Relationship intention and satisfaction following service recovery : the mediating role of perceptions of service recovery in the cell phone industry

摘要

In an industry characterised by fierce competition, cell phone network providers find it increasingly difficult toretain their customers after service failure. It is therefore essential for cell phone network providers to offereffective service recovery when they attempt to restore customer satisfaction following service failure. As ithas been argued that relationships between customers and service providers should be considered a keydeterminant of the service recovery required to restore post-recovery attitudes and behavioural intentions,the purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between South African cell phone customers’relationship intentions, their perceptions of service recovery and their satisfaction following service recovery.Personal in-home interviews were conducted to collect data from 605 cell phone customers residing in theJohannesburg metropolitan area. In addition to the significant positive relationships found between cellphone users’ relationship intentions, perceived service recovery and satisfaction after service recovery, thisstudy found that perceived service recovery played a mediating role in the relationship between relationshipintention and satisfaction following service recovery. The study concludes that, although a direct relationshipexists between relationship intention and satisfaction following service recovery, perceived service recoveryplays an additional indirect complementary role in this relationship. It is recommended that, in addition tofocusing their relationship efforts on customers with relationship intentions, cell phone network providersalso offer positively perceived service recovery to these customers, as this would lead to greater satisfactionfollowing service recovery.