Understanding Service Failure and Recovery: A Customer-Based Phenomenographic Approach

Understanding Service Failure and Recovery: A Customer-Based Phenomenographic Approach Doan T. Nguyen and Janet R. McColl-Kennedy University of Queensland Track 15 Services Marketing Abstract To date, researchers have largely considered service failure and recovery as a combination of individual constructs, often in isolation, rather than viewing failure and recovery holistically. Consequently, our understanding is fragmented. Furthermore, while some attempt has been made to gain a better understanding of service failure and recovery from both the customer and the employee s perspective (cf. Bitner et al.1990; McColl-Kennedy and Sparks 2003), no study has employed an interpretative perspective that potentially offers a rich, in-depth approach to this important area of research. Given this gap, our paper presents the value of taking a customer-based interpretive approach to obtaining a fuller understanding of the way customers view service failure and recovery. In this paper we report the findings of our phenomenography study of twenty in-depth interviews. Not only do we argue the benefits of adopting this fresh approach to studying service failure and recovery, we also present an innovative conceptual framework derived from our phenomenographic research findings, which has significant theoretical and practical implications. Rationale for Using an Interpretive Perspective To date, service failure and recovery research has considered service failure and recovery as a combination of individual constructs, often in isolation. This has led to our understanding of service failure and recovery being fragmented. Due to the complex nature of the phenomena, research has examined only a few aspects of the whole service failure and recovery process. For instance, on one hand some research promotes the importance of the relationship between good service recovery and customer satisfaction (Andreassen 2000; Bolton & Lemon 1999; Forrester & Maute 2001; Smith, Bolton & Wagner 1999; McColl-Kennedy & Sparks 2003). On the other hand, other research has focused on the relationship between customer satisfaction and a particular outcome, such as repurchase intention (Maxham & Netemeyer 2002; Jones, Mothersbaugh & Beatty 2000; Palmer, Beggs & Keown-McMullan 2000). Examining the service failure and recovery process in such a fragmented way has resulted in the phenomena not being well understood nor well explained. In particular, what is lacking is an understanding of failure and service recovery from the customer s perspective. Although attempts have been made by Bitner, Booms & Mohr (1994) to explore the employee s perspective using Critical Incident Technique, and by McColl-Kennedy and Sparks (2003) to explore what customers think and feel using focus groups, no attempt has been made to investigate the customers views using an interpretive perspective. Yet, an in-depth investigation of service failure and recovery is important as considerable sums of money are being spent by organisations on service recovery, and moreover, such an in-depth investigation is critical to advance our understanding within this burgeoning sub-field of services marketing. In this paper we use a customer-based interpretive approach, as it allows us to gain better understanding of the service failure and recovery process, as a whole, and particularly how the phenomena is constructed. From the non-dualistic ontological base, we argue that service failure, recovery and customer behaviour in the service failure and recovery context is one 2136

social phenomenon. Furthermore, customers perceive the whole service failure and recovery process differently. Their respective perceptions are socially constructed based on how they perceive the world around them. To understand more fully the different ways customers experience the service failure and recovery process, we use phenomenography as the main research method. Phenomenography is an interpretive approach which examines qualitatively different ways in which aspects of our world are experienced (Marton 1986; Marton 1981; Sandberg 2000). Specifically, the main characteristic of phenomenography is that it allows researchers to study the variation in how a phenomenon is conceived. In this case, phenomenography is most appropriate because it enables the researchers to capture the widest possible variation in understanding (Schembri & Sandberg 2002). Generalisability, Reliability, and Validity Validity and reliability of phenomenographic research outcomes are enhanced due to its variation given that maximising variations is one of the main characteristics of phenomenography. Generalisability of phenomenographic research results will be sustainable because within the desired population, the range of meanings within the sample will be representative of the range of meanings within the population (Marton & Booth 1997; Francis 1996). Qualitative research reliability is seen as reflecting the use of appropriate methodological procedures for ensuring quality and consistency in data interpretations ( Kirk & Miller 1986; Kvale 1996; Guba 1981). We aim to achieve research reliability by strictly adhering to the interpretation process that results in faithful descriptions of the data (Sandberg 2000; Sandberg 1997). In phenomenography, validity means to ensure that research aims are appropriately reflected in the research methods (Francis 1996). This includes the appropriate selection of interviewees, the use of appropriate questioning during the interviews, and the maintenance of a non-judgmental, respectful and empathic attitude towards the interviewees, and following appropriate guidelines for the transcription of the interviews. This procedure is elaborated in the next section. Methodology Twenty in-depth interviews with a purposeful, non-student sample were obtained.the respondents were selected so that variation in terms of complaining and non-complaining customers, gender, income, and educational background, was maximised. Each interview was tape-recorded and transcribed producing 500 pages of transcript. The interviews used open-ended questions. One or two questions were discussed with respondents over an hour or more, with the respondent s dialogue directing the interview. The focus is on the respondent s experience of the service failure and recovery attempts. Questions such as How do you define service? and What does service mean to you? were used to start the interview. Then, the interviewer followed up with questions such as What is good service?. Then Have you experienced bad service? If the answer is yes, then the researcher goes directly to the issue of interest with Could you tell me what happened By this, the researcher facilitates the respondent s reflection on their experience of service failure and how they think about the service failure and recovery process. The what and how questions, rather than why questions are used in order to encourage descriptions oriented towards the experience of the individuals studied. Follow-up questions and probing help clarify what respondents mean by particular statements. In this way meaning is made explicit and not assumed to be understood. By using this method, researchers can effectively identify any inconsistencies and hence confirm the validity of a respondent s statements. 2137

While other qualitative studies mainly use thematic analysis (see for example, Bitner, Booms & Tetreault 1990; McColl-Kennedy & Sparks 2003) phenomenography categorises core dimensions of the meanings, and identifies distinct conceptions of meanings about one phenomena from a contextual level (Dall'Alba 1998). Specifically, after reading the transcripts several times, the dimensions in which attributes of the service failure and recovery process are grouped according to the core dimensions. For example, most respondents mentioned about: (1) how do they think the service failure occurred, (2) how serious the service failure was; and (3) if they have an opportunity to change the situation, what they would do so in order that things could have turned out better. The attributes of each dimension are grouped again several times to arrive at the conceptions, which are distinct meanings that the customer understands about the service failure and recovery process. The conceptions are grouped carefully so that they capture the widest possible meaning of the phenomena.results Conceptions and Core Dimensions Our critical analysis revealed three conceptions of how the customer understands the service failure and recovery process: (1) no alternative, when the customer views the phenomena as compulsory; (2) mechanistic, when the customer perceives the phenomena as a systematic process; and (3) relationship, when the customer engages as an individual with the organisation. The attributes of each conception are grouped according to their core dimensions: (1) attribution relates to the reasons why the service failure happens; (2) magnitude the perceived failure severity; and (3) counterfactual thinking is the cognitive process during which an individual thinks about alternatives to what occurred (how things might have been). Table 1 depicts these three core dimensions and the three conceptions identified in the study. Table 1: Customer-Based Phenomenographic Conceptual Framework of Service Failure/Recovery Conceptions Core Dimensions Attribution Magnitude Counterfactual thinking No alternative Power Goal related Ego Would exit (I would leave the business if I have choice) Mechanistic Relationship Responsibility Controllability Stability Policies Procedures Concern Effort Caring Goal related Ego Emotion Emotion Ego Should improve (Should have done something else) Should prevent (Should not happen to me) No Alternative Conception The service failure and recovery process may be viewed as a no alternative situation. This occurs when the service provider has complete power over the customer and the customer has no other option- no alternative. Here, the customer sees the service as compulsory, s/he does not become involved in any way with the service process nor with the organisation voluntarily. Instead, the customer basically needs the service, and they have no feasible alternative worth perusing. There is no option for whether or not to use the service. The 2138

service tends to be uniform, or insignificantly different between service providers, therefore, switching - if it were available- would not make a difference. This conception of no alternative is similar to that of switching barriers identified in previous research (Bansal & Taylor 1999; Jones, Mothersbaugh & Beatty 2002; Jones, Mothersbaugh & Beatty 2000; Keaveney 1995; Sharma & Patterson 2000; van Trijp, Hoyer & Inman 1996). However, it is different from switching behaviour in that the customer is not concerned with switching between service providers, but with switching between alternative services. For example: It works well sometimes, but I wouldn t use XXX if I could avoid it It was good sometimes, and when it was, it s lovely. It s fast, it s easy, and it s quick. They also have 24 hour service, so when you need to call, 24 hours 7 days a week. If I working at 3 o clock in the morning, and my system go down, I can call them up, and somebody will help me. That s very good. (Respondent 10) you know, it s hard to find a hairdresser that you are happy with when you re happy with them, they think that their job is very artistic and they re doing something really important I needed my hair cut, so I go there anyway, but I try to get my hair cut as less frequently as possible (Respondent 15) With the no alternative conception, customers do not wish to commit to the organisation, as they are only concerned about having the service work for them. Furthermore, their level of sensitivity to what the organisation might do is low. For example, they will not tend to interpret a failure personally. Rather, they would view this as merely something that can happen with services. Mechanistic Conception The service failure and recovery can also be viewed as a mechanistic conception, in which people think about the phenomena as a set of policies and procedures - a systematic process. Although similar to attribution theory, where an individual attributes the causes of a negative event to a certain source, the mechanistic conception does not attempt to attribute the cause of the failure to the organisation but to the processes and procedures. There tends to be no personal emotion involved because the problem is viewed mechanistically - simply as a set of policies and procedures. Because of this the customer tends not to commit highly to the service. In addition, the customer does not appear to be highly sensitive due again to it being viewed mechanistically. For example: I want to get a license for my dog, so I don t care how it gets started, I just want to get the license quickly I realise that I am dealing with the government service, but I don t care if they are an organisation or they are the government with their own procedure, I want my licence, and I want it delivered to me quickly I am going to a hotel, and somebody greets me, then I would feel nice, and that s service Now I also want to be checked in quickly, and I d like to have the room clean also want to be made very welcome, it is something really process oriented (Respondent 1) I was angry because they have a standard product, and what she was saying is that the customer s wrong while one of their staff didn t follow the procedure properly. That s their fault, but instead of fixing it, the girl was just trying to put it back on me all the time (Respondent 5) Here, if a part of the process is not going well, the process is viewed as having failed. If the service fails, customers believe that there are certain parts that need to be fixed. This conception has been widely used in past recovery research including studies of the magnitude 2139

of service failure and recovery strategies (Hoffman, Kelley & Rotalsky 1995); recovery strategies that improve customer satisfaction (Smith, Bolton & Wagner 1999); or recovery strategies that address customer emotion and fairness evaluation (Nguyen & McColl-Kennedy 2003; Sparks & McColl-Kennedy 2001). With regard to the mechanistic conception, sensitivity and commitment to the organisation appear to vary depending on the nature of the service. Relationship Conception The service failure and recovery process can be viewed in relationship terms, where the failure is attributed directly to the paucity of effort, caring or concern on the part of the service provider. It is considered a severe service failure if it evokes negative emotion, or appears as a betrayal of a relationship between the customer and the organisation (Price & Arnould 1999). This conception tends to be associated with a high level of commitment on the part of the customer to the organisation, which results in a high level of sensitivity (Dick & Basu 1994). In the following examples Respondents 4 and 9 had been going to the respective organisations for a long time before the failures occurred. As a result they were particularly sensitive to what took place. If she showed some interest, listened to what I was saying and figured out what was going wrong, it may give me some confidence that the problem would not happen again because they were aware of it. I might go back there and they might make the same mistake again, but at least, at that point of time, it would make me feel a bit better she wasn't really concerned that I was upset about it, and just gave me another muffin like I am a trouble maker. I would be happier if she just said to the girl look, what is going wrong here, the customer didn't get what he ordered (Respondent 9) the reason I went to the coffee shop for breakfast instead of having it at home was because they are my favourite coffee shop, and it was an important morning for me And, you know, they ruined my morning It took ages for breakfast. When it came out, it was not what I ordered (Respondent 4) If it is considered as a relationship, the customer expects to see a high level of care and concern from the service provider (Tax, Brown & Chandrashekaran 1998). The personal assistant appears to be more highly valued than in the cases where the failure/recovery is either viewed mechanistically or as a no alternative situation. In such cases, offering drink vouchers, or a refund would not be considered appropriate. What these customers are looking for is a rebuilding of the relationship demonstrated by such actions as showing concern, providing a genuine apology and putting in some effort to address the problem specifically for that individual customer. Conclusion In this paper we have sought to present a fresh approach to the study of service failure and recovery, arguing for a customer-based holistic focus. We presented an innovative empirically derived conceptual framework comprising the three conceptions of: (1) no alternative; (2) mechanistic; and (3) relationship, with each attribute of each conception grouped according to their core dimensions of: (1) attribution; (2) magnitude; and (3) counterfactual thinking. We have demonstrated that customers view service failure and recovery differently based on whether they take a no alternative, mechanistic or relationship view. A key contribution of the paper is that we have integrated much of the fragmented literature using a novel customerbased phenomenographic conceptual framework. Researchers are encouraged to apply our 2140

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