Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management & Dietetics / Carol W. Shanklin / Ki-Joon Back / This study proposed and tested a theoretical model of service recovery consisting of antecedents and consequences of service recovery satisfaction. This study further tested recovery paradox effects and investigated the effects of situational and attributional factors in the evaluation of service recovery efforts and consequent overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The study employed scenario experimentation with three dimensions of justice manipulated at two levels each (2x2x2 between-groups factorial design). Postage paid, self-addressed envelopes and questionnaires (600 copies) were distributed. Participants represented 15 religious and community service groups. All respondents were regular casual restaurant customers. Of 308 surveys returned, 286 cases were used for data analysis. In study 1, the proposed relationships were tested using the structural equation modeling. In study 2, multivariate analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of covariance tests were employed to test proposed hypotheses. The three dimensions of justice had positive effects on recovery satisfaction. Recovery satisfaction had a significant positive effect on customers’ trust. Trust in service providers had positive effect on commitment and overall satisfaction. Commitment had positive effects on overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions. This study indicated that, although a service failure might negatively affect customers’ relationship with the service provider, effective service recovery reinforced attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The results of this study emphasized that service recovery efforts should be viewed not only as a strategy to recover customers’ immediate satisfaction but also as a relationship tool to provide customers confidence that ongoing relationships are beneficial to them. This study did not find recovery paradox in the experimental scenarios. The magnitude of service failure had significant negative effects on perceived justice and recovery satisfaction. Customers’ rating of stability causation had significant negative effects on overall satisfaction, revisit intention, and word-of-mouth intention. The study findings indicated that positive recovery efforts could reinstate customers’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions up to those of pre-failure. Restaurant managers and their employees need to provide extra efforts to restore the customers’ perceived losses in serious failure situations. Service providers should reduce systematic occurrences of service failure so customer will not develop stability perception.

Le secteur touristique souffre de plus en plus des départs de clients insatisfaits suite aux dysfonctionnements de services vécus. De nombreux établissements de services, attachent encore, peu d’importance à la gestion des réclamations en raison des moyens financiers qu’elles suscitent. Or, une gestion efficace de la réclamation pourrait transformer un client insatisfait en un client plus confiant et engagé. Notre recherche s’est intéressée à l’identification des critères d’évaluation sur lesquels les réclamants se basent pour juger la gestion de la réclamation, et à l’impact de cette évaluation sur la qualité de la relation établie avec l’établissement touristique. Pour ce faire une étude qualitative exploratoire suivie d’une étude quantitative ont été réalisées.Après avoir examiné la revue de la littérature, nous nous sommes focalisés sur les théories de la justice perçue lors de l’évaluation de la gestion de la réclamation. En outre, nous avons mobilisé les dimensions de la confiance et de l’engagement comme critères de jugement de la qualité relationnelle perçue. Les résultats de notre étude montrent l’existence d’un impact positif et significatif de quelques critères de la justice perçue (jugés par les réclamant comme étant les plus importants) sur la satisfaction post-réclamation et la qualité relationnelle perçue. Ces critères sont essentiellement l’équité du résultat accordé par l’établissement (ex : compensation accordée), l’empathie et la politesse développées par le personnel en contact, et la rapidité du traitement de la réclamation. / The tourist sector is suffering more and more from the departure of the unsatisfied customers after experienced service failures. Several services companies, still attach, few importance to complaint handling because of financial funds needed. However, an efficient complaint handling management could transform a dissatisfied customer to a more confident and committed customer. Our research was interested in the identification of the appraisal criteria on which claimants base to judge complaint handling and the impact of this evaluation on the quality of the relationship established with the tourist establishment. Consequently, a qualitative study followed by a quantitative study has been accomplished. After examining the literature review, we focused on the perceived justice theory to evaluate the complaint handling. Besides, we used trust and commitment dimensions as a criteria of judgment of the perceived relationship quality (Morgan et Hunt, 1994).The outcomes of our study show the existence of a positive significant impact of some criteria of the perceived justice (considered by consumers as the most important), on recovery satisfaction and perceived relationship quality. These criteria are mainly equity of the result provided by the establishment (Ex. Compensation provided), empathy and politeness developed by the front line staff, and the quickness of the complaint treatment.