How customers cope with service failure? A study of brand reputation and customer satisfaction

a r t i c l e i n f o In this paper we examine the different coping mechanisms used by customers when they confront service failure. It was found that the coping mechanism used by customers changes depending on the severity of the service failure. Further, it was observed that brand reputation moderates the relationship between severity of service failure and coping strategies, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions under different conditions. We conducted an experimental study in an airline travel context. The data supports the proposed model. Failures in service delivery are inevitable and recovery of such encounters represents a significant challenge for service firms. When service failure occurs, customers experience disconfirmation and feel displeased (Smith, Bolton, & Wagner, 1999). Company's reputation in conjunction with its service offering determines customer's expectation. Prior studies report that customers maintain different levels of expectations for high and low reputed brands (Roggeveen, Bharadwaj, & Hoyer, 2007). For high reputed brands, customers have high expectations , and view them as delivering superior services. Research findings have confirmed that customers positively relate to brand reputation and this affects their perception of service performance and benefits (Brodie, Whittome, & Brush, 2009). In such instances, how brand reputation affects the evaluation of service failure is an important managerial issue. To date, little research has focused on the role of brand reputation in assessing the service failure outcomes. Service failure elicits an internalization process of coping by which the customers attempt to mitigate the stress associated with negative experiences. During service failure, customers engage in a profile of coping strategies such as active coping, avoidance, and support seeking to overcome the undesirable state (Duhachek & Kelting, 2009; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). However, the stress experienced is contingent upon the expectations customers have of the service provider (Buchanan, Simmons, & Bickart, 1999). This suggests that customers might use different coping strategies depending upon the expectations associated with the service brand that has failed to deliver. However, there is little systematic research on the linkages between brand reputation, customer coping strategies, and service failure outcomes. To fill this research gap, the current study extends the service failure literature to examine the different coping strategies that customers use in managing service failure, and to determine the role of brand reputation in coping with the service failure. In this paper we attempt to address a number of issues pertaining to our …