Drawing on expectation confirmation research, we develop hypotheses regarding the effect of compensation on key customer outcomes following a major data breach and consequent service recovery effort. Data were collected in a longitudinal field study of Sony customers during their data breach in 2011. A total of 144 customers participated in the two-phase data collection that began when the breach was announced and concluded after reparations were made. Using polynomial modeling and response surface analysis, we demonstrate that a modified assimilation-contrast model explained perceptions of service quality and continuance intention and a generalized negativity model explained repurchase intention. The results of our work contribute to research on data breaches and service failure by demonstrating the impacts of compensation on customer outcomes. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.

<p>Research has shown that companies encourage customers to complain and gather huge amounts of service recovery information, although most of this information isn´t used by the companies. Our purpose with this thesis is to explore what determines the filtering of service recovery feedback, and if possible to identify its underlying reasons. This was accomplished through a qualitative case study at Handelsbanken Uppsala City. Empirical material was mainly collected through interviews with the office manager, frontline employees, and the regional complaints manager. When analyzing the empirical material Tax and Brown model of service recovery was used as an analytical framework.</p><p>The analysis shows that the employees at Handelsbanken Uppsala city aren’t controlled by many guidelines and policies; instead emphasis is put on the independence, trust, and responsibility of each individual employee. This is probably due to the decentralized organization of Handelsbanken and the belief in the employee’s capability to better understand what is of importance to filter, due to their close interaction with customers.</p>

The phenomena when customers perceive a service as better after a failure and the following recovery process has occurred is called service recovery paradox. In the case of the paradox, customers are more satisfied post-recovery in comparison to if the failure would not have occurred. How to best manage a service recovery depends on the type of service failure since the recovery actions should be adjusted in order to match the failure in a suitable way. Three surveys were conducted in this study, one for each type of failure classified as (1) Service delivery failures, (2) Failure to respond to customer needs and requests and (3) Unprompted and unsolicited employee actions. Each survey presented a scenario in three parts. The first part of the scenario was neutral, the second part was post-failure and the third part was post-recovery. The respondents had to take a standpoint regarding their level of satisfaction after each scenario part. The findings from this study confirm the possibility for an increase in customer post-recovery satisfaction concerning (1) Service delivery failures combined with suitable recovery actions, hence the service recovery paradox was found. In the case of (2) Failures to respond to customer needs and requests combined with suitable recovery actions, the level of post-recovery customer satisfaction did not reach pre- failure satisfaction. The last type of service failure, (3) Unprompted and unsolicited employee actions, resulted in the lowest level of customer satisfaction both post-failure and post-recovery and was hence most far away from the paradox.

<p>Service recovery is about problems. What happens when customers experience problems? Well, sometimes customers complain to the one responsible for the service. Sometimes customers do not complain but instead tell somebody else about the problem, possibly leading to a bad reputation for the one responsible for the service. Sometimes it happens that customers never return to the same provider because of the problem experienced. To avoid the customer leaving, service recovery can be used. Service recovery is a set of actions a service pro-vider can take in order to repair a failure (Tax and Brown, 1998; Zemke, 1995; Scheuing and Christopher, 1993; Levesque and McDougall, 2000).</p><p>In addition, many services today are Internet-based, meaning that services are self-services enabled by information technology (IT). Self-services enabled by IT, referred to as self-service technology (SST), are characterized by an interac-tion between a user and a machine rather than between two humans. Conse-quently, service recovery is no longer between two people interacting in a face-to-face manner when solving problems, but between a user and a machine when taking place in an SST context.</p><p>This change of context has resulted in difficulties but also opportunities in the work of service recovery. Instead of turning to the one responsible for the service when problems occur, it is now possible to turn to other customers and users to receive help. SST has opened up new opportunities to learn with and from other individuals through the sharing of knowledge. The sharing of knowledge for the purpose of turning problems into solutions and improve-ments depends on the ability to create value for people involved.</p><p>Service recovery in a self-service technology context, i.e. self-service recovery (SSR) is defined as the capability, enabled by self-service technology, of turning user prob-lems into solutions and improvements by means of sharing knowledge between users in order to create value.</p><p>The aim of this doctoral thesis is to answer the question, “Why self-service recovery works?” The question is addressed by seven research studies and by evolving a framework for understanding why self-service recovery works.</p><p>The contributions of this dissertation reside from the framework, which en-hances our understanding of self-service recovery as a value creation activity through not only recovery, but also improvement of the service in question.</p>

Service recovery is about problems. What happens when customers experience problems? Well, sometimes customers complain to the one responsible for the service. Sometimes customers do not complain but instead tell somebody else about the problem, possibly leading to a bad reputation for the one responsible for the service. Sometimes it happens that customers never return to the same provider because of the problem experienced. To avoid the customer leaving, service recovery can be used. Service recovery is a set of actions a service pro-vider can take in order to repair a failure (Tax and Brown, 1998; Zemke, 1995; Scheuing and Christopher, 1993; Levesque and McDougall, 2000). In addition, many services today are Internet-based, meaning that services are self-services enabled by information technology (IT). Self-services enabled by IT, referred to as self-service technology (SST), are characterized by an interac-tion between a user and a machine rather than between two humans. Conse-quently, service recovery is no longer between two people interacting in a face-to-face manner when solving problems, but between a user and a machine when taking place in an SST context. This change of context has resulted in difficulties but also opportunities in the work of service recovery. Instead of turning to the one responsible for the service when problems occur, it is now possible to turn to other customers and users to receive help. SST has opened up new opportunities to learn with and from other individuals through the sharing of knowledge. The sharing of knowledge for the purpose of turning problems into solutions and improve-ments depends on the ability to create value for people involved. Service recovery in a self-service technology context, i.e. self-service recovery (SSR) is defined as the capability, enabled by self-service technology, of turning user prob-lems into solutions and improvements by means of sharing knowledge between users in order to create value. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to answer the question, “Why self-service recovery works?” The question is addressed by seven research studies and by evolving a framework for understanding why self-service recovery works. The contributions of this dissertation reside from the framework, which en-hances our understanding of self-service recovery as a value creation activity through not only recovery, but also improvement of the service in question.

Research has shown that companies encourage customers to complain and gather huge amounts of service recovery information, although most of this information isn´t used by the companies. Our purpose with this thesis is to explore what determines the filtering of service recovery feedback, and if possible to identify its underlying reasons. This was accomplished through a qualitative case study at Handelsbanken Uppsala City. Empirical material was mainly collected through interviews with the office manager, frontline employees, and the regional complaints manager. When analyzing the empirical material Tax and Brown model of service recovery was used as an analytical framework. The analysis shows that the employees at Handelsbanken Uppsala city aren’t controlled by many guidelines and policies; instead emphasis is put on the independence, trust, and responsibility of each individual employee. This is probably due to the decentralized organization of Handelsbanken and the belief in the employee’s capability to better understand what is of importance to filter, due to their close interaction with customers.

Sammanfattning Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka hur pendlare på sträckan Västerås – Stockholm upplever SJ:s klagomålshantering i dagsläget och hur SJ hanterar klagomål. Vidare syftade uppsatsen till att ge förslag på hur SJ kan arbeta med klagomålshantering i framtiden. I uppsatsen presenteras hur SJ sköter sin klagomålshantering i dagsläget. Vidare presenteras teorier inom service recovery och klagomålshantering. Med utgångspunkt i teorierna skapades en bild av effektiv service recovery och klagomålshantering. För att ta reda på hurpendlarna upplever SJ:s klagomålshantering genomfördes en enkätundersökning på utvalda tåg på sträckan Västerås – Stockholm den 9-11 maj 2011. Totalt samlades det in 373 enkäter varav 299 stycken var korrekt ifyllda. Slutsatser Data från enkätundersökningen analyserades och följande slutsatser kunde dras; SJ bör alltidsträva efter att få in alla klagomål från pendlarna, det skulle ge SJ en bättre översikt avpendlarnas situation. SJ kan först då genomföra åtgärder och förbättringar. SJ måste lyssna till pendlarnas åsikter och visa att de tar till sig av åsikterna. Företaget bördärför arbeta med att förtydliga att klagomålen hanteras och att de leder till förbättringar. Vidare bör SJ implementera en mer användarvänlig process för pendlaren att framföra sin åsikt för att få in så många klagomål som möjligt. En slutsats drogs om att det finns utrymme för SJ att i ansökan om restidsgaranti applicera ett fält där resenärer kan framföra klagomål. Vid lanseringen av en mobil applikation föreslås den innehålla en funktion där pendlaren kan framföra sina klagomål. SJ:s personalutbildningar är i dagsläget bra men en slutsats drogs att de kan inriktas mer på klagomålshantering. Är de pendlare som stannar hos SJ på grund av att SJ är deras enda alternativa färdmedel till jobb eller studieort missnöjda, ökar risken för att negativ word-of-mouth sprids vilket är till stor nackdel för SJ. SJ måste bli bättre på att: åtgärda problem, ge garanti för att åtgärda problem, ta ansvar för problem och för sina kunder, visa förståelse och erbjuda en mer rättvis kompensation. Enligt pendlarna är en snabb handläggningstid av klagomål, enklare att framföra åsikter, en rättvis behandling och möjlighet till att påverka hanteringen av klagomål viktiga faktorer i SJ:s klagomålshanteringsprocess. Förslag Avslutningsvis gavs förslag på hur SJ kan anpassa sin klagomålshantering efter sina pendlare utifrån en indelning efter klagomålsbenägenhetstyperna Passiva, Frispråkiga, Ilskna och Aktivister. Det gjordes för att kunna anpassa klagomålshanteringen efter de olika typer av pendlare som reser med SJ och även för att göra det så enkelt som möjligt för pendlarna att framföra sina åsikter och klagomål till SJ. / Executive summary The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how the commuters travelling between Västeråsand Stockholm were experiencing SJ's customer complaint handling today and how SJ handles customer complaints. Furthermore, the thesis aims to give suggestions how SJ can work with customer complaints in the future. First the thesis present how SJ handles customer complaints today based on questions given directly to SJ. Moreover, theories in service recovery and complaint handling are presented. With starting point in the theories, a better understanding of effective service recovery and customer complaint handling was created. A survey was conducted on selected trains between Västerås and Stockholm, from the 9 th to the 11th of May 2011. In total, 373 surveys were collected from which 299 surveys were complete. Data from the survey was analyzed and the following conclusions could be drawn. Conclusions SJ should always strive to collect all the complaints from the commuters as it would give SJ a better overview of the commuters' situation. SJ needs to listen to the commuter’s opinions and show that they take them into consideration. SJ can only then take action and make improvements. The company should work to clarify that complaints are handled and that they lead to improvements. In addition, SJ should implement a more user-friendly process for the commuters to hand in complaints in order to receive as many complaints as possible. A conclusion was reached that there is room for a field on the application for travel time guarantee where commuters and other travelers can file a complaint. At the launch of a mobile application a proposition is made that it include a feature where commuters can file their complaints. The training of SJ's staff in the current situation is good but a conclusion was reached that it can focus more on customer complaint handling. If the commuters that have no other alternative transport to work or to school are dissatisfied with the service, it increases the risk of spreading negative word-of-mouth, which is highly disadvantageous to SJ. SJ must be better at: fixing problems, providing guarantees for fixing the problems, take responsibility for the problems and for their customers, show understanding and offer a more equitable compensation. According to commuters the turnaround time of complaints, easier to express opinions, a fair treatment in the process and an opportunity to influence the handling of complaints are important factors for SJ in their customer complaint handling. Recommendations Suggestions were given on how SJ can adjust their customer complaint handling after dividing the commuters into four types by their propensity to complain “passive”, “voicers”, “irates” and “activists”. It was made in order to adjust customer complaints handling by the different types of commuters who travel with SJ and also to make it as easy as possible for commuters to forward their opinions and to file their complaints.

Denna uppsats kretsar kring två företags återhämtningsarbete vid uppkomsten av respektive skandal. Vidare skapas en djupare förståelse för teorin Service Recovery's betydelse och användning i praktiken. De två fallen där skandaler inträffat är grundade dels i ICA:s köttfärsskandal och dels i IKEA:s fjäderplockningsskandal.   Uppsatsen har en deduktiv ansats vilket innebär att uppsatsen utgår från befintliga teorier som sedan testas med det insamlade empiriska materialet. Den teoretiska referensramen innefattar främst Grönroos teorier kring Service Recovery och kompletteras med teorier så som Service Recovery Paradox, kundförväntningar, sociala medier och immateriell påverkan. Uppsatsens forskningsfrågor besvaras främst med hjälp av en fallstudie med två företagsanalyser samt med en enkätundersökning. Studien är av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ karaktär där kvalitativ data samlats in via en e-mail intervju med Ylva Magnusson vid IKEA, och kvantitativt via en enkätundersökning. Uppsatsen har resulterat i kännedom om hur de två företagen arbetat med att återfå kundförtroende. Uppsatsen har även gett författarna möjlighet att utveckla en ny modell av praktisk bemärkelse som behandlar processarbete inom Service Recovery.

Aim: When service failures occur, companies must use service recovery actions to recover customer satisfaction. The service recovery paradox refers to the paradox which occurs when a customer is more satisfied after successful service recovery, than they would have been if no failure had occurred. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effectiveness of using the anchoring effect to lower the threshold value for service recovery paradox occurrence in a specific service failure scenario in the hotel industry. I.e., using the anchoring effect, this thesis aims to reduce monetary compensation required for the service recovery paradox to occur in the specific scenario. Method: 225 respondents were given a survey based on a scenario of a service failure in the hotel industry. The method used was a between-subject experimental design survey, manipulating anchor size, with 5 conditions; SEK 200, SEK 450, SEK 700, SEK 950, and no anchor, to see if the different conditions affected requested compensation whilst customer satisfaction remained constant. Gender and age of the participants was also measured to see if the requested compensation rates depended on these variables. Results: Results showed that it was possible to reduce monetary compensationrequired to reach the SRP by using anchoring values. The control group, which was given the scenario without any anchors, rendered a higher requested compensation than all groups which were given anchors. Furthermore, results showed that the mean compensation required to reach the SRP for the scenario decreased as the anchor values decreased, which indicates that the lower the anchor is set the lower the claim for requested monetary compensation becomes. Finally, the results indicated that age was a relevant variable whilst gender was not a relevant variable regarding compensation requirements. Contribution: Reaching the SRP can sometimes be expensive, especially when it comes to major service failures such as double-booked hotel rooms as is analysed in this thesis. The main contribution of this thesis is to provide an instrument for managers with which they might reach the SRP at lower costs. The results from this research can be directly implemented by managers in similar situations in the hotel industry and may also be used as a foundation for reaching the SRP in other industries as well as other scenarios. Suggestions for future research: As this survey only analyses Swedish participants, results may not be directly applicable to hotels in other cultures. Future research should, thus, focus on examining whether results vary depending on geographic and cultural factors. Other aspects that should be further investigated are what causes the differences in answers between different age groups and if gender displays any differences in other cultures, as it does not seem relevant with Swedish participants. Furthermore, the same surveys, with adjustments, could be used to conduct similar research on other scenarios and in other industries. Finally, researching whether anchoring levels below the lowest anchor used in this thesis, SEK 200, could further lower the required compensation would provide a more complete framework for this research.

Då konsumenter idag är mer benägna att påtala brister i reklam, är det av intresse för företaget bakom den aktuella reklamen att häva missnöjet samt att skapa en långsiktig lösning som förebygger att missnöje återkommer. Syftet med denna uppsats är att redogöra för hur företag, med Top Toy som exempel, kan arbeta för att mildra och häva det missnöje som härrör från reklamkampanjer, samt hur företag kan arbeta för att lära sig av denna process. Detta undersöks genom en fallstudie av leksaksföretaget Top Toy, som under en fyraårsperiod mottog klagomål på sina könsstereotypa leksakskataloger och successivt arbetade för att nå en lösning som kunde eliminera missnöjet. För att uppfylla syftet genomfördes studier av sekundärdata samt en kvalitativ undersökning bestående av en ostrukturerad samt två semi- strukturerade intervjuer; dels med en anställd hos Reklamombudsmannen, dels med ledningsassistenten på Top Toy. Resultatet påvisar en företagsprocess åsyftande att häva samt mildra kundmissnöjet, utifrån vilken Top Toy har lärt sig och skapat en långsiktig lösning i form av en könsneutral leksakskatalog. Slutsatsen av uppsatsen är att lärande utifrån kundmissnöje är möjligt och kan ha en positiv inverkan på företags verksamhet.