Synopsis Customer Evaluations of Service Failure and Recovery Encounters

Despite the compelling evidence linking complaint handling to subsequent purchase behaviour, relatively little progress has been made in developing a theoretical understanding of how consumers evaluate a company‘s response to their complaints. One construct that has shown promise in explaining individuals’ reactions to a variety of conflict situations is perceived justice. This theoretical perspective suggests that the fairness of the resolution procedures, the interactional communications and behaviour, and the outcome are the principal evaluative criteria of the customer. Using perceived justice theory as a conceptual foundation, the current research develops and tests a model that explains (1) how customers evaluate a company‘s response to their complaints and (2) how these evaluations affect customer satisfaction and post-purchase behaviour. Primary data were collected through a structured-undisguised electronic questionnaire. Care was taken to choose a research setting that would be appropriate for complaint handling research. Specifically, travel & tourism services were chosen since their processes offer multiple opportunities for service failure to occur. 1 Address for correspondence: Dr. Klaus Schoefer, Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK, E-Mail: [email protected]