Pre-service recovery: impact on customer satisfaction and acceptable waiting time

ABSTRACT

Defined as compensation a service provider offers during the customer’s waiting period before a service is delivered, pre-service recovery is becoming popular in the service industry. This paper examines two important issues: (1) how pre-service recovery affects customers’ pre-service waiting satisfaction and acceptable waiting time and (2) which type of pre-service recovery has the greatest impact. A scenario-based survey was administered to measure the impacts of different types of pre-service recovery on customers’ perceptions of justice, satisfaction with the wait for a service, and acceptable waiting time. The results show that pre-service recovery can significantly improve customers’ perceived justice and pre-service waiting satisfaction. Compared to low-level tangible compensation and psychological recovery, high-level tangible compensation results in higher pre-service waiting satisfaction. Interactional justice has the greatest impact on pre-service waiting satisfaction. Moreover, pre-service waiting satisfaction positively affects customers’ acceptable waiting time, implying that pre-service recovery can increase their willingness to wait.

摘要

服务预补救是指服务提供商为服务交付前的处于等待状态的顾客提供的补偿措施，这一举措在服务行业中越来越流行。本文研究了两个重要问题：（1）服务预补救如何影响顾客服务前等待满意度和可接受等待时间；（2）哪种类型的预补救影响最大。为了研究不同类型的服务预补救措施对顾客的感知公平、满意度以及可接受等待时间的影响，我们进行了一项基于场景的实验调查。结果表明，服务预补救可以显著提高顾客的感知公平和服务前等待满意度；与低水平有形补偿和心理补救相比，高水平有形补偿对顾客的服务前等待满意度影响最大。此外，服务前等待满意度对顾客的可接受等待时间有积极影响，这表明服务预补救能够提升顾客等待的意愿。

KEYWORDS:

• Pre-service recovery
• perceived justice
• pre-service waiting satisfaction
• acceptable waiting time

关键词:

• 服务预补救；感知公平；服务前等待满意度；可接受等待时间

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71571175].