Development and validation of the customer empowerment scale in hotel service recovery

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to develop a measurement scale for customer empowerment (CE) in hotel service recovery and to examine the role of three experiential features (i.e. the level of empowerment awarded to a guest by the hotel, service failure type, and hotel quality) in CE. The CE measurement scale was developed by following the procedures recommended by DeVellis (1991. Scale development: Theory and applications. Newbury Park, CA: Sage and 2003. Scale development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage). The scale was tested and found to be both reliable and valid. Due to a repeated-measures design, the role of experiential features in CE was tested with linear mixed model analysis and it was found that the level of empowerment awarded to a guest by the hotel in response to his or her complaint, as well as the severity of the service failure that caused him or her to complain, influences the degree of empowerment as perceived by that guest. However, CE is not likely to increase or decrease as a result of the number of ‘stars’ that a hotel has. Based on this study's results, theoretical and managerial implications and opportunities for future research are further discussed.

Keywords:

• customer empowerment
• complainant empowerment
• customer view
• service recovery
• hotels