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Empathy and apology: the effectiveness of recovery strategies

Empathy and apology: the effectiveness of recovery strategies The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of empathy and apology in service recovery, and more specifically, establish how these factors promote positive service outcomes, typified by reconciliation and mitigate negative occurrences, characterised by customer retaliation and avoidance.Design/methodology/approachThis study used an online panel to collect data from 213 US residents, who were asked to recall a service failure episode they experienced within the past six months, write briefly about it and answer a questionnaire measuring constructs of interest in relation to their previous experience. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the quantitative data.FindingsBoth service employee empathy and apology were found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between service failure severity and reconciliation, retaliation and avoidance.Originality/valueThe combination of empathy and apology as moderators into a single framework represents a unique contribution of this research. Furthermore, outcome variables of reconciliation, retaliation and avoidance are utlilized to measure relationship outcomes following service failure. This study highlights the need for managers to design hiring and training policies to promote empathy and the use of sincere apologies throughout customer interactions. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Marketing Intelligence & Planning Emerald Publishing

Empathy and apology: the effectiveness of recovery strategies

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References (65)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
0263-4503
DOI
10.1108/mip-03-2018-0080
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of empathy and apology in service recovery, and more specifically, establish how these factors promote positive service outcomes, typified by reconciliation and mitigate negative occurrences, characterised by customer retaliation and avoidance.Design/methodology/approachThis study used an online panel to collect data from 213 US residents, who were asked to recall a service failure episode they experienced within the past six months, write briefly about it and answer a questionnaire measuring constructs of interest in relation to their previous experience. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the quantitative data.FindingsBoth service employee empathy and apology were found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between service failure severity and reconciliation, retaliation and avoidance.Originality/valueThe combination of empathy and apology as moderators into a single framework represents a unique contribution of this research. Furthermore, outcome variables of reconciliation, retaliation and avoidance are utlilized to measure relationship outcomes following service failure. This study highlights the need for managers to design hiring and training policies to promote empathy and the use of sincere apologies throughout customer interactions.

Journal

Marketing Intelligence & Planning – Emerald Publishing

Published: May 16, 2019

Keywords: Apology; Empathy; Service failure; Retaliation; Reconciliation; Avoidance

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