Because service failures are difficult to avoid in the services context due to their characteristics,\nfirms need to offer an adequate service recovery to compensate customers. Customer behavior\nmay be affected either by the failure or its recovery. The purpose of this study is to explore the\nimpact of service failure severity in customers� post-recovery behavior. The study comprises a\nsample of 40,813 customers, representing customers who had experienced a problem with the\nservice provider and customers who had not. Empirical results showed that service failure\nseverity has a significant negative influence in customers� post-recovery repurchase behavior.\nNevertheless, the influence differs across customers� relationship age with the\nservice. Additionally, they also provide evidence of when service recovery paradox is more\nlikely to occur. This study contributes with relevant insights for practitioners. Since failure\nseverity affects negatively customers� post-recovery repurchase behavior, the classification of\nservice failures by degree of severity is commended. Hence, firms should adopt different service\nrecovery strategies depending on failures severity degree and customers� relationship age with\nthe firm. Customers� segmentation should consider these characteristics in order to enhance\ncomplaints management and customer loyalty.
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