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The aim of this article is to explore the relationship between the type of service failure, age and the customer's negative emotions after a service failure; as well as the relationship between these emotions, the recovery strategies executed and service recovery satisfaction. The proposed model is tested on a sample of financial services customers who suffered some type of failure. The results indicate that the customer's age has a negative impact on the intensity of the negative emotions experienced after a service failure. In addition, the type of service failure (process or outcome) interacts with the age variable on its effect on these negative emotions. Finally, results also show that recovery strategies offset the negative effect of negative emotions on customer satisfaction and that a compensation strategy is more efficient if offered quickly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Due to the importance of understanding what circumstances make customer recovery programmes successful, this paper aims to study the effects of different cognitive evaluations (disconfirmation of expectations and perceived justice) and affective responses (positive and negative emotions) on satisfaction with plaint handling. Design/methodology/approach - The sample used in this study consists of 679 subjects who, over the last six months, had experienced service failures and had afterwards explained. The data were collected via personal interviews using a structured survey. Findings - The results of the study support the model and highlight the importance of the emotions experienced as a result of the plaint handling. Although these emotions have been underrepresented in the service recovery literature, our investigation shows that these emotions not only have an independent effect on customer satisfaction, after accounting for the effects of the cognitive evaluations of plaint handling, but also play a mediating role in the relationship between these cognitive variables and satisfaction. Research limitations/implications - This study examines only one service context; consequently, caution is needed when generalizing the results. Practical implications - Given the findings in this paper, identifying customers' emotions can enable service organizations to know their perceptions of the recovery and, hence, adapt service recovery strategies adequately. Originality/value - This study incorporates the disconfirmation of expectations paradigm and the dimension of informational justice into the existing models of cognitive and affective antecedents of satisfaction with plaint handling. Furthermore, this study is based on the analysis of real service failures and recovery strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Preferential treatment of selected customers is one of the strategies employed by companies seeking to implement relationship marketing. However, it remains unclear whether or not this policy negatively affects relationships with customers not receiving the above-mentioned preferential treatment, as existing literature focuses, for the most part, on the beneficiaries. The purpose of this paper is to study whether or not the perception of lack of preferential treatment has a positive impact on dissatisfaction following a service failure, after accounting for the effects of attribution. Design/methodology/approach - The sample used in this paper consists of 344 subjects who, over the last six months, have experienced service failures. The data are collected via personal interviews using a structured survey. Structural equation modelling is employed in order to test the relationship between lack of preferential treatment and dissatisfaction. Findings - The results of this investigation indicate that lack of preferential treatment has an additional explanatory power with regard to customer dissatisfaction, after considering the effects of attributions, and that negative emotions have a mediation effect on the relationship between these cognitive antecedents and the aforementioned dissatisfaction. Research limitations/implications - This paper examines only one service context; as a consequence, caution is needed when generalizing the results. Practical implications - Given the findings of this paper, managers are advised to consider the "merits" of preferential treatment to help strengthen customer relationships. Originality/value - This paper provides an initial step towards understanding the impact of systematic and deliberate use of preferential treatment as a relationship marketing strategy from a non-beneficiaries perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between customers' negative emotions after a failure, their cognitive evaluations of the recovery process, and the overall or cumulative satisfaction in a service context. Two different constructs measure a customer's cognitive evaluations of the recovery process: disconfirmation of expectations and perceived justice. The proposed model is tested on a sample of financial service customers who suffered some type of failure. The results indicate that emotions have an indirect effect on overall or cumulative satisfaction through cognitive evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]