Analysis Of A Service Failure Incident And Recommendations For Service Recovery And Customer Retention

Analysis

Service failure occurs whenever a customer is rendered services which he/she perceives as not meeting his/her expectations (Chaung, Cheng, Chang, & Yang, 2012). Based on this definition, service failure translates into customer dissatisfaction with the services rendered. According to Liat, et al (2017), it is almost impossible to operate a service business without encountering instances of service failure.

Typically, customers expect some form of compensation whenever a service failure occurs (Mattila, 2001). The process of providing this compensation is referred to as service recovery. Examples of service recovery strategies include offering an apology, discounts, financial refunds, alternative services and credits among others (Preston, Kristie, Charlotte, Seawright, & Hoopes, 2008). This report provides an in-depth analysis of a service failure incident and recommends related service recovery strategies.

One of our group members experienced a memorable service failure at a local fast casual restaurant. The group member (hereinafter the client) visited the restaurant for a quick meal before an afternoon picnic with his girlfriend. The restaurant offers table service and the attendants typically move around, take orders and serve the food. The client then pays the bill on his way out. The client in this case proceeded to sit at an empty booth where a restaurant attendant came to take his order after about three minutes; the attendants at the restaurant appeared quite busy since it was lunchtime and the restaurant was almost fully occupied.
The client placed his order which the attendant wrote down. He then asked the attendant how much time he would have to wait since he was in a rush and wanted to time his lunch well. The attendant replied that he would wait for “a maximum of five minutes” for his chicken and chips to be warmed and served alongside a milkshake. However, it took another 15 minutes before the food arrived. When the food arrived, the client dug in immediately only to realize that the chips were cold and hard. Since the attendant who had served him had already moved on to serve another group of clients who were calling for an attendant impatiently, the client stopped another passing waitress and voiced his concern about the state of the chips. “Who served you? I can get her here to address this, I have my customers you see” the attendant replied. The client pointed out the attendant who had served him since he had not caught her name.

Service Recovery Program and Strategies

It took another two minutes before the original attendant showed up to hear the client’s complaint. She went ahead to ask him what the problem was which he explained again. By this time, the chicken was also getting cold and he asked whether he could get both items warmed up. The attendant replied that “we cannot warm the food, our microwave is broken at the moment and is being fixed. But I can get you a fresh batch of chips from the kitchen if you can wait for about two minutes”. She added that she could do nothing about the chicken seeing as he had already taken a bite. Seeing that his meeting was getting close, the client agreed with the recovery plan and requested the attendant to hurry. He heard the attendant click as she walked away with the cold chips.

After waiting for about another five minutes and having finished the milkshake, the client walked to the ordering window where the attendant was standing to enquire about the chips. “You have to wait for about another four minutes for the kitchen to finish making a fresh batch of chips or you can just take these if you are in so much of a hurry” the attendant replied pointing to the cold chips which were placed on the side of the ordering counter. This reply infuriated the client who opted to leave and hence asked for the bill. The attendant issued him with a receipt which included the chips and the chicken. The client opted to pay the bill and leave without arguing about the bill so as to make his meeting

Service failure occurs whenever a customer is rendered a service that does not meet his/her expectations or the service quality standards promised. In the scenario presented in the introduction section above, the service delivery process failed in several ways. The first instance of service failure regards timeliness. The restaurant attendant promised the client to deliver the food within a maximum of five minutes but instead served the meal after 15 minutes. Later, she promised that the client needed to wait for about two minutes for the fresh batch of chips which the client never got even after waiting for five minutes. Clearly, the attendant, and the restaurant by extension, inconvenienced the client by failing to meet the deadlines which she set herself (Kaura, 2013).

Recommendations for Customer Loyalty and Retention

Second, the service failed in terms of the quality of food delivered. According to a study by Namkung & Jang (2010), a failure in this stage is the most critical in a restaurant business. Later on, while discussing the incident, the client indicated that he expected the chips to be warm, fresh and much softer than what he was given “like typical chips normally are”. He added that the chips served never looked anything close the chips on the image on the restaurant’s sign at the top of the entrance. Evidently, the client walked into the restaurant with some well-founded expectations about certain attributes of the food. It could be that the restaurant typically serves chips “cold and hard” chips. However, the level of service success is subjectively evaluated by the customer (Kamar, 2013). Consequently, serving the chips to the client is still an instance of service failure.

Next, the two restaurant attendants behaved rudely while serving the client. For instance, one of the attendants clicked when the client asked her to hurry in bringing the second batch of chips. She also addressed the client rudely at the ordering window when he went to enquire about the chips. This is after she had already broken her promise to serve the fresh batch of chips in about two minutes. A courteous attendant should have begun by apologizing to the client for the delay then proving an explanation as to what caused the delay (Abbasi, Khalid, Azam, & Riaz, 2010).

Finally, the restaurant failed by charging the client for food that he did not consume. In a typical business environment, customers pay for the goods acquired and/or the services rendered (Mattila, 2001). In this case, the customer was charged for the chips even though the cold ones were taken back and the fresh batch was never served. It is possible that the restaurant could have exempted the chips from the bill had the client asked about it. Therefore, the failure lies in the fact that the restaurant staff did not take the initiative to exempt the chips from the bill even though she had full knowledge that the client had not taken them.

The restaurant also failed in its service recovery attempts. First, the recovery process was much lengthier than promised and what the client expected. Further, the restaurant staff failed to communicate effectively with the client and each other. The client had to repeat the complaint to two different restaurant waitresses. This indicate that the first waitress to receive the complaint did not pay attention to the client’s concern. According to Baron et al (2005), listening to clients’ complaints is important to not only identify the problem but to also establish whether the complaint is founded or not; the client could also be wrong.  Finally, the recovery was attempted with a poor attitude; the waitresses expressed displeasure by addressing the client rudely. This behavior implies that the restaurant environment is not hospitable. Collectively, these failures could negatively impact on a customer’s post purchase behavior; lower the likelihood of repeat patronage and/or positive recommendation of the restaurant to other potential customers (Christine, 2009).

According to Cranage (2004), service failures are almost inevitable in a service rendering business. This is because some of the causes of service failures are not completely predictable. For instance, the case restaurant could not warm the food since its microwave had broken down. Chan & Wan (2008) asserts that most clients are also aware of the potential for service failure and are willing to accept reasonable service recovery attempts. Therefore, proper service recovery has the potential to not only restore customer satisfaction but also to enhance it.

In the scenario discussed above, the restaurant staff attempted service recovery which also failed. The following recommendations outline ways in which the restaurant can enhance its service recovery strategy to enhance customer satisfaction and post purchase behavior.

Improve the service timing accuracy at the restaurant-The restaurant attendant communicated widely inaccurate wait times to the client on several occasions. The restaurant can improve the accuracy of the information given out by implementing strategies to standardize the average wait time. For instance, the restaurant can increase the number of attendants during peak hours to reduce wait times to around the average.

Maintain restaurant equipment regularly to avoid unexpected breakdowns
Train staff on customer handling and emphasize the importance of courtesy
Prioritize service recovery activities whenever necessary-In this case, the second waitress could have prioritized the client’s complaints.
Begin any service recovery attempts with an apology for the failure

Conclusions

The scenario discussed in this report is an example of service failure where the service recovery attempts also failed. The restaurant failed to meet its promises-timing and implied food quality- and the customer expectations-expected timeliness, food quality and restaurant environment. Following the failures, the restaurant also failed to deliver the demand/expected form of compensation to the client. No apologies were offered and explanations were barely given. Consequently, the client ended up dissatisfied. The service failure and failed recovery attempts predictably reduced the client’s willingness to revisit the restaurant.

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