Abstract  Purpose - Purpose of given study is to analyse the impact of service recovery measures on customer loyalty by considering a Case company Swedbank. Both primary and secondary data have been collected for this paper. In primary data interviews and questionnaires are used. Different theories about customer loyalty and service recovery are discussed in secondary data. Both qualitative and quantitative data are used. Multiple regression analysis is used to analyse the data and give conclusion. Conclusion - Conclusion shows that service recovery measure can impact customer loyalty. It is also concluded that prompt response, Material compensation and politeness of employees play important role in service recovery measures and influence customer loyalty. Methodology - New articles have been used in the paper, however the old articles that have high contribution in the body of knowledge are not be discounted also. Our methodology for the process is unique in which multiple regression method is used and components of Customer loyalty, word of mouth and repurchase intention are analysed on basis of independent variables. Methodology and literature can help the researchers who want to further explore this area. Practical implication - Theories discussed in the thesis can be used as basis to develop the strategies in services; these strategies can consider the service recovery measures discussed in this paper and it can also help Swedbank to know the importance of service recovery process in customer loyalty.  Limitation - Few limitations of this paper are; customer loyalty is the objective of this paper, not Customer satisfaction. Service recovery may result in customer satisfaction not in customer loyalty. Moreover only two components of loyalty have been examined, word of mouth and repurchase intention. The attitudinal component of customer loyalty can appear in more forms than only word of mouth. Moreover this thesis is not considering customers who have problems but they did not communicate to the bank, or they just exit or they are still with bank and having negative word of mouth, but they never communicate to the bank.

Restaurangbranschen är en lovande affärsverksamhet då mat är ett av de primära behoven för alla människor. Restauranger arbetar i en fysisk miljö med en stor mängd personlig interaktion med kunderna, vilket innebär att fel, misstag och misslyckanden inte kan undvikas. Genom att dessa felaktigheter uppstår vänder kunderna sig till att publicera negativ eWOM (elektronisk word-of-mouth) i form av klagomål på nätet. Detta kan allvarligt skada restaurangen om inte det implementeras en plan och strategi för att hantera och motverka den negativa eWOM. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka varför negativ eWOM förekommer i restaurangbranschen och hur den hanterar dessa negativa publikationer på nätet genom Service Recovery samt vad de gör för att förebygga negativ eWOM. Forskningsfrågorna studien ska besvara är; vilka är de bakomliggande orsakerna till att restauranger får negativ eWOM? Hur arbetar restaurangbranschen med negativa recensioner på deras kanaler? Hur arbetar restauranger för att förebygga dessa problem? Teorierna som studien utgår från är service failure, kundnöjdhet, negativ eWOM och Service revocery. Studien utgår från en kvalitativ metod med en abduktiv forskningsansats. Empirin utfördes genom tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med chefer/ägare av restauranger. Restaurangbranschen kan inte undvika servicemisslyckanden oavsett dess grad av lyxighet. Däremot finns det planer och strategier som kan implementeras för att minimera konsekvenserna av servicemisslyckanden som sker. Dessa strategier är att man först inser att servicemisslyckande inte kan undvikas och på så sätt vara beredd att handskas med konsekvenserna genom att vara snabba med att hantera problemet. Därefter är det kritiskt att deeskalera de negativa känslorna som kunderna upplever efter att en servicemisslyckande uppstått samt upprätthålla en snabb och mindre hantering genom att erbjuda kompensationer och förklaringar. Det är även kritiskt för hanteringen att ha en digital närvaro och kommunikation med kunderna då den negativa publikationen sker digitalt genom sociala medier.

Service failures are common in the hospitality industry and are often associated with low guest satisfaction. However, guest satisfaction is possible to be restored when excellent service recovery tactics are deployed in a timely fashion. The temporary unavailability of a service offering is a type of failure recognized by practitioners, customers, and the research community, yet it is typically only used for illustrative purposes in research. Given the ubiquity of this type of failure in the industry, the lack of investigations of its various aspects (e.g., communication of the occurrence to the customer, reasons, ramifications, etc.) seems surprising. Using scenario-based experimental design in a restaurant setting, this research tested the effects of timing (early/ late) of the communication of the temporary unavailability of a menu item on customers' satisfaction with the recovery, while taking into account the perceived severity of the failure as well as the relationship between customer and provider. Findings indicate that restaurant guests informed early that a menu item is unavailable are more satisfied than those who are informed later in their dining experience (after they have been given time to study the menu and make choices). This increased satisfaction is mediated through the customers' perception of interactional, procedural, and distributive justice. / Doctor of Philosophy / Things go wrong all the time in the hospitality industry; knowing how and when to address guests can make or break a business. For restaurants, the unavailability of a menu item is often an uncontrollable occurrence. In a scenario-based experiment, the present study tested guests' reactions to restaurant staff communicating the unavailability of an item early (during introductions) versus late (after the guests were given time to peruse the menu and make choices). The study took into account the type and duration of the relationship between guest and provider, as well as the fact that the guest may either be particularly interested in the unavailable item or indifferent. The results overwhelmingly pointed in one direction: the sooner the issue is communicated to the guests, the better. Respondents who were told early in their dining experience about a menu item being unavailable were significantly more satisfied than their counterparts (who weren't informed until late), and, overall, perceived the provider as more just. Anecdotal evidence shows different approaches to this type of issue but prior empirical evidence appears non-existent as to which approach yields optimal results, so the findings of the present study should be relevant to practitioners trying to retain guests after things have gone wrong.

The retail industry is faced with increased customer service demands and a competitive market environment. For retailers to survive in a competitive marketplace, a customer orientation is vital in order to establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers. As the clothing retail industry is characterised as an industry with high human involvement, employee-related service failures are inevitable. Service failures cause the disconfirmation of service expectations which lead to customer dissatisfaction, a motivator of customer complaint behaviour. Given that the resolution of a customer complaint is critical in order to restore customer satisfaction, retailers are providing customers with a variety of innovative complaint channels, such as online complaining. Although online complaint channels have become commonplace, little research has been undertaken regarding the effect of a complaint channel on customers‟ complaint behaviour and customers‟ expectations in the clothing retail industry. South African clothing retailers could therefore benefit from an understanding of customers‟ online complaint intention and ensuing service recovery expectations. Scholars profess that complaint intention correlates positively with service recovery expectations as customers decide to post a complaint when they generally have high recovery expectations. Furthermore, complaint intention and service recovery expectations are increased by a positive attitude towards complaining. Consequently, attitude towards complaining plays a significant role in forecasting complaint behaviour of dissatisfied customers. Moreover, service failure severity has been used to measure how customers assess the intensity of service failures and is said to also influence customers‟ complaint intention and their subsequent service recovery expectation. The primary objective of this study was to uncover customers‟ online complaint intention and subsequent service recovery expectations after experiencing an employee-related service failure in the clothing retail industry. The empirical study was based on a descriptive research design in which a structured, self-administered questionnaire was fielded amongst respondents within the Johannesburg metropolitan area of South Africa. A non-probability, convenience sampling method was used and a total of 400 respondents participated in this study. The results indicate that although the majority of respondents use the Internet daily and exhibit a high propensity to complain, they prefer to complain in-store. After respondents had been presented with a fictional employee-related service failure scenario, they did not indicate a high intention to complain online. Very few differences were uncovered between different groups of respondents pertaining to their attitude towards complaining, online complaint intention, service failure severity perception and strength of service recovery expectation. Finally – with respect to an empirically tested theoretical model – respondents‟ attitude towards complaining in general and their perceptions of the severity of the service failure experienced, significantly and positively influence their strength of service recovery expectations, while no significant positive influences were uncovered for paths linking the aforementioned constructs with online complaint intention. As a result, online complaint intention was omitted from the measurement model seeing that respondents who participated in this study did not indicate a high tendency to complain online. It is recommended that clothing retailers recognise the importance of in-store complaint management programmes and ensure that in-store complaint channels are easily accessible, efficient and pleasant to use. Clothing retailers should actively educate customers regarding alternative mechanisms and channels available for complaining. In order to increase customers‟ online complaint intention, clothing retailers should provide a visible complaint portal on their website and communicate the benefits of online complaining during in-store advertising. Clothing retailers should furthermore provide the appropriate strength of service recovery for particular levels of service failure severity when managing customer complaints. Consequently, it is recommended that clothing retailers provide their employees with sufficient training that will educate them regarding their interaction with customers and the best practice thereof, the difference between minor and major service failures, and the selection of an appropriate service recovery strategy during different service failure severity encounters. It is recommended that this study is extended to other service settings in order to uncover online complaint intention and strength of service recovery expectations of customers in other industries. Finally, seeing that respondents‟ strength of service recovery expectations vary according to the severity of the service failure, scenarios representing different levels of service failure severity can be used as basis to measure the key constructs measured in this study. / MCom (Marketing management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The retail industry is faced with increased customer service demands and a competitive market environment. For retailers to survive in a competitive marketplace, a customer orientation is vital in order to establish and maintain long-term relationships with customers. As the clothing retail industry is characterised as an industry with high human involvement, employee-related service failures are inevitable. Service failures cause the disconfirmation of service expectations which lead to customer dissatisfaction, a motivator of customer complaint behaviour. Given that the resolution of a customer complaint is critical in order to restore customer satisfaction, retailers are providing customers with a variety of innovative complaint channels, such as online complaining. Although online complaint channels have become commonplace, little research has been undertaken regarding the effect of a complaint channel on customers‟ complaint behaviour and customers‟ expectations in the clothing retail industry. South African clothing retailers could therefore benefit from an understanding of customers‟ online complaint intention and ensuing service recovery expectations. Scholars profess that complaint intention correlates positively with service recovery expectations as customers decide to post a complaint when they generally have high recovery expectations. Furthermore, complaint intention and service recovery expectations are increased by a positive attitude towards complaining. Consequently, attitude towards complaining plays a significant role in forecasting complaint behaviour of dissatisfied customers. Moreover, service failure severity has been used to measure how customers assess the intensity of service failures and is said to also influence customers‟ complaint intention and their subsequent service recovery expectation. The primary objective of this study was to uncover customers‟ online complaint intention and subsequent service recovery expectations after experiencing an employee-related service failure in the clothing retail industry. The empirical study was based on a descriptive research design in which a structured, self-administered questionnaire was fielded amongst respondents within the Johannesburg metropolitan area of South Africa. A non-probability, convenience sampling method was used and a total of 400 respondents participated in this study. The results indicate that although the majority of respondents use the Internet daily and exhibit a high propensity to complain, they prefer to complain in-store. After respondents had been presented with a fictional employee-related service failure scenario, they did not indicate a high intention to complain online. Very few differences were uncovered between different groups of respondents pertaining to their attitude towards complaining, online complaint intention, service failure severity perception and strength of service recovery expectation. Finally – with respect to an empirically tested theoretical model – respondents‟ attitude towards complaining in general and their perceptions of the severity of the service failure experienced, significantly and positively influence their strength of service recovery expectations, while no significant positive influences were uncovered for paths linking the aforementioned constructs with online complaint intention. As a result, online complaint intention was omitted from the measurement model seeing that respondents who participated in this study did not indicate a high tendency to complain online. It is recommended that clothing retailers recognise the importance of in-store complaint management programmes and ensure that in-store complaint channels are easily accessible, efficient and pleasant to use. Clothing retailers should actively educate customers regarding alternative mechanisms and channels available for complaining. In order to increase customers‟ online complaint intention, clothing retailers should provide a visible complaint portal on their website and communicate the benefits of online complaining during in-store advertising. Clothing retailers should furthermore provide the appropriate strength of service recovery for particular levels of service failure severity when managing customer complaints. Consequently, it is recommended that clothing retailers provide their employees with sufficient training that will educate them regarding their interaction with customers and the best practice thereof, the difference between minor and major service failures, and the selection of an appropriate service recovery strategy during different service failure severity encounters. It is recommended that this study is extended to other service settings in order to uncover online complaint intention and strength of service recovery expectations of customers in other industries. Finally, seeing that respondents‟ strength of service recovery expectations vary according to the severity of the service failure, scenarios representing different levels of service failure severity can be used as basis to measure the key constructs measured in this study. / MCom (Marketing management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Även de mest utvecklade serviceföretag begår misstag, det är oundvikligt. Frågan är inte omfel görs utan snarare hur företaget kommer att hantera situationen när misstaget uppstår.Andra studier har påvisat att det för företag är mer kostnadseffektivt att behålla sina gamlakunder än att ständigt skaffa nya, därför är det viktigt att företag har bra strategier för servicerecovery. Tidigare undersökningar har även visat att kunder som blev nöjda med hanteringenav deras klagomål, blev mer lojala än de kunder som aldrig upplevt något problem.Föreliggande kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi behandlar ämnet service recovery medinriktning på kundernas upplevelser. Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa ökad kunskap inomområdet för service recovery med inriktning på serviceföretag. Studien grundas i en kvalitativstudie baserad på empiri, insamlad genom fjorton kundintervjuer, utförda med criticalincident-tekniken. Ämnen som togs upp i intervjuerna var till exempel varför samt hurkunderna valt att framföra sina missnöje, vad de fått för kompensation, och om synen påföretaget förändrats efter händelsen. Den insamlade empiriska data har sedan förstärkts avteoretisk forskningslitteratur.Utifrån resultatet har vi utformat en mall som visar hur företag övergripande kan arbeta medservice recovery. Mallen grundas i tre olika faser; före, under och efter ettservicemisslyckande. Underlaget tyder på att det är viktigt att personalen visar empati och attkunden erbjuds riklig kompensation. Studien påvisade även att det var lättare att framföraklagomål om personalen visat sig intresserad och behjälplig. / Even the most developed companies fail, it is inevitable. The question is not whether a servicefailure will occur, but rather how the company handles the situation when it arises. It has alsobeen proven to be more cost effective to retain previous customers rather than constantlyacquiring new ones. Therefore, it is vital that companies develop strategies for effectiveservice recovery. Previous studies have shown that a customer that has been satisfied with acompanys complaints management feel more loyalty towards the company than a customerwho never experienced any problems.The following bachelor thesis in business discusses the subject of service recovery, with afocus on customer experiences. The purpose of this study is to create more knowledge in thefield of service recovery with a focus on service companies. The research is based on aqualitative study based on empirical data collected from fourteen customer interviews madewith the critical incident technique. We focused on why and how these customers chose toexpress their dissatisfaction, how they got compensated, and also if their views of thecompanies changed after their critical incidents. The empirical data is then reinforced bytheoretical research literature.Based on our study, we have developed a template that illustrates how service focusedenterprises should handle their service recovery. The template consists of three phases of howto act before, during and after a service failure. The template establishes that it is important toshow empathy and provide ample compensations. Through the study, we have concluded thatit is easier to complain if the service personnel acts friendly, interested and helpful.The study is written in swedish.

Syfte: Syftet är att skapa förståelse för hur hotell arbetar med interna service recovery strategier, utifrån ett företagsperspektiv. Metod: Studien är genomförd enligt kvalitativ forskningsmetod där empiriskt material är insamlat via semistrukturerade intervjuer med hotellpersonal. De semistrukturerade intervjuerna spelades in, transkriberades och analyserades med hjälp av tematisk analys. Resultat & slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att hotell arbetar med flera interna service recovery strategier. En strategi är service recovery plan, vilket är en uttalad strategi för hur service failure kan hanteras. Planen kan vara nedskriven i form av ett dokument eller muntligt överenskommen. En annan strategi är att uppmuntra till klagomål, vilket hotell gör genom att fråga kunden frågor, via enkätundersökningar samt att kunden kan framföra klagomål på flera sätt. Att följa upp bakomliggande problem är en ytterligare strategi som görs via återkommande möten eller noteringar. En sista strategi är att hotell utbildar anställda, detta görs informellt via erfarenhet eller formellt via externa utbildningar. Examensarbetets bidrag: Det teoretiska bidraget är en ökad förståelse för hur hotell arbetar med intern service recovery. Det praktiska bidraget är att studiens resultat kan ses som ett ramverk och hjälpa hotell i arbetet med service recovery och den interna processen. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Förslag till fortsatt forskning är att studera om det eventuellt finns andra interna strategier som denna studie kan ha missat. Fortsatt forskning kan även fokusera på en annan kontext, en annan bransch eller utifrån ett annat perspektiv. Ett ytterligare förslag till fortsatt forskning är att studera effekten av de interna strategierna. / Aim: The aim is to create an understanding of how hotels work with internal service recovery strategies, from a business perspective. Method: The study was conducted with a qualitative research method in which empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews with employees within the hotel industry. The semi-structured interviews were recorded, transcribed and then analyzed by using thematic analysis. Result & Conclusions: The result show that hotels work with several internal service recovery strategies. One strategy is to have a service recovery plan to ensure how service failure can be managed. The plan can be written in a document or verbally agreed. Another strategy is to encourage complaints, which hotels do by asking the customer questions, through surveys and also by making it easy for the customer to complain. Follow up underlying problems is another strategy, which is done through meetings or from notes. The final strategy is that hotels educate employees, either informally through experience or formally through external education. Contribution of the thesis: The theoretical contribution is an increased understanding of how hotels work with internal service recovery. The practical contribution is that the study results can be seen as a framework and help hotels in their work with internal service recovery. Suggestions for future research: Future research can further focus on studying internal strategies, which this study might have missed. Future research can also focus on internal strategies in another context such as another industry or from other perspectives. Another suggestion for future research is to study the effects of the internal service recovery strategies.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en förståelse för hur ett företags service recovery på social media påverkar e-observatörers köpintentioner. Metod: Då studien syftar till att skapa en förståelse har en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi använts. Empirin utgörs av semistrukturerade intervjuer med tio respondenter. Som underlag för intervjuerna har två olika scenarier använts innehållande olika service recovery strategier. Den empiri som har samlats in har vidare bearbetats utifrån tematisk analys. Resultat & slutsats: Denna studie visar på att ett företags service recovery på social media påverkar e-observatörers köpintentioner. Ursäkt, kompensation och förklaring anses som de allra viktigaste service recovery strategierna på sociala medier. Detta eftersom dessa strategier har visat sig ha en positiv effekt på e-observatörers köpintentioner, medan en avsaknad av dessa strategier indikerar på en negativ påverkan. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien påvisar att e-observatörer påverkas av ett företags service recovery på sociala medier. På vilket sätt företaget svarar en klagande kund kan ha en betydande effekt på den bild som observerande kunder får av företaget, vilket i sin tur påverkar deras köpintentioner. Ursäkt, kompensation och förklaring anses som viktiga faktorer vid företags hantering av klagomål. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Våra förslag på framtida forskning är att studera andra sociala medier än Facebook, för att se om detta kan ha en effekt på hur e-observatörer påverkas av en service recovery-situation. Ett annat förslag är att undersöka vilken inverkan service recovery har på e-observatörer utifrån andra service recovery strategier än ursäkt och kompensation. Vidare kan det vara av intresse att undersöka om åsikter och intentioner skiljer sig åt mellan olika länder, en tvärkulturell studie är därför ytterligare ett förslag. Avslutningsvis ger vi även förslag på att studera en annan subgrupp och åldersgrupp, då vi studerat en specifik ålders- och subgrupp. / Aim: The aim of the study is to increase the understanding of how a company’s service recovery in social media, affects e-observers’ purchase intentions. Method: The aim of the study is to increase understanding, hence a qualitative method has been used. The empirical data was collected by semi-structured interviews with ten respondents. To support the interviews two scenarios has been used, including different service recovery strategies. The empirical data was further processed through thematic analysis. Result & Conclusions: The study shows that a company’s service recovery in social media, affects e-observers’ purchase intentions. Excuse, compensation and explanation are seen as the most important service recovery strategies in social media. This because all of these strategies have shown to positively affect e-observers’ purchase intentions, while a lack of these strategies has an opposite effect. Contribution of the thesis: Our study shows that a company’s service recovery in social media affects e-observers. In what way a company answers a complaining customer can have a crucial effect on the observing customers’ perception of the company, which in turn affects the e- observers’ purchase intentions. Excuse, compensation and explanation are seen as important factors when handling customer complaints. Suggestions for future research: Our suggestions for future studies is to investigate other social media than Facebook to see how e-observers are affected by a service-recovery-situation. Further, we suggest examining the impact of other service recovery strategies, besides excuse and compensation, on e-observers. It could be of interest to examine if opinions and intentions differ between different countries, i.e. a cross-cultural study. Finally, we have examined a specific subgroup (business students) and age group (16-35 years), hence we suggest examining different types of groups.

This dissertation examines how customers' attribution for service failures and expected recovery in online service encounters are influenced by whether the recovery efforts are satisfying or dissatisfying to the customers; the relationship between satisfaction and other behavioral outcomes such as intention to remain and word-of mouth is examined. Many customers are using the Internet to purchase products and services, pay bills online, and make hotel and airline reservations. The Internet service recovery encounter warrants special attention because of its inherent ramifications such as the ease of attributing failure to the service provider after a service failure, the lack of interpersonal relationship, and the ease of leaving one service provider for another. The purpose of this study is to explore some of the importance of Internet service recovery mechanisms relative to customer's attribution for failure, expected service recovery, satisfaction, and intent to remain. This study further seek to explore how these mechanisms can be employed by the service providers to improve customer satisfaction, minimize negative word-of-mouth, and improve the firm's profitability. Many studies have examined customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction in traditional retailing, and the antecedents of the unsatisfactory behavior however, the same cannot be said of the Internet service encounters despite ecommerce revolution and its impacts on retailing and service encounters. A conceptual framework of recovery expectation and satisfaction in Internet based service encounters is presented, and a scenario-based experimental design is developed to measure the constructs. A web-based data collection was employed and the collected data were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis to provide answers to the research questions. The results of the analyzed data were discussed and presented. The findings overwhelmingly support all the hypotheses and contribute to the field of marketing by exploring some issues that might be unique to the online shopping experience and add more to the body of literature on online service failure and recovery management. The managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are also presented.

This study examined the effects of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on service recovery in terms of customer satisfaction, repeat patronage, word of mouth, and consumer trust in casual dining restaurants. More specifically, this study proposed that CSR will have a halo effect on negative service recovery incidents and mitigate the adverse effects of the poor recovery. An experimental study consisting of a 3x2 between subjects factorial design was used. Three CSR conditions (positive, negative, and no CSR) were matched with two service recovery conditions (positive or negative). Four hundred and eighteen subjects were recruited by a reputed marketing research firm. Results of this study showed that CSR and service recovery have a significant effect on customer satisfaction, repeat patronage, word of mouth, and consumer trust in casual dining restaurants. Furthermore, the results showed that CSR enhances the positive effects of good service recovery.