Chapter 13

Complaints and
Service
Recovery
Management
 Chapter Objectives

• Discuss the psychology of complaining behavior, including the types

of complainers and the types of complaints.
• Explain customer complaining behavior with regards to the reasons
customers do or do not complain, and the outcomes associated with
customer complaints.
• Describe the organic and mechanistic steps involved in developing
a service recovery management program.
• Understand the value of tracking and monitoring service failures and
employee recovery efforts.
• Discuss the basic rules of thumb of the art of service recovery.

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Opening Vignette: Hell Now Hath No Fury Like a
Customer Scorned!

• There are countless examples of situations where customers

received poor customer service and the firm’s inadequate response
actually exacerbated the failure situation
• Customers have taken justice into their own hands and become
consumer activists
• BusinessWeek devoted a recent cover story to Consumer Vigilantes
with the tagline: “Memo to Corporate America: Hell now hath no fury
like a customer scorned”
• One ignored Comcast customer visited the office and after waiting for
two hours without seeing a manager, came back with a hammer and
smashed a computer keyboard and telephone
• Another uploaded a video of him smashing his nonworking Macbook
to smithereens with a sledgehammer

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Types of Complaints
• Instrumental complaints: complaints expressed for the purpose of
altering an undesirable state of affairs
– Example: complaining to a waiter about an overcooked steak
• Noninstrumental complaints: complaints expressed without
expectation that an undesirable state will be altered
– Example: complaints about the weather (“It’s too hot!”)
• Ostensive complaints: complaints directed at someone or
something outside the realm of the complainer
– Example: “The chef overcooked this steak!”
• Reflexive complaints: complaints directed at some inner aspect of
the complainer
– Example: “I wasn’t clear about how I wanted my steak to be prepared.”

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Types of Complainers
1. The Meek Customer
– A customer who generally never complains
2. The Aggressive Customer
– A customer who complains on a regular basis, often at length and often
loudly enough for everyone else to hear
3. The High-Roller Customer
– A customer who expects the best and is willing to pay for it
4. The Rip-Off Customer
– A customer who wants more than they’re entitled to receive
5. The Chronic Complainer Customer
– A customer who is never satisfied yet continues to return

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Figure 13.1: Why Customers “Do” and “Don’t”
Complain?

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Complaining Outcomes

• Voice
– High voice: complains to store manager
– Medium voice: complains to store clerk
– Low voice: complains to others but no one
associated with the store

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Complaining Outcomes (cont’d)

• Exit
– High exit: never purchase from the firm or
buys the product again
– Medium exit: only purchases if other
alternatives are not available
– Low exit: continues to shop as usual

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Complaining Outcomes (cont’d)

• Retaliation
– High retaliation: tells lots of people and
attempts to physically damage the store
– Medium retaliation: tells a few people and
creates minor inconveniences for the firm
– Low retaliation: consists of minor negative
word-of-mouth and no retaliation at all against
the provider or firm

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Figure 13.2: Developing a Service Recovery
Management Program

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Figure 13.3: The Four Types of Service Failure
Identification

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 Service Failure Attribution: Identifying the Root
Cause

• Locus
– Who is responsible for the failure? Is the source of the failure the
service provider, the service firm, the customer, or some external
force?
• Stability
– Is the cause of the failure likely to recur? Is this a one-time
incident (unstable), or is the cause of the failure likely to recur
(stable)?
• Controllability
– Did the responsible party have control over the cause of the
failure?

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Recovery Strategy Selection

• What should the customer receive to offset

the failure?
– Compensatory strategies
– Restoration strategies
– Apologetic strategies
– Reimbursement strategies
– Unresponsive strategies

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Recovery Strategy Implementation

• How should the recovery strategy be presented

to the customer?
– Perceived justice consists of three components:
1. Distributive justice
– Outcomes (e.g., compensation)
2. Procedural justice
– Process (e.g., time)
3. Interactional justice
– Human content (e.g., empathy, friendliness)

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Providing Feedback to Employees

• Employees feel role conflict when a service failure finds

them caught between a customer’s expectations for
service and the company’s goals of cost containment
• Employees feel role ambiguity when they do not know
how to recover from a service failure
• Employees need training and feedback
– About the types of service failures and failure attributions likely
to happen
– About the types of recovery strategies available to them
– About the manner in which recovery strategies should be offered
– To reinforce the firm’s positive service recovery culture

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 The Art of Service Recovery:
Basic Rules of Thumb

• Service recovery paradox: a situation in

which the customer rates performance
higher if a failure occurs and the contact
personnel successfully recover from it than
if the service had been delivered correctly
in the first place

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 The Art of Service Recovery:
Basic Rules of Thumb (cont’d)

• Measure the costs

• Actively encourage complaints
• Anticipate needs for recovery
• Train employees
• Empower the front line
• Respond quickly
• Close the loop

© 2017 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.