Globalisation, together with increased competition amongst retailers, has applied immense pressure on retailers to become more consumer-orientated. Retailers are, consequently, trying to differentiate their offerings by providing improved services to their consumers to obtain a competitive advantage. Service failure is, however, inevitable. An unfavourable service encounter (service failure) mostly leads to dissatisfaction. A consumer’s response to dissatisfaction is referred to as “consumer complaint behaviour”. Consumers’ complaint action can be categorised into three response behaviours namely: private action, public action and taking no action. Behind each complaint action lies specific motivations. Motivation research attempts to find the underlying why of an individuals’ behaviour. Marketers need to understand consumer motives as it provides them with the opportunity to anticipate and understand consumer complaint behaviour within the South African marketplace. Studies on the motives driving consumers’ complaint behaviour following an in-store service failure in the South African clothing retail context is lacking. This is surprising given the fact that an understanding of consumer complaint motives is critical in recovering service failures and handling complaints. An understanding of the motives for consumer complaint behaviour could help clothing retailers to understand the value of paying attention to and dealing with consumer complaints, specifically in a South African context. This research study, therefore, primarily focused on exploring and describing South African consumers non-complaint motives and complaint motives following an in-store service failure. The study used an explorative, quantitative research approach. A survey was conducted in South Africa which included consumers 19 years and older who reside in major urban areas across South Africa. Respondents completed an online self-administered questionnaire which included adapted versions of established scales. Lastly, the data was captured and coded and then analysed by statisticians of the University of Pretoria by making use of descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of this study indicated that the respondents were motivated to take action following an in-store service failure, rather than deciding to take no-action. Respondents would also rather partake in private action as opposed to public action. The EFA on the non complaint motives indicated that three factors are the underlying driving forces that keep consumers from taking action. These include protecting the self and convenience, the facto that it is not worth complaining, and willingness and ability to handle CCB. Through the descriptive statistical analysis, as well as the inferential statistical analysis (EFA), it became evident that the most important motive for deciding to partake in action, either private or public, were altruistic motives. Anger and the intention to harm the retailer appeared to be the least important motives for deciding to take action. From this study, it is recommended that clothing retailers and marketers in South Africa pay specific attention to use these motives, specifically altruism, to encourage customers to partake in public complaint behaviour. Apart from the useful considerations this study elicited for the industry, it also makes a valuable contribution towards the literature. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Consumer Science / MConsumer Science (Clothing Management) / Unrestricted

The service sector is the fastest growing segment of the economy, responsible for 75% of the GNP, and still growing. Its success is important to the global economy. Nonetheless, throughout the 20-year evolution of services marketing literature, research that guides theory, methodology, and practice for service success has remained underrepresented. Published research regarding the effect of customers' justice perceptions on customer satisfaction is primarily experimental and focuses only on service recovery after a service failure, providing insufficient information about how the justice experienced in a service encounter affects a customer's satisfaction level. Proactive and reactive service recovery research abounds; service failures have overshadowed service success. This is the first empirical research to investigate across service outcomes the effects 1) of interactional, distributive, and procedural justice on overall justice and customer satisfaction and 2) of overall justice on customer satisfaction. The theoretical model of the customer's path to loyalty adapts previous models of the service profit chain, customer satisfaction with service failure and recovery, and complaint handling relationships. It is a simplified version of the author's in-work conceptual model. The theoretical model has conceptual and practical value to researchers and service company executives. It considers all possible service encounter types and the heterogeneity of outcomes. It is supported by attribution and equity theories (the underpinnings of customer's justice judgments) and by behavioral intentions research. A cross-sectional written survey was used to gather data relevant to the eight hypotheses proposed and shown on the measurement model. Sixty percent of the 302 respondents recalled satisfying service encounters and 40% recalled dissatisfying service encounters. MANOVA testing supported the hypothesis of a positive relationship for extant prior experience to each of the justice constructs. The tested path analysis model showed direct and positive effects for the justice constructs on overall justice and customer satisfaction and for overall justice on customer satisfaction. When providers fairly address the people, outputs, and processes in service transactions, expectations are more likely to be met, delight is possible, and trust and commitment, possibly even loyalty, may arise. Disappointment and disconfirmation resulting from gaps in performance expectations can lead to non-attritive defection and lost profits. This research provides practical information that can lead to a better understanding of customers' evaluation methods and be used to guide the formation of improved service strategies that provide justice, a key to satisfaction. / Ph. D.

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

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.

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.

Baseado na Teoria da Identidade Social, este trabalho investigou os efeitos da ameaça à identidade social (AIS) nas reações do consumidor. Estudos da psicologia e sociologia mostram que o contexto social de um indivíduo implicará em mudanças em aspectos psicológicos e comportamentos individuais. Este trabalho abordou o tipo de estratégia de enfrentamento utilizada por indivíduos com identidades sociais vinculadas a estereótipos negativos, como resposta a situações de falha de serviço; o efeito da identificação do indivíduo para com o grupo social como moderador; o papel das emoções como mecanismo explicativo deste efeito; a relação entre as estratégias de enfrentamento e a intenção de reclamação do consumidor e por fim o papel do tipo de falha neste contexto. Através de dois estudos experimentais feitos com pessoas de baixa renda, os resultados desta pesquisa indicam que em situação de AIS, estratégia de enfrentamento emocional (i.e. distanciamento) será menos utilizada, levando à maior intenção de reclamação do consumidor após a falha de serviço. Este efeito é maior, quanto maior for a identificação do indivíduo com o grupo. Adicionalmente, foi explorado o papel das emoções como mecanismo explicativo e do tipo de falha (interpessoal vs de resultado) nesta relação. 9Continua) Identificou-se que o efeito da AIS na estratégia de enfrentamento emocional será maior quando a falha de serviço for do tipo interpessoal (vs falha de resultado). Baseado nisto, esta dissertação contribui para a literatura de marketing, de identidade social e de falha de serviços ao evidenciar que indivíduos que sofrem de ameaça optam menos por estratégias emocionais e possuem, por consequência, maior intenção de reclamação; que este efeito ocorre devido ao maior sentimento de raiva sentido pelo indivíduo e quando o mesmo se identificar com o grupo social estigmatizado e a falha for interpessoal (i.e. de tratamento). / Based on the theory of Social Identity, this dissertation aims to understand the effects of the Social Identity Threats (SIT) on the consumer’s Coping Strategies, after a service failure. Studies in psychology and sociology show that one’s social context will imply in changes on psychological aspects and individual behavior. This dissertation investigates what kind of coping strategies will be used by individuals with social identities linked to negative stereotypes, in response to situations of service failure with high levels identity threat; the effect of one’s identification with the social group as a moderator; how emotions can explain the effect of SIT in the coping strategies; the relation between the coping strategies used by consumers and theirs’s complaint intention and at last, the role of the kind of failure in this context. To achieve this purpose, two experimental studies were done with low-income population. The results of this work indicate that situations with higher levels of SIT (vs situations with lower levels of SIT) will cause the individual to use less emotional coping (i.e. distancing), after a service failure. This effect will be moderated by one’s identification with the stereotyped social group and will result on a greater complaint intention. Additionally the role of the emotions in the explaining was approached. Furthermore, results also show that the effects of SIT on the increase of the emotional coping will be higher when the type of failure is related to an interpersonal deviation (vs an outcome failure). Based on that, this dissertation contributes to the marketing, service failure and servicescape literature by showing that: individuals who suffers from SIT will cope to service failures more emotionally; this effect will be more powerful when individual’s have a higher identification with the negative stereotyped group and will result on a greater complaint intention; this will happen because of a higher feeling of the angry emotion and will occur more when the type of failure is related to and interpersonal deviation (vs an outcome failure).

Situações nas quais a compensação financeira pode ser eficaz na recuperação da confiança após o duplo desvio têm sido negligenciadas pela literatura de marketing. O objetivo principal desta dissertação foi identificar situações em que a compensação financeira imediata é mais eficaz do que táticas de recuperação não financeiras (i.e. pedido de desculpas, promessa de não ocorrência de mesma falha no futuro) na restauração da confiança após o duplo desvio. Especificamente, visou examinar a moderação do tipo de violação (se financeira ou não) no efeito de diferentes táticas de recuperação (i.e. pedido de desculpas, promessa de não ocorrência de mesma falha no futuro e compensação financeira) sobre a recuperação da confiança após o duplo desvio; e investigar a mediação das atribuições no efeito da compensação financeira sobre a recuperação da confiança após o duplo desvio. Os resultados encontrados através de dois estudos experimentais realizados com diferentes populações e contextos de serviços indicam que a compensação imediata é mais eficaz do que o pedido de desculpas e a promessa na recuperação da confiança após o desvio duplo somente quando a falha inicial implicou em perda financeira para o cliente. Quando a falha inicial não gera perdas monetárias, todas as três táticas possuem efeitos similares. Além disso, verificou-se que a atribuição de benevolência explica ao menos parte do efeito da compensação monetária sobre a recuperação da confiança na situação de falha monetária. / Situations in which financial compensation may be effective to rebuild trust after a double deviation have been neglected by the marketing literature. The main objective of this thesis was to identify situations in which immediate financial compensation is more effective than non-financial recovery tactics (i.e., apology, promise that the failure will not repeat in the future) in trust restoration after double deviation. It specially aimed to examine the moderation of the type of failure (whether financial or not) in the effect of different recovery tactics (ie apology, promise, and financial compensation) on trust recovery after double deviation; and investigate the mediation of attributions in the effect of financial compensation on trust recovering after the double deviation. The results found, through two experimental studies conducted with different populations and service contexts, indicate that immediate compensation is more effective than apology and promise to repair trust after double deviation only when the initial failure causes a financial loss for the client. When the initial failure does not refer to monetary losses, all three tactics had similar effects. In addition, it has been found that the attribution of benevolence explains at least part of the effect of monetary compensation on trust recovery in the situation of monetary failure.