may not cause serious damage, others
lead to considerable losses to customers
and businesses forcing them to complain
and demand restitution from the service
provider.
A case in point is situations where
customers
experience
a
complete
breakdown of the network such as
when a major mobile money service
is unavailable for several hours. This
affects customers’ ability to send money,
buy goods, pay bills, or access medical
services. Recovering money sent to the
wrong number is another major issue of
concern to customers.
When customers experience a service
failure, for example mobile money transfer
system breakdown or delay in reversing
mobile money transferred to a wrong
number, they are likely to feel aggrieved
and expect some form of recovery.
They perceive it as an imbalance in the
exchange relationship with the brand if
service cannot be restored speedily. This
is because of the trust they have bestowed
on the mobile money operator who they
feel has failed to deliver the service as
promised.
Dimensions Of Perceived
Fairness In Service Failure
Redress
Perceived fairness is important in
redressing service failure because it
impacts on customer satisfaction,
repurchase intention, loyalty and brand
promoter ratings. Perceived fairness
covers three components which are
important in resolving service conflicts:
procedural, distributive and interactional
justice. Procedural justice or fairness
concerns the procedures and systems
used for redressing service failures which
enable frontline employees to respond
with speed.
Interactional fairness concerns the
behavior and relational engagement
between the service provider’s employees
and the customer during the recovery
process. It particularly concerns the
behavior of frontline employees as they
interact with the customer throughout
the service recovery process. It highlights
the importance of empathy, courtesy,
respect and apology. Information is an
important part of interactional fairness as
it focuses on the suitability and adequacy
of the information provided to explain
the service failure.
Research indicates that customers are in-
clined to gauge service failure redress from
a viewpoint of perceived fairness based on
interactional, distributive and procedural di-
mensions. This infers that the assessment of
the service provider’s recovery effort is like-
ly to be influenced by the whole experience
based on the process, interaction and out-
come.
Distributive fairness emphasizes the
compensation provided as a way of
making up for the negative experience
the customer has suffered due to the
service failure. For the service brand,
compensation may be offered in the
form of exchange, free future services or
monetary refund. Aggrieved customers
appear to expect that they will be offered
some form of compensation by the service
provider for the loss incurred because of
the service failure.
In a situation involving service failure
followed by recovery, customer satisfaction
arises from the client’s judgement of
the service provider’s performance
in rectifying the service failure. Such
satisfaction indicates a favorable customer
appraisal of the corrective action taken to
address the service failure.
Customer satisfaction with service failure
redress considerably impacts the overall
assessment of the service provider and
may add value by enhancing future
patronage and loyalty. Furthermore,
research has found that successful service
redress encourages brand evangelism and
positive recommendations. The objective
of fairness-based service recovery is to
restore the customer to positive level of
satisfaction and to reinstate the customer-
brand relationship.
I recently carried out a study among users
of mobile money transfer services in
Kenya, focusing specifically on those who
had experienced a service failure redress
encounter within the previous six months.
The results demonstrated a positive effect
of perceived fairness on brand evangelism.
The study found that perceived fairness
in service failure redress is a major
determinant of customer satisfaction and
leads to high repurchase intention, positive
WOM, and willingness to recommend
the brand to others. I concluded that
the application of the three dimensions
of perceived fairness in service failure
recovery has a positive and significant
influence on customer satisfaction and
brand evangelism.
Regarding the individual dimensions of
perceived fairness, the results established
that
distributive,
interactional and
procedural
fairness
elements
are
significant predictors of brand evangelism
with service failure redress in that order.
Furthermore, a large proportion of
satisfied customers expressed readiness to
endorse the brand. The positive outcome
of service failure redress in mobile money
services generated a large proportion
of customers with potential for brand
evangelism.
The finding that the distributive justice
dimension had the strongest relationship
with customer satisfaction implies that
mobile money users place greater value on
a fair overall outcome over and above the
interactional approaches and procedures
used in implementing the service recovery.
Overall the study findings indicate that
by enhancing processes, interaction and
compensation methods applied in service
recovery situations, service providers
should benefit from higher customer
satisfaction and greater potential for
brand evangelism.
Dr Catherine Ngahu is a passionate
researcher, brand strategist, trainer
and entrepreneur. She is the founder
and Chairman of SBO Research
which has a service footprint in
23 countries in Africa. You can
commune with her on this or related
matters via email at: CNgahu@
sboresearch.co.ke.