Service

Failure

Crisis at Taj

The Siege At Taj Heritage

At least seven gunmen enter the lobby of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where about 450 people were staying, and begin firing. 60 hours of siege. Left 195 people dead and hundreds injured. Large fire reported. Took Indian security forces nearly three days to eliminate the last of the attackers.

SERVICE FLAWS
Intelligence Failures. Gaps in Coastal Surveillance. Incomplete Execution of Response Protocols. Response Timing Problems. Inadequate Counterterrorism Training and Equipment for the Local Police.

SERVICE FLAWS
Limitations of Municipal Fire and Emergency Services. Flawed Hostage-Rescue Plan. Poor Strategic Communications and Information Management by the Govt.

Service Failure
Service failure: Service performance that fails to meet customer expectations

Customer Response Categories to Service Failures

Complain to the service firm Take some form of Public Action Complain to a third party Take legal action to seek redress Defect (switch provider) Negative word-ofmouth

Service Encounter is Dissatisfactory

Take some form of Private Action

Take No Action

Any one or a combination of these responses is possible

Types of complainers
Passives Voicers Irates Activists

Singh A typology of customer complaint styles

Kiruba Incident
ClearTrip.com took my money and DID NOT book my ticket to Malaysia. Had a harrowing experience at airport. http://www.kiruba.com/2009/06/cleartripepisode-my-experience.html http://blog.cleartrip.com/2009/06/16/thekiruba-incident/

Understanding Customer Responses to Service Failure

Why do customers complain? What proportion of unhappy customers complain?

Why dont unhappy customers complain?

Who is most likely to complain? Where do customers complain? What do customers expect once they have made a complaint?

Three Dimensions of Perceived Fairness in Service Recovery Process

Complaint Handling and Service Recovery Process
Justice Dimensions of the Service Recovery Process Procedural Justice Interactive Justice Outcome Justice

Customer Satisfaction with Service Recovery

Source: Tax and Brown

Employees of taj during THE SERVICE crisis

Staff- Waiters, Executives, Chefs. Providing food and other necessary things to the guests as needed by them. Established a helpline in Wellington Mews in the midst of the crisis. Security staff.

The telephone operators. Karamveer Singh Kang, Taj's general manager. Hotel management. Ratan tata - Chairman of the Tata group.

Service recovery

Immeditely created the Taj Public Welfare Trust. Assisting people affected by the attack. Not laid off a single employee. Promised to rebuild and restore every inch of the hotel to its original glory.

Ratan Tata, surveyed the heritage building. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). Planned to reopen the Hotel in phases. Opening the Hotel as soon as possible.

Reopening
Re-opened the doors of its 268-room Tower Wing on Sunday 21 December 2008. Guest services have been upgraded. Use of the Taj Club, with free breakfast and tea, coffee and cocktails. Free use the hotel's personal butler service.

SECURITY
Investment of large sums of money on security systems and procedures. Created a security team headed by a retired Major General from the army. Retained the services of a top international security service company. Around 75 people have been trained overseas. Equipped them to be the first line of defence in the event of an attack.

Trained security people in plain clothes at the lobby and other key points. Security ring outside the hotel. Mock attacks to assess the preparedness of our people, system and procedures.

Maitaining hotel image

The hotels biggest loss was the death of 10 staff members and 21 guests. November - spent in quiet reflection and remembrance. Private multi-faith prayers.

Nov. 26, 2009

Mr Tata unveiled the new permanent memorial at the lobby. The memorial has the names of the thirty one victims. Gathering of private staff and employees which was also attended by family members of the martyrs.

Unhappy Customers Repurchase Intentions

Unhappy Customers Who Dont Complain

9%

Unhappy Customers Who Do Complain Complaints Not Resolved

19%

Complaints Resolved

54%

Complaints Resolved Quickly

82%

Percent of customers who will buy again after a major complaint (over $100 in losses)
Source: Adapted from data reported by the Technical Assistance Research Program.

Importance of Service Recovery

Plays a crucial role in achieving customer satisfaction Tests a firms commitment to satisfaction and service quality
Employee training and motivation is highly important

Impacts customer loyalty and future profitability

Complaint handling should be seen as a profit center, not a cost center

The Recovery Paradox

Q: Since effective service recovery often leads to increased loyalty, should firms intentionally screw up and then recover in an effort to garner increased loyalty? A: Uh, probably not. Problems w/this approach include:
Many customers dont complain. Its expensive to fix mistakes. One study reveals that only the very highest levels of service recovery result in increased satisfaction & loyalty. Since Reliability is the most critical of the 5 Dimensions, does it make sense to make deliberate mistakes? Only some customers may respond positively to recovery.

Components of an Effective Service Recovery System

Do the job right the first time

Effective Complaint Handling

Increased Satisfaction and Loyalty

Identify Service Complaints

Conduct research Monitor complaints Develop Complaints as opportunity culture

Resolve Complaints Effectively

Develop effective system and training in complaints handling Conduct root cause analysis

Learn from the Recovery Experience

Close the loop via feedback

Service Recovery Strategies

Act Quickly

Fail-safe the Service

Service Recovery Strategies

Treat Customers Fairly

Learn from Recovery Experiences

1. Make the Service Fail-Safe

Service Recovery 8 Key Strategies

Do it right the first time. Poka yokes = automatic warnings or controls in place to ensure mistakes are not made. Create a zero defects culture Research = satisfaction surveys, critical incidents studies, & lost customer research. Front line response and employee empowerment (Ritz Carlton and complaint ownership. Allow customers to fix their own problems usually through technology.

2. Encourage and Track Complaints

3. Act Quickly

Service Recovery 8 Key Strategies

4. Provide Adequate Explanations
Dissatisfaction can be reduced if an adequate explanation is provided. 2 characteristics:
First, the content of the explanation must be appropriate. Second, the style of the explanation delivery is important.

Explanations perceived by customers as honest, sincere, and not manipulative are generally the most effective.

5. Cultivate Relationships with Customers

strong customer-firm relationships can help shield the firm from the negative effects of failures on customer satisfaction.

Service Recovery 8 Key Strategies

6. Learn from Recovery Experiences
By conducting root-cause analysis, firms can identify the sources of the problems and modify processes, sometimes eliminating almost completely the need for recovery.

7. Learn from Lost Customers

To prevent future failures, conduct formal market research. This data is most effectively obtained by depth interviews, administered by skilled interviewers who truly understand the business.

Service Recovery 8 Key Strategies

8. Treat Customers Fairly
Understanding and Accountability. Customers expect an apology when things go wrong . . . if a firm provides an apology to the customer, the percentage of dissatisfied customers drops from 86 to 20 percent. Fair Treatment. Customers look for 3 types of justice
1. Outcome Fairness. Equitable exchanges. 2. Procedural Fairness. Policies, rules, and timeliness of the complaint process. 3. Interactional Fairness. Interpersonal treatment.

Service Guarantees
guarantee = an assurance of the fulfillment of a condition (Websters Dictionary) in a business context, a guarantee is a pledge or assurance that a product offered by a firm will perform as promised and, if not, then some form of reparation will be undertaken by the firm for tangible products, a guarantee is often done in the form of a warranty services are often not guaranteed
cannot return the service service experience is intangible
(so what do you guarantee?)

The Hampton Inn 100 Percent Satisfaction Guarantee

Characteristics of an Effective Service Guarantee

Unconditional
the guarantee should make its promise unconditionally no strings attached

Meaningful
the firm should guarantee elements of the service that are important to the customer the payout should cover fully the customers dissatisfaction

Easy to Understand and Communicate

customers need to understand what to expect employees need to understand what to do

Easy to Invoke and Collect

the firm should eliminate hoops or red tape in the way of accessing or collecting on the guarantee
Source: Christopher W.L. Hart, The Power of Unconditional Guarantees, Harvard Business Review, July-August, 1988, pp. 54-62.

Service Guarantees
Q: Does everyone need to offer a guarantee? Reasons companies might NOT want to offer a service guarantee:
existing service quality is poor guarantee does not fit the companys image too many uncontrollable external variables fears of cheating or abuse by customers costs of the guarantee outweigh the benefits customers perceive little risk in the service customers perceive little variability in service quality among competitors

Strategies to Reduce Customer Complaint Barriers (Table 13.1)

Complaint Barriers for Dissatisfied Customers
Inconvenience
Hard to find right complaint procedure Effort involved in complaining Doubtful Pay Off Uncertain if action will be taken by firm to address problem

Strategies to Reduce These Barriers

Put customer service hotline numbers, e-mail and postal addresses on all customer communications materials

Have service recovery procedures in place, communicate this to customers

Feature service improvements that resulted from customer feedback

Unpleasantness
Fear of being treated rudely Hassle, embarrassment

Thank customers for their feedback

Train frontline employees Allow for anonymous feedback

How to Enable Effective Service Recovery

Be proactiveon the spot, before customers complain Plan recovery procedures Teach recovery skills to relevant personnel Empower personnel to use judgment and skills to develop recovery solutions See Service Perspectives 13.2: Guidelines For Effective Problem Resolution

How Generous Should Compensation Be?

Rules of thumb for managers to consider:
What is positioning of our firm? How severe was the service failure? Who is the affected customer?

Service Guarantees Help Promote and Achieve Service Loyalty

Force firms to focus on what customers want Set clear standards Highlight cost of service failures Require systems to get and act on customer feedback Reduce risks of purchase and build loyalty

How to Design Service Guarantees

Unconditional Easy to understand and communicate Meaningful to the customer Easy to invoke Easy to collect Credible

The Hampton Inn 100% Satisfaction Guarantee

What are benefits of such a guarantee? Are there any downsides?

Dealing with Customer Fraud

Treating all customers with suspicion is likely to alienate them
TARP found only 1 to 2 percent of customer base engages in premeditated fraud so why treat remaining 98 percent of honest customers as potential crooks?

Insights from research on guarantee cheating

Amount of a guarantee payout had no effect on customer cheating Repeat-purchase intention reduced cheating intent Customers are reluctant to cheat if service quality is high (rather than satisfactory) just

Managerial implication
Firms can benefit from offering 100 percent money-back guarantees Guarantees should be offered to regular customers as part of membership program Excellent service firms have less to worry about than average providers

Key Objectives of Effective Customer Feedback Systems

Assessment and benchmarking of service quality and performance Customer-driven learning and improvements Creating a customer-oriented service culture

Customer Feedback Collection Tools

Total market surveys Post-transaction surveys Ongoing customer surveys Customer advisory panels Employee surveys/panels Focus groups Mystery shopping Complaint analysis Capture service operating data

Entry Points for Unsolicited Feedback

Frontline employees

Intermediaries acting for original supplier

Managers contacted by customers at head/regional office Complaint cards deposited in special box or mailed Telephone or e-mail Complaints passed to company by third-party recipients

Consumer advocates Trade organizations Legislative agencies