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This study assesses the effects of service evaluations in a failed service experience on complaining intentions in a future encounter. A model is developed and tested that investigates the relationships between service quality, satisfaction, social justice, and future complaint intentions. A sample of 525 dissatisfied customers across numerous service industries is used to test the model. Results support the model and suggest that otherwise fair service in a failed service experience increases complaint intentions in future failed encounters. Specifically, the authors find that firms that are perceived to treat customers fairly during a service failure and that have employees perceived to be responsive are rewarded with higher future complaint intentions. They also find that service quality and satisfaction have significant, negative effects on future complaint intentions. Moderation analysis indicates that the findings do not depend on a customer's attitude toward complaining. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way services are delivered. In this editorial, we shine a light on how frontline service employees are coping with the changing work environment. Leveraging insights from a critical incident technique data collection, we identify challenges related to employee morale, interfacing with service consumers, and transformational negative events. We then offer suggestions for future research on these topics. Moreover, we discuss how the business model transformations caused by COVID-19 could impact the role of technology in future service interactions as well as new challenges related to demand planning. We hope this editorial can serve as a platform to positively impact future research on how service is being delivered amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and future market shocks.

Service failure and recovery (SFR) is a well-established area of research that has made considerable progress over the past 30 years. In this study, we used a combination of text mining, co-word analysis, and social network analysis (SNA) to explore the relationships among keywords in SFR research. We analyzed a dataset of 533 SFR articles published between 1990 and 2020, extracting the most frequently used keywords using text-mining techniques. These keywords were then subjected to co-word analysis and SNA to understand the development of themes and topics in SFR research. By examining changes in network centrality measures, we gained insights into the evolution of research in this field. Furthermore, by identifying gaps or disconnections in the keyword networks, we identified future research opportunities related to the impact of service recovery strategies on customer reactions, employee reactions, and firm outcomes, as well as the relationship between customer and employee responses.

This research examines the effects of service variability on consumer confidence and behavior across multiple transactions in a service relationship. This article integrates discussions of service relationships and models of service variability. Leveraging a field study, the authors track over 12,000 experiences across 3,084 consumers for a 2-year period and model the impact of variability in these experiences on consumer relationships. The results reveal variability in a service relationship can significantly impact consumer confidence and that the nature of this relationship is nonlinear, revealing that small variations in quality will have strong effects on confidence and that these effects plateau as variability increases. Despite these overall effects, we also demonstrate that the positive benefits of service improvement strategies can offset these effects. Finally, in a second study, the results suggest firms can insulate themselves from the effects of variability by encouraging consumer involvement in relational investments (i.e., loyalty programs) that provide consumers with both interpersonal (i.e., status) and economic resources (i.e., points). Taken together, the results demonstrate that consumers integrate evaluations across transactions when evaluating a service provider, thus focusing on a single transaction, in isolation, may not accurately capture consumers' perceptions of the service relationship.

PurposeIn the competitive retailing environment, retailers who provide service experiences that stand out from the competition can gain a competitive advantage. Increasingly, an important aspect of the service experience involves product returns, in particular, the fairness of returns policies and procedures. Previous research studies support that interpersonal justice and informational justice relate positively to consumer attitudes and behaviors. In this paper, the authors examine the relative effects of interpersonal justice and informational justice on return satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) and trust. Additionally, the authors examine the moderating effects of returns process convenience and returns policy restrictiveness as indicators of procedural justice.Design/methodology/approachA scenario-based experiment methodology was used to test the relationships of interest.FindingsResults support that the effects of interpersonal justice on the outcome variables are stronger than the effects of informational justice. There is also support for a moderating effect of returns process convenience on the relationships between interpersonal justice and each outcome variable, as well as partial support for the moderating effect of returns policy restrictiveness on the relationship between interpersonal justice and PWOM.Originality/valueThe research extends previous work on the effects of justice on customer outcomes. Results support the importance of retailers treating customers with fairness during the returns experience and further support the benefits of providing a convenient returns experience.

PurposeBoth online and brick and mortar retailers have invested heavily in developing omni-channel service offerings. Though seen as a competitive necessity, these omni-channel service offerings increase costs and complexities. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of strategies involving bundles of omni-channel services related to order fulfillment and returns management on retailer performance.Design/methodology/approachArchival data were obtained for 152 retailers and analyzed using ordinary least squares regression. Robustness tests using an alternative dependent variable and a model-based classification strategy corroborate our findings.FindingsRetailers offering full sets of high integration omni-channel services (buy online pick up in store, ship from store and in-store returns) have better performance (e.g. sales, growth and competitive position) and web sales than retailers that offer only a partial mix of these high integration services. Retailers offering a partial bundle of high integration services, in turn, have better performance and web sales than retailers that offer none of these services.Originality/valueThe research extends work that has examined the performance effects of omni-channel services on individual retailers. Our results indicate retailers benefit the most when offering a full set of high integration omni-channel services, suggesting retailers who have only adopted a subset of these services could improve performance through broader adoption of services. The results further indicate partial adoption of high integration services is better than no adoption.

When consumers have to wait, the service delivery process is frequently compromised. The literature suggests that reducing waiting time is beneficial, but for service firms faced with scarce resources this is not always an option. As an alternative strategy, this study identifies and tests the mitigating effects of three factors that moderate the waiting time—anger and waiting time—regret relationships. Results show that in four service industries, affective commitment, perceived justice, and physical environment quality affect negative evaluations of a service experience and attenuate the effects of waiting time on both anger and regret. The authors discuss implications for researchers and service marketers in light of the results.

Despite a long history of independent sales and service functions within organizations, customers are pressuring organizations to rethink their sales and service operations. Specifically, customers expect organizations to offer a "single face" of the firm rather than being forced to interact with multiple agents across both sales and service throughout their relationships. As firms attempt to meet these customer demands, they have countless options to integrate sales and service operations, but little is known about which strategies are most effective. This article attempts to shed new light into the challenges and potential benefits of sales-service integration, in an effort to spur research in this area and better inform this managerial challenge. Specifically, we formalize the concept of the sales-service interface, discuss how it relates to sales-service ambidexterity, and identify several opportunities for future research. Given the complexity of the sales-service interface, we contend that future researchers must view these issues through a multilevel lens and, as a result, we focus on identifying opportunities ideally suited for testing in a multilevel environment. The goal of this article is to provide a platform for researchers to tackle this challenging problem and generate new insights into how best to meet customer's evolving demands.