significant in the digital age, as connected
customers tend to share their experiences
on various social media platforms.
They go to the extent of writing online
reviews thereby multiplying the reach
and impacting brand perceptions. It
is notable that customers today tend
to trust complete strangers more than
brand owners or service organizations.
Their social circles have become major
influencers on brand service perceptions.
Customers these days depend more on
what they hear from their friends and
family, followers on twitter, and Facebook
fans than brand communications. With
this transference of power from brand to
peer influence, brands can no longer have
full control over conversations about the
service experience they deliver. As such, it
is important for service organizations to
commit to designing and using effective
strategies for service redress in order to
restore their relationship with customers
following negative occurrences.
Research indicates that customers are
inclined to gauge service failure redress
from a viewpoint of perceived fairness
based on interactional, distributive and
procedural dimensions. This infers that
the assessment of the service provider’s
recovery effort is likely to be influenced
by the whole experience based on the
process, interaction and outcome.
The theory of equity proposed by Adams
in 1965 suggests that people tend to seek
fairness in relationships of exchange. This
implies that the tendency of customers
to complain when they experience
service failure comes from the perception
of unfairness or injustice due to the
imbalance in the relationship between the
service brand and the customer.
As the offended party, the customer
assumes that the brand or service
Brand evangelism is the promotion of a
brand by a customer. It relates to custom-
er willingness to spread positive ‘word of
mouth’ about a brand or ‘preach’ about the
goodness of a brand following a delightful
customer experience. A brand evangelist is
a customer who is so delighted or charmed
with your service, that they are happy to
go around telling others about their positive
experience with your brand.
establishment will make every effort to
provide a solution to save the situation, or
at least to compensate for the loss.
However, even if there are no charges
for a repeat service, in order to obtain
the service recovery the customer has to
commit more time and effort. Accordingly,
customers expect fairness from service
providers in service recovery situations
and commonly base their assessment on
the nature of interactions, procedure, and
outcome.
Case Of Mobile Money
Transfer Services
I will use the example of mobile money
transfer because this is a service that
is used by most Kenyans. The mobile
money service has become a critical part
of financial services in Kenya and is a
payment tool of choice for the majority.
According to GSMA (Global System for
Mobile Communications Association)
reports, there are more mobile money
subscribers than bank accounts in Kenya
and mobile money agents have increased
more rapidly than bank branch network.
This indicates the importance of mobile
money services to the economy.
World Bank reports also show that
mobile money transfer service has
been a major factor in the financial
sector deepening dialogue because of
the role it plays in enhancing financial
inclusion especially in emerging markets.
Furthermore, mobile money contributes
to financial access particularly to the
unserved and underserved populations.
It is also associated with contributing
to the creation of new businesses and to
improved incomes for people operating
at the bottom of the pyramid and serving
the ‘kadogo economy’ inexpensively.
While M-Pesa is the leading mobile
money service in Kenya, there are other
operators providing similar services.
The pervasiveness of mobile money in
Kenya as well as the volume and value of
transactions has led to higher expectations
among customers thereby increasing
the importance of service failure redress
strategies.
The GSMA code of conduct for mobile
money
service
providers
globally
expects the service providers to develop
mechanisms to ensure that problems
are effectively addressed and resolved
in a timely manner, and that personal
data is processed and transmitted
fairly and securely. Further, the Central
Bank of Kenya provided guidelines on
customer protection and service recovery
management in the National Payment
System Regulations of 2014.
Notwithstanding the essential role played
by mobile money in the Kenyan economy,
users occasionally experience service
failures related to service menu issues,
network breakdown and agent system
flaws. Although some service failures
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