When customers exhibit signs of dissatisfaction regarding the services of a particular organization, it is crucial for the organization to take corrective measures. Always, customers expect to get value for their money.
The failure to address service failure may drive away customers and adversely affect an organization’s reputation as dissatisfied customers tell potential customers about the organizations poor service delivery (Anderson et al., 2009). This factor considerably affects an organization’s earnings and may eventually lead to closure when the aspect of service failure occurs on a large scale.
The services offered to customers considerably contribute in the marketing aspect of an organization as consumers play the role of personal marketing. Personal marketing is crucial in promoting an organization’s name and its services.
A customer is satisfied when the offered services meet his or her expectations (CENGİZ et al., 2007). Exceeding a customer’s initial expectations increases the customer’s possibility of seeking the services of the same provider in future.
To recover from service failure and restore customer satisfaction, an organization has to embark on vigorous improvement procedures that portray its commitment to customers. An appropriate service delivery approach should ensure satisfactory service delivery and increase profits.
Despite its negative effects, service failure can considerably boost an organization’s marketing and enhance customer loyalty (Komunda & Osarenkhoe, 2012). This paper investigates the outcomes of service failure in the highly competitive air transport industry and the gains that airlines derive from appropriate service recovery procedures.
The nature of the air transport industry creates several opportunities for mistakes to occur during service delivery. This makes the industry considerably prone to service failures. In addition, the industry is subject to numerous external factors that could disrupt normal service delivery.
Objectives
- To determine the relationship between service recovery strategies and customer satisfaction
- To determine the results for appropriate service recovery procedures
Several factors contribute to service failure in the air transport industry. Internal factors include flight cancellation and delays, staff attitude, strikes and overbooking. External factors such as the weather considerably influence instances of service failure.
When customers perceive a service failure to depend solely on the service provider, they exhibit higher levels of dissatisfaction unlike in the case whereby uncommon factors seem to have played a role (Mostert et al., 2009).
Employees play a crucial role in the realization of a productive service delivery system. The manner in which employees respond to situations such as delayed or cancelled flights significantly influences the level of customer satisfaction.
The manner in which an organization’s responds to service failure determines whether it will achieve enhanced customer appeal or suffer from customer defection to the organization’s competitors. Adopting a proper service recovery procedure could enable an organization to attain higher levels of customer satisfaction and an overall improvement in its operations.
A recovery option that exceeds customer expectations is bound to have positive impacts on a service provider’s image (Noone & Lee, 2011). An organization can adopt a variety of service recovery options to restore customer loyalty. These include timely communication to customers regarding a service failure, doing follow-ups and compensating customers through discounts and vouchers.
In addition, an organization should have a team of service recovery personnel that can deal with a service failure in a professional manner.
Considering the current technological advancements, an organization can put in place a system that ensures timely communication of any anticipated service failure and relevant customer guidance relating to the matter. This may be through email-alerts, SMSs or internet updates.
An evaluation of various reports regarding domestic airlines in South Africa in terms of customers’ response regarding the manner in which airlines handled cases of service failure demonstrate the relationship between service failures and recovery, and customers’ attitude towards a particular service provider.
The sources considered incidences of service failure, customers’ response and airlines attempts to tackle various service failures. An analysis of these reports indicates a high level of customer dissatisfaction in cases whereby the service provider failed to take any measures to rectify a service failure.
On the other hand, airlines that responded to cases of service failure gained customers’ confidence regarding their services. Both the satisfied and dissatisfied customers highlighted similar expectations regarding satisfactory service delivery. A large number of customers highlighted timely communication as the main aspect of service recovery.
Keeping the customers informed during instances of service failure had an overall effect of improving the level of customer satisfaction. About 10 percent of customers described vouchers and discounts as appropriate measures for an effective service recovery.
The airlines whose service recovery response was satisfactory to customers improved customer relationship while those that responded in a dissatisfactory manner weakened their relationship with customers (Smith & Bolton, 1998).
The decline in the number of times that customers used the services of a dissatisfactory provider demonstrates the effects of poor service recovery. Airlines that appropriately handled service failure retained customers. However, although some airlines responded to service failures, their approach did not create any reassurance with the customers.
The data sources used in this study employed the sampling technique as the means for data collection. In this regard, the conclusion regarding the study majors on a small sample of the total population. To attain substantial conclusions on the hypothesis regarding service failure and recovery, a bigger sample size is vital. However, this may demand longer periods of fieldwork and more financial resources.
By using a bigger sample size, which incorporates more airlines, different airports and respondents with experiences of service failure, the study can expand its scope on various aspects of customers’ reactions regarding service failure (Mostert et al., 2009).
In addition, a bigger scope will reveal the factors that may cause an airline to react in a certain manner during instances of service failure. The preference for sampling as a data collection technique minimizes data collection costs and makes the process faster as the data set is small.
Despite its preference in data collection, sampling is subject to various errors. These occur when there is bias in sample selection and variations due to random selection of elements in a sample. In this study, to minimize cases of bias, it is essential to employ a bigger population size during the sampling process.
Other causes of variations in sampling results include the use of data outside the sample. To achieve greater accuracy and minimize the margin of error on the results of a sampling process, it is crucial to review the process regarding the steps followed in obtaining data to eliminate any irregularities.
In addition, it is vital to calculate the risks involved in sampling and include them when making conclusions. Deviation from the intended process of data collection results in wrong data and conclusions.
References
Anderson, S. W., Baggett, L. S., & Widener, S. K. (2009). The Impact of Service Operations Failures on Customer Satisfaction: Evidence on How Failures and Their Source Affect What Matters to Customers. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 11(1), 52–69.
Cengiz, E., Bünyamin, E., & Kurtaran, A. (2007). The effects of failure recovery strategies on customer behaviours via complainants’ perceptions of justice dimensions in banks. Banks and Bank Systems, 2(3), 175-183.
Komunda, M., & Osarenkhoe, A. (2012). Remedy or cure for service failure. Business Process Management Journal, 18(1), 82-103.
Mostert, P., Meyer, C. D., & Rensburg, L. v. (2009). The influence of service failure and service recovery on airline – Unisa. Unisa Online. Retrieved from www.unisa.ac.za/contents/faculties/service_dept/docs/influence_SABVI13_2_ch ap5.pdf
Noone, B. M., & Lee, C. H. (2011). Hotel Overbooking the Effect of Overcompensation on Customers’ Reactions to Denied Service. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 35(3), 334-357.
Smith, A. K., & Bolton, R. N. (1998). An Experimental Investigation of Customer Reactions to Service Failure and Recovery Encounters Paradox or Peril, Journal of Service Research, 1(1), 65-81.