Does delaying service-failure resolution ever make sense?

Yuanyuan Zhou, Alex S.L. Tsang, Minxue Huang and Nan Zhou

Journal of Business Research, 2014, vol. 67, issue 2, 159-166

Abstract: Conventional wisdom suggests that service providers should respond to their failures as quickly as possible. Some research, however, points out that delaying resolutions may produce highly desirable results. The study here investigates these competing views by examining under which conditions an immediate or a delaying resolution produces more positive consumer responses in term of re-patronage and negative word-of-mouth intentions. Based on the concept of service separation, this research identifies an interaction effect between service separation (separated service, non-separated service) and response timing (immediate response, delaying response) on consumers' post-consumption intention. This research also finds that the relationship between service separation-response timing interaction and consumer response is mediated by consumers' negative emotions. This study contributes to refining our understanding of consumer psychology in service recovery. Practically, the studies also enable service providers to better allocate their resources to recover different types of services' failure.

Keywords: Service marketing; Service failure; Service recovery; Delaying resolution; Immediate resolution; Service separation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:67:y:2014:i:2:p:159-166

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.10.009

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