to long term benefits including customer loyalty. Purchase importance plays a role in pre‐purchase process, yet little is known about how it may influence customer satisfaction formation process and loyalty intentions. This study examines the moderating effect of purchase importance in the customer satisfaction formation process and in loyalty intentions. A survey was conducted with customers in a restaurant setting, and structural equation analysis via LISREL was performed. The results show that perceived performance has a stronger influence on satisfaction when purchase importance is low, whereas satisfaction seems to be influenced both by disconfirmation and perceived performance when purchase importance is high. Post‐consumption expectations were found to influence on loyalty intentions under both high and low importance purchase conditions. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are made. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linking organizational resources and work engagement to employee performance and customer loyalty: the mediation of service climate

This study examined the mediating role of service climate in the prediction of employee performance and customer loyalty. Contact employees (N=342) from 114 service units (58 hotel front desks and 56 restaurants) provided information about organizational resources, engagement, and service climate. Furthermore, customers (N=1,140) from these units provided information on employee performance and customer loyalty. Structural equation modeling analyses were consistent with a full mediation model in which organizational resources and work engagement predict service climate, which in turn predicts employee performance and then customer loyalty. Further analyses revealed a potential reciprocal effect between service climate and customer loyalty. Implications of the study are discussed, together with limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Emerging perspectives on customer relationships,interactions and loyalty in Irish retail financial services

• This paper presents the key findings in relation to current consumer perspectives on the role of relationships, the nature of loyalty and types of customer interaction from an in‐depth qualitative consumer study of Irish retail banking.
• Although the literature proposes that the RM approach is particularly applicable to the financial services sector, the research findings identify key supply and demand‐related changes within Irish financial services and raise questions as to the appropriateness of general RM theory to the current nature of interaction between consumers and their financial suppliers.
• Key customer factors such as low involvement, apathy and dissatisfaction have resulted in much apparent customer loyalty actually being spurious. More important for customers in this study was how convenient the bank was for their lifestyle.
• In an age in which increased depersonalisation and automation impact upon the nature of consumer‐supplier interaction and service delivery, it would appear that the concepts of relationship and loyalty need to be fundamentally re‐examined and their role and relevance within current retail financial services re‐appraised.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Salesperson ambidexterity and customer satisfaction: examining the role of customer demandingness,adaptive selling,and role conflict

This research investigates the effects of sales-service ambidexterity on salesperson role perceptions, behaviors, and customer satisfaction. Using a business-to-business, salesperson-customer sample, we build and test a model which highlights both the positive and negative consequences of this simultaneous goal pursuit. Specifically, while sales-service ambidexterity positively impacts adaptive selling behaviors, it also increases perceptions of role conflict among salespeople. Customer demandingness moderates these relationships. Taken together, the results provide insights for firms on how to manage their sales force to optimize both sales and service outcomes based on characteristics of their salespeople and customers.     

An investigation of sex differences in job satisfaction

A sample of 74 husband and wife management teams was chosen to examine sex differences in job satisfaction. As hypothesized, females reported significantly higher satisfaction with advancement and compensation. The hypothesis that females would be less satisfied than males with work relationships was not supported. No differences were expected, and none were found, for two other facets of satisfaction, i.e., satisfaction with the work itself and satisfaction with company policies and procedures.     

Professional service involvement of leadership faculty: An assessment of gender,role, and satisfaction

This study explored gender differences among educational administration faculty and their participation in and satisfaction with professional association activities. The study population would be characterized as overwhelmingly male and white, but with women and minority candidates beginning to enter the faculty ranks. Women faculty reported involvement in more professional service activities and a slightly higher satisfaction with their involvement than their male colleagues. However, women participated in different types of and more professional association activities than men.     

Error, falsification and scientific inference: An experimental investigation

This paper reports the results of four experiments designed to test the methodological falsificationist's assumption that replication is sufficient to prevent the possibility of error from being used to immunize hypotheses against disconfirmation. The first three experiments compare the performance of subjects on tasks that simulate scientific reasoning under two conditions: (1) where there is a 0-20% possibility of error in experimental results, but no actual error; and (2) a control condition.

All experiments used Wason's 2-4-6 task, in which subjects propose triples and are told whether each corresponds to a rule. In Experiment 1, subjects in the possible-error condition proposed significantly more triples than control subjects. Experiment 2 added colour and letter dimensions to the 2-4-6 task; possible-error subjects proposed significantly more triples and replicated the same triple more often than control subjects. Experiment 3 made replication more difficult by limiting the number of experiments subjects could perform and by altering the rule to make the results of the current trial dependent on previous ones. Control subjects solved this problem significantly more often than possible-error subjects.

Experiment 4 was run in a manner very similar to Experiment 1, except that an actual 20% error condition was added. Subjects in this condition solved the rule significantly less often than subjects in other conditions, and also took more time and replicated more often. Implications of these results for the methodological falsificationist's position are discussed.     

An experimental investigation of thought suppression

An experiment investigating the hypothesis that trying to suppress a thought will lead to an immediate and/or delayed increase in its occurrence is reported. Normal subjects listened to a taped story and then verbalized their stream of consciousness during two consecutive time periods. During the first period, one group (suppression) were asked not to think about the tape while two other groups (controls) were asked to think about anything or think about anything including the tape. During the second period, all three groups were instructed to think about anything. Results from the first period failed to support the immediate enhancement hypothesis as the suppression group reported less thoughts about the tape than the controls. However, results from the second period supported the delayed (rebound) hypothesis as subjects who had previously suppressed reported more thoughts about the tape than subjects who had not. The theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications of these results are discussed.     

Price fairness,satisfaction, and trust as antecedents of purchase intentions towards organic food

Health and environmental issues are increasingly important in consumers' decision‐making process. Accordingly, demand for organic food is rapidly growing. In this context, the objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between price fairness, satisfaction, trust, and purchase intentions towards organic food. With this aim, empirical data were collected with self‐administrated questionnaires from a convenience sample of consumers from Sakarya, Turkey. Proposed hypotheses were tested with structural equations modeling. The results indicated positive relationships between price fairness, satisfaction, trust, and purchase intentions. At the end of this study, theoretical contributions, managerial implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The relation of career adaptability to satisfaction and turnover intentions

The objective of this study is to investigate the linkage between career adaptability (CA), turnover intentions (TI), and career satisfaction (CS). It also examines the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) for low-ranking employees. The findings provide further support for the incremental validity of the CAAS. CA positively predicted CS and negatively predicted TI of low-ranking employees. CS is negatively related to TI, and it mediated the association between CA and TI. CA does not mediate the relation between CS and TI. Overall, a deeper understanding of the linkage between CA and TI can help us to find ways to assist employees to navigate the increasingly complex career path, thereby preventing TI.     

An experimental test of the influence of selection procedures on fairness perceptions,attitudes about the organization,and job pursuit intentions

College juniors and seniors (N=184) reviewed a 12-page college recruiting brochure containing information about a large, high-technology corporation. Six versions of the brochure created a 2×3 experimental design in which the compensation and selection practices of the company were manipulated. Compensation and benefit packages were described as being either above or comparable to the industry average. The selection procedure was described as either a biodata inventory, an abstract cognitive test, or an in-basket simulation. We hypothesized that selection procedures would have an indirect, rather than direct, effect on attitudes about the organization and job pursuit intentions. LISREL analyses found good fits for the measurement model (RNI=.97) and the structural model (RNI=.95). All hypothesized paths were significant (p<.05) except for the path between compensation and attitudes about the organization. It is suggested that different selection procedures with comparable levels of validity may have different effects on candidates' attitudes about employers.     

Salesperson time perspectives and customer willingness to pay more: roles of intraorganizational employee navigation,customer satisfaction,and firm innovation climate

This research aims to fill a critical gap in the sales literature by proposing a relationship-based model of customer willingness to pay more, involving salesperson time perspectives (i.e., long-term perspective and short-term perspective), intraorganizational employee navigation, and customer satisfaction with the salesperson. We also examine the moderating role of firm innovation climate. Multisource survey data were collected from 204 salespeople in a business-to-business sales context along with external ratings from customers of these salespeople three months later. The findings indicate that both long- and short-term perspectives have positive effects on intraorganizational employee navigation and customer satisfaction, which, in turn, positively affect customer willingness to pay more. In addition, short-term perspective has a stronger impact than long-term perspective on intraorganizational employee navigation. Further, the effect of long-term perspective on customer satisfaction is strengthened by the innovation climate of the firm, whereas the effect of short-term perspective on customer satisfaction is weakened by it.     

Transitory bias as a source of customer dissatisfaction: An exploratory investigation

Previous literature has identified sources of customer dissatisfaction in the forms of poor product performance, discrimination, and universal mistreatment (i.e., broad-based mistreatment of customers). This article proposes the existence of a fourth source of perceived customer dissatisfaction, termed transitory bias, which is based upon fleeting customer characteristics and actions. Using a critical incident approach, this exploratory study analyzes customer narratives of 230 negative experiences. After writing their narratives, consumer informants completed a quantitative survey pertaining to their experience. Some sources of transitory bias were found to be customer complaining, negotiation, special requests, and underpurchasing. Transitory bias was found to drive perceptions of negative customer experiences in 29.1 per cent of the narratives. This was fewer than the number of cases involving universal mistreatment (50%) but more than those involving poor product performance (18.3%) and discrimination (2.6%). Results showed that satisfaction, repeat purchase likelihood, recommendation likelihood, and word of mouth were similar to those found in narratives where universal mistreatment and discrimination were primary drivers of dissatisfaction. This article creates awareness of the transitory bias construct and allows academicians the opportunity to study it as a source of customer dissatisfaction. Retail and service establishments should be aware of customer perceptions of transitory bias because it impacts key performance metrics. Managers may wish to train employees to better identify and respond to sources of transitory bias. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.