The relationship between consumer complaining behavior and service ...

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The relationship between consumer complaining behavior and service recovery An integrative review Min Gyung Kim, Chenya Wang and Anna S. Mattila Pennsylvania State University School of Hospitality Management, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

Consumer complaining behavior 975 Received 17 September 2009 Revised 1 February 2010, 29 March 2010 Accepted 18 April 2010

Abstract Purpose – The goal of the present conceptual paper is to integrate two streams of literature related to service failures: customer complaining behaviors (CCB) and service recovery literature. The suggested conceptual framework intends to broaden the thinking on consumers’ complaint handling processes for hospitality institutions. Design/methodology/approach – A model is proposed that integrates the service recovery and CCB literatures under a single framework. A careful literature review is performed to justify the conceptual framework. Findings – The framework offers a starting point for broadening the thinking on consumers’ complaint handling processes. Research limitations/implications – Systematic empirical research is needed to test the integrative model. Originality/value – This paper offers insight for hospitality managers into how to effectively deal with dissatisfied customer experiences. Keywords Complaints, Consumer behavior, Service failures, Hospitality management Paper type Conceptual paper

1. Introduction Service failures are inevitable even in the best run hospitality organizations. The goal of this paper is to integrate two streams of literature related to service failures: customer complaining behaviors (CCB) and service recovery literature. Although these two research areas are highly inter-related, they have been treated as separate topics in marketing literature. In this paper, we propose a conceptual model that integrates the two concepts under a single framework (Figure 1). Our model suggests that initial dissatisfaction leads to cognitive appraisal, which in turn will determine the consumer’s coping strategies (i.e. CCB responses). Doing nothing (i.e. inertia), complaining to a third party, or spreading negative word-of-mouth are all possible coping mechanisms, yet they are not likely to lead to service recovery. Voicing one’s dissatisfaction directly to the service provider, on the other hand, will result in a recovery opportunity. Consumers then evaluate the recovery effort in terms of fairness and form their recovery satisfaction judgments accordingly. Satisfaction with The first two authors contributed equally to the paper and hence the order of these two authors is alphabetical.

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management Vol. 22 No. 7, 2010 pp. 975-991 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0959-6119 DOI 10.1108/09596111011066635

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Service failure

Appraisal Primary: failure itself

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Secondary: capabilities of handling Previous experience with provider

Individual variables • Demographics • Personality • Emotion • Culture • Technology

Inertia

Initial satisfaction evaluation

Negative WOM

Coping strategy

Third party complaint

Voice

Service recovery Fairness

Negative behavioral outcome

Post-recovery satisfaction

Figure 1. An integrative framework of CCB and service recovery perceptions

Positive behavioral outcome

the recovery effort will lead to behavioral outcomes such as switching, word of mouth (WOM) or loyalty. However, it is important to note that the other three coping strategies (inertia, negative WOM, and third party complaining) will also result in similar behavioral outcomes when consumers are faced with future purchase choices. We will provide a synthesis of literature related to customer complaining behavior followed by a discussion on service recovery literature. We will then provide a brief discussion on behavioral consequences of dissatisfying service experiences focusing on applications in the hospitality context. 2. Cognitive appraisal of dissatisfying service experience The cognitive-emotive model (Lazarus, 1966, 1991a, b; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) was developed to address how people react (both cognitively and emotionally)

to a negative event and hence cope with stressful situations. The process begins with an appraisal of an event (e.g. harmful or threatening) and the emotions it generates. These two components together drive people’s coping strategies. Marketing researchers have adapted this cognitive-emotive model to portray CCB as coping responses to dissatisfying consumption/service experience (Godwin et al., 1995; Stephens and Gwinner, 1998; Chebat et al., 2005). When a dissatisfying event occurs, customers will appraise the event itself (primary appraisal) and their capabilities to deal with the dissatisfying experience (secondary appraisal). The primary and secondary appraisal may occur simultaneously and interactively (Lazarus, 1991b). Customers must first evaluate the seriousness of the service failure in order to determine their level of (dis)satisfaction (Richins, 1983b). This process corresponds to the primary appraisal stage in the cognitive-emotive framework. Adopting components of primary appraisal developed by Lazarus (1991b) and Stephens and Gwinner (1998) propose that dissatisfying service experiences are more likely to be appraised as stressful when they hinder the attainment of a relevant consumption goal and touch on an individual’s self-esteem (ego-evolvement). Moreover, the price of the service might influence the primary appraisal process (Richins and Verhage, 1985). For instance, if a hotel guest who requested a room with two double beds is assigned to a room with a single bed, he/she will be frustrated. These negative feelings will be magnified if the price of the hotel room is higher. Secondary appraisal refers to the customer’s ability to deal with the dissatisfying experience. Stephens and Gwinner (1998) discuss three elements of secondary appraisal: (1) attribution of responsibility for the event (locus of control); (2) expectation of future failure (stability attribution); and (3) evaluation of one’s own coping potential. Both the locus and stability dimensions of attribution theory (Weiner, 1986) have been supported in service failure research (Richins, 1983b; Folkes, 1984; Folkes et al., 1987; Richins, 1987). The evaluation of one’s coping potential, on the other hand, depends on several personality traits and situational constraints. For example, anticipated costs (including time) and effort to complain (Day and Landon, 1977; Huppertz, 2003; Voorhees et al., 2006) and reputation of the retailer or service provider for responsiveness (Richins and Verhage, 1985; Voorhees et al., 2006) have an impact on consumers’ coping strategies. Moreover, perceived likelihood of success is linked to consumers’ propensity to complain (Hirschman, 1970; Blodgett et al., 1995; Kim et al., 2003). In the previous example of the hotel room assignment, the likelihood that the guest will complain depends on his/her personality, or and situational factors (e.g. time pressure). The reputation of the hotel (e.g. whether it is responsive to customer needs) will also influence his/her decision to complain. 3. Coping strategies after initial satisfaction evaluation The appraisal process enables consumers to integrate their cognitive responses with their emotional counterparts (Smith et al., 1999; McColl-Kennedy and Sparks, 2003). Consumers’ coping strategies are conceptualized as multiple responses that are triggered by feelings of satisfaction ( Jacoby and Jaccard, 1981; Singh, 1988). Research has shown that positive and negative emotions influence the consumer’s degree

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of satisfaction with the consumption experience service (Westbrook, 1980; Westbrook and Oliver, 1991; Stephens and Gwinner, 1998; Maute and Dube´s, 1999). In addition to general satisfaction, specific emotions such as anger, disgust, contempt, and disappointment have been shown to influence consumers’ coping behaviors (Yi and Baumgartner, 2004; Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2004, Mattila and Ro, 2008). Based on their initial dissatisfaction response, consumers will decide their coping strategies in order to reduce the stress caused by a dissatisfying experience (Stephens and Gwinner, 1998). These coping strategies can be categorized into three types: problem focused, emotion-focused, and avoidance-type behaviors (Lazarus and DeLongis, 1983; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Problem-based coping strategies refer to customers acting directly to remedy the situation. Emotion-focused coping, on the other hand, is more inward-directed and aimed at regulating one’s mental responses (e.g. self-blame or sympathy). Finally, avoidance-based coping refers to ignoring the situation and hence taking no action to make things better. Several studies in consumer behavior have further refined the definition of coping strategies based on private versus public actions and based on various motivations to complain (Day and Landon, 1977; Day et al., 1981; Singh, 1988). Building on previous research (Day and Landon, 1977; Day et al., 1981; Singh, 1988; Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2004), our conceptual model includes four coping strategies: (1) taking no action (inertia); (2) negative word of mouth (negative WOM) about the service provider; (3) directly complaining to the service provider; and (4) complaining to a third party. As Susskind (2005) summarizes, the coping strategy that dissatisfied consumers choose to employ depends upon the circumstances surrounding the incident and the need to remedy the dissatisfying experience. Adopting a dynamic perspective on coping, Tronvoll (2007) suggests that complaining behaviors are best understood as dynamic adjustment processes that occur during the service interaction. These coping strategies will be discussed next. 3.1 Inertia Customers often remain silent when service failures occur (Day et al., 1981; Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2004). In fact, a vast majority of dissatisfied customers fail to complain after a bad experience (Chebat et al., 2005). Sometimes customers perceive the costs of complaining to exceed potential benefits, leading to inaction (Day, 1984). For example, when a restaurant guest is served a wrong dish, he/she may complain to the server in order to get the situation rectified. However, if he/she does not have time to wait for the new dish or does not mind eating the served dish, then he/she might not ask for the correction. Several personality variables also seem to predict whether consumers fall into the complainer or non-complainer category. For instance, Bodey and Grace (2007) show that attitude-toward-complaining and propensity-to-complain are two key characteristics discriminating between the two groups. In a similar vein, Chebat et al. (2005) suggest that the propensity to seek redress varies across consumers. In other words, some people are eager to complain and return a failing product while others procrastinate to return a defected product or simply hate the idea of complaining.

Sometimes, doing nothing might imply continued patronage due to perceived effort associated with complaining and lack of motivation to consider other alternatives (Solomon, 1994; Solomon et al., 2002; White and Yanamandram, 2004). Yet, repeat-business under these circumstances does not reflect true loyalty (Pitcher, 1998; Rowley and Dawes, 2000).

Consumer complaining behavior

3.2 Negative word of mouth The negative effects of service failures are amplified when customers spread their dissatisfying experiences across their social networks. A single WOM message can reach and potentially influence many receivers through multiple exchanges; especially, if it has a negative valence (Lau and Ng, 2001). Negative WOM provides an outlet for emotion-based coping, as consumers can vent their negative emotions (Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2004). Sundaram et al. (1998) identified four motives for negative WOM: (1) altruism (e.g. to prevent others from experiencing the same problem); (2) anxiety reduction; (3) vengeance; and (4) advice seeking.

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Singh (1990) labels customers that have higher intentions of negative WOM as irates. Customers in this category tend to exhibit a positive attitude toward complaining due to perceived social benefits of WOM. With recent developments in information technology, WOM now can be delivered and communicated over the internet, the so-called e-WOM. The emergence of e-WOM has helped consumers form (collective) power over companies as a negative online comment can seriously influence the company’s image and reputation (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). Harrison-Walker (2001) found that many consumers made their first-time complaints on the web-based forums, rather than directly with the company. The use of internet web sites to talk about one’s consumption experiences is particularly popular in the hospitality context due to well-known review sites such as TripAdvisor and Zagat. Given the potential harmful consequences of viral e-WOM, managing and monitoring online complaints is an important function for any hospitality service provider in today’s digitalized world. 3.3 Third-party complaint A third-party complaint indicates that customers turn to external agencies to lodge their complaints. McAlister and Erffmeyer’s (2003) content analysis suggests that inappropriate sales and marketing strategies are the major drivers for customers to engage in third-party complaints. Third-party complaints are important since they represent a higher-order action than other coping strategies (Feick, 1987). For example, if customers do not get a satisfactory response from the company, they can file their complaints to third-party complaint-handling agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and other governmental consumer protection departments. Singh (1989) suggests that consumers tend to use third-parties: . when all other CCB options cannot be executed; . when they think that direct voice to the company is unlikely to be successful; or . regardless of their choice of other CCB actions.

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Although a relatively small percentage of dissatisfied consumers utilize thirty-party agencies, the problems being redressed to those agencies tend to be serious and highly damaging for companies (TARP, 1985), potentially leading to considerable financial risk (Fisher et al., 1999). 3.4 Voice Voicing one’s dissatisfaction is a highly active form of coping and essentially a political response (Hirschman, 1970). Voice complaints directly to the service provider have drawn considerable attention in consumer research, as they focus on complainers rather than non-complainers (Stephens and Gwinner, 1998; Chebat et al., 2005). Moreover, service providers are advised to encourage consumers to lodge complaints in order to have an opportunity to recover from the failure. Compared to other coping strategies, voice is the least harmful to organizations since complaints provide feedback to improve product/service quality (Fornell and Wernerfelt, 1987). Consumers’ plans to voice indicate their belief that the organization can and will rectify the situation (McKee et al., 2006). Nevertheless, researchers also acknowledge the existence of “illegitimate voice” that may occur out of consumers’ monetary, ego or disruptive motivations rather than out of the genuine service failure (Prim and Pras, 1999; Reynolds and Harris, 2006). It is important to note that consumers might use multiple coping strategies following a service failure (Richins, 1987) and that such responses might complement each other. For example, most third party complaining (Blodgett and Granbois, 1992) and negative WOM (Blodgett et al., 1997; Halstead, 2002) result from unsuccessful voice actions. For instance, when the restaurant guest who was served a wrong dish has to wait a long time for the corrective action to happen, he/she might opt to spread negative WOM about the restaurant. Recent research also posits that higher information control and weaker ties between the consumer and the service provider enhance customers’ complaints (Mittal et al., 2008). However, not all complaints are legitimate, as some consumers are perpetual freeloaders, fraudulent returners, or peer-induced esteem-seekers (Reynolds and Harris, 2006). 4. Moderating variables of consumer responses to service failure Past studies have shown that how consumers cope with service failures depends on individual differences or their past relationship with the service provider. In the next section, we discuss several important individual-level variables that play a moderating role in customers’ responses to service failures. 4.1 The role of past experiences Typically, customer satisfaction in a particular service encounter is influenced by the individual’s prior experiences with the service provider. Emotional bonding or relationship status might make customers more lenient towards service providers in service failure (Mattila, 2004). On the other hand, researchers also argue that perceived losses arising from service failures will be weighed heavily by customers with high prior cumulative satisfaction (Bitner et al., 1990; Bolton, 1998). Loyal customers might retaliate if they feel betrayed by a service failure (Gre´goire and Fisher, 2008). Conversely, customers with low levels of emotional bonding might be highly “forgiving” as long as the service recovery is effectively handled (Mattila, 2004).

4.2 The role of personality traits and demographics Consumer reactions to dissatisfying experiences are rooted in consumers’ cognitive processes, and therefore they are heavily influenced by individual traits and characteristics (e.g. personality, demographics, attitudes toward complaining) (Stephens and Gwinner, 1998). Richins (1983a) suggests that assertive and aggressive customers are highly likely to engage in complaint behaviors. The propensity to “seek redress” is also strongly related to complaint intent (Chebat et al., 2005). Conversely, extroverts might be less willing to engage in face-to-face complaining for fear of jeopardizing social bonds (Richins, 1987; Kowalski, 1996). Look (2007) postulates that self-efficacy, Machiavellianism, and perceived control have a positive influence on peoples’ general perceptions of complaining. Agreeableness, which is related to interpersonal effects, can also influence consumers’ coping strategies (Kowalski, 1996). Several studies also indicate that consumer reactions to service failures might be linked demographic variables such as age, education and income (Day and Landon, 1977; Jacoby and Jaccard, 1981; Bearden and Mason, 1984; Palmer et al., 2000; Heung and Lam, 2003). Gender might also influence consumers’ coping behaviors, yet the results are inconclusive. For example, some studies suggest that female customers are more likely to voice their dissatisfaction while others indicate that men are more likely to engage in face-to-face complaining (Manickas and Shea, 1997). In the context of service failures, Mattila et al. (2003) show that male customers’ dissatisfaction is aggravated if employees display negative emotions during a failed service encounter. In a similar vein, McColl-Kennedy et al. (2003) show that female customers are more focused on having their views heard during the service recovery efforts than their male counterparts. Accounting for potential gender differences is important in particular when customers need to co-create value or actively participate in the service recovery process (Dong et al., 2008). 4.3 The role of emotions in driving consumer responses to service failures Failed service encounters often result in negative emotions, in particular when fairness is lacking in the recovery effort (McColl-Kennedy and Sparks, 2003; Schoefer and Ennew, 2005). Chebat and Slusarczyk (2005) explored the mediation effect of emotions in the relationship of perceived justice and loyalty in the service recovery context. Similarly, recent research suggests that emotions mediate the relationships between perceived fairness and post-complaint behaviors (Schoefer and Diamantopoulos, 2008). Moreover, dissatisfying incidents tend to result in specific negative emotions and these discrete emotions partly determine subsequent behaviors (Yi and Baumgartner, 2004; Zeelenberg and Pieters, 2004; Mattila and Ro, 2008). For example, anger and worry might result in different types of responses although they are both negative emotions (DeSteno et al., 2000). Anger, irritation, and worry are some examples of specific emotions that are often associated with service failures (Maute and Dube´s, 1999; Menon and Dube´, 2004). Customers’ displayed negative emotions might also make service providers susceptible to catching consumer anger via emotional contagion (Dallimore et al., 2007). 4.4 The role of culture Past empirical studies have demonstrated cross-cultural differences in complaint behavior. Research data collected from different countries might result in inconsistent findings in complaining attitudes and behaviors (Richins, 1983b, 1987;


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Heung and Lam, 2003; Yuksel et al., 2006). Cross-cultural marketing researchers typically attribute cultural differences in complaining behavior to several dimensions of culture, such as individualism versus collectivism (Watkins and Liu, 1996; Liu and McClure, 2001), uncertainty avoidance (Hernandez et al., 1991), or Confucian dynamism (Le Claire, 1993). The findings of these studies suggest that individuals with collectivist orientation are less likely to complain than their more individualistic counterparts and that individuals high in uncertainty avoidance are less interested in seeking redress or in engaging in negative WOM. For example, Chinese consumers might be more hesitant to lodge complaints to service providers due to face saving, need for interpersonal harmony, reciprocity, and moderation (Le Claire, 1993). Instead, Asian customers are more likely to engage in negative word of mouths (Liu and McClure, 2001; Ngai et al., 2007). However, there is also evidence to suggest that it might be differences in retailers’ return and refund practices rather than cultural values that explain cross-cultural differences in complaining behavior (Blodgett et al., 2006). The role of culture has also been examined in the context of service recovery (Mattila and Patterson, 2004b). For example, Patterson et al. (2006) show that power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and collectivism, interact with consumers fairness perceptions. Culture also seems to shape consumers recovery expectations. Individualism, masculinity (Kanousi, 2005) and long-term orientation (Kanousi, 2005; Poon et al., 2004) are all linked to service recovery expectations. Comparing three countries – Australia, the USA, and Singapore – Wong (2004) found that compensation has a universal positive impact on customer’s post-recovery perceptions while apology was more effective among the Singaporean and Australian samples. Positive effects of repurchase intention and WOM from service recovery were only observed with the American sample. Finally, in the empirical study in a restaurant context by Mattila and Patterson (2004b) shows that the “causal explanation” for service failure as a part of service recovery effort reduced internal attributions for US customers whereas “explanation” had a minimal influence on East Asian customers. 4.5 The role of technology in service failures and service recoveries Given the rapid increase in on-line and self-service technology (SST) encounters in hospitality industry (e.g. hotel check-in and out, airport check-in, restaurant ordering, etc.), there is an urgent need to understand how consumers react to technology-based failures (Meuter et al., 2003; Shapiro and Nieman-Gonder, 2006). Yet, research on service recovery with technology-related failures is scarce (for notable exceptions, see Holloway and Beatty, 2003; Harris et al., 2006). Previous work suggests that effective service recovery is difficult with technology-related failures (Meuter et al., 2000). For instance, if a passenger for a flight failed to check in through a self-ticketing kiosk, he/she might find it difficult to get the problem fixed through the same kiosk. Typically, the customer needs to an agent in person to rectify the situation. Generic recoveries (e.g. automatic e-mail reply, lengthy delays, poor customer support, poor communication, and feelings of injustice) are frequent problems with technology-based recovery efforts (Holloway and Beatty, 2003). Thus, service organizations need to find solutions to improve their on-line complaint-handling systems. In the next section, we will discuss how service providers can use voice to their benefit and potentially mitigate the negative effects of service failures via effective service recovery.

5. Service recovery Customers voicing their dissatisfaction with poor service offer the service provider an opportunity to recover from service failures. Service recovery strategies involve actions taken by service providers to respond to service failures (Gro¨nroos, 2000). Both what is done (compensation) and how it is done (employee interaction with the customer) influence customer perceptions of service recovery (Andreassen, 2000; Levesque and McDougall, 2000; Seawright et al., 2008). Although managers realize that recovering from such failures is essential for customer retention (Miller et al., 2000), how to do it effectively remains a challenge. Hart et al. (1990) for example, point out that more than half of the customers they studied were less than satisfied with the complaint-handling process, thus exacerbating negative feelings towards the service-supplier. However, as Tax and Brown (2000) have shown, well-enacted service recovery performance can help in overcoming customer disappointment and anger, and can even salvage a relationship. 5.1 Fairness theory Fairness theory appears to be the dominant theoretical framework applied to service recovery (Tax and Brown, 2000). Similar to complaint-handling, customers evaluate the fairness of service recovery along three factors: outcome, procedural, and interactional fairness (Goodwin and Ross, 1992; Tax et al., 1998; Smith et al., 1999; de Ruyter and Wetzels, 2000; Liao, 2007). The most recent conceptualization of justice suggests that interactional justice can be further separated into two dimensions: interpersonal treatment and informational justice (Colquitt, 2001; Colquitt et al., 2001). Interpersonal treatment refers to the interactional component of the service delivery process whereas informational justice taps into the perceived adequacy and truthfulness of information explaining the causes for unfavorable outcomes (Colquitt, 2001). Typically, customers expect to be compensated for the inconvenience caused by the service failure (Tax et al., 1998; Smith et al., 1999). Compensation is the most researched topic in complaint handling (Davidow, 2003) and tangible compensation for service recovery (e.g. free upgrades) has been shown to influence consumers’ perceptions of distributive justice (Smith et al., 1999; Mattila and Patterson, 2004a). As a result, many service organizations offer various combinations of refunds, credit, discounts, and apologies to make peace with dissatisfied customers. The speed with which service failures are corrected or complaints are handled is one of the major determinants of customer perceptions of procedural justice (Blodgett et al., 1997; Tax et al., 1998). Moreover, courtesy, empathy (Tax and Brown, 1998) and politeness, concern and neutrality (Sparks and McColl-Kennedy, 1998, 2001) have been shown to influence customers’ overall perceptions of justice. The notion of apology is somewhat controversial, as some studies view it as part of distributive justice (Davidow, 2003; McColl-Kennedy et al., 2003; Collier and Bienstock, 2006) while others link apology to interactional justice (Goodwin and Ross, 1992; Smith et al., 1999; Mattila and Patterson, 2004a). Despite a growing interest in interactional treatment in explaining consumers’ reactions to dissatisfying incidents, research examining the role of explanations in mitigating the negative effects of service failures is scant. The lack of interest in this area is surprising because attribution theory suggests that people tend to seek causal explanations for an event that is either surprising and/or negative


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(Weiner, 1986; Folkes, 1988). The findings of Mattila’s (2009) study imply that customer-contact employees might be able to influence post-recovery impressions by offering a causal explanation for a service failure. But as McColl-Kennedy and Sparks (2003) suggest, front-line employees need to be trained in the art of providing explanations. Explanations need to be both sincere and adequate in explaining the causes for poor performance (Folger and Cropanzano, 1998). Yet, it is important to keep in mind that explanations for failures, even when combined with tangible compensation, are poor substitutes for adequate interpersonal treatment. Thus, service providers need to use causal explanation with care and in appropriate situations (e.g. non-serious failures). 6. Behavioral outcomes All four coping strategies (inertia, third-party complaining, negative WOM, and voice) influence behaviors that the consumer exhibits when faced with a new consumption choice. These behaviors include switching to another service provider, generating WOM, or remaining loyal to the current service provider. 6.1 Positive behavioral outcome Service recovery, if enacted effectively, can have a highly favorable impact on these behavioral outcomes. Previous work suggests that service-recovery is positively linked to repurchase intent and recommendation behaviors (Webster and Sundaram, 1998; Mattila, 2001; Sparks and McColl-Kennedy, 2001; Swanson and Kelley, 2001). Moreover, a successful recovery tends to reduce switching behaviors, which are common with service failures (Keaveney, 1995; Colgate and Norris, 2001). 6.2 Negative behavioral outcome Service recovery, however, can still result in customer dissatisfaction if customers do not perceive service providers’ recovery efforts to be fair. The negative coping strategies for the initial service failure event (discussed in Section 3) might thus be repeated after a double-failure. Customers who are dissatisfied with the service recovery may simply do nothing and never return to the same service provider, or they might spread negative WOMs or complain to a third party. 7. Conclusions Our framework offers a starting point for broadening our thinking on consumers’ complaint handling processes, which can serve as management guidelines for hospitality institutions. The framework involves all the elements of customer complaint behaviors and service recovery processes by identifying customers’ cognitive processes of perceiving service failure and recovery, their coping options (CCB) towards service failures, and influencing variables to their behaviors and consequences. No matter how hard service providers try, occasional service failures are inevitable. We hope that our proposed framework enables hospitality managers to get a deeper understanding of customers’ cognitive processes – from perceiving service failures to forming overall service evaluations. Moreover, our integrative framework will help hospitality managers to identify factors that might influence customers’ responses to service failures. Hospitality managers might want to pay attention to the link from service recovery to customer loyalty. Related to that, recent research suggests that trust and

emotions are two key concepts explaining post-recovery loyalty (DeWitt et al., 2008). In order to benefit from continuous customer loyalty, hospitality organizations need to know how their customers react to various service recovery efforts. Although there is ample evidence to show that compensation has a positive effect on post-complaint behaviors (Hoffman et al., 1995; Spreng et al., 1995), relatively little is known about customer preferences over various compensation methods. As Davidow (2003) states, future research on redress practices is needed to build theory on service recovery and to offer sound advice to hospitality practitioners. Additionally, systematic empirical research is needed in the hospitality industry to test our integrative model and we hope that this paper will sparkle such an interest among hospitality researchers and practitioners.

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