Effects of service failure on consumer responses across failure types: A moderating role of intimacy

• We investigate a moderating role of intimacy in service failure.
• We consider two service failure types: outcome and process failure.
• We examine two consumer responses: buffering and betrayal effect.
• High intimacy mitigates negative evaluations caused by outcome failure.
• High intimacy aggravates negative evaluations in process failure and failed recovery.

This paper investigates a moderating role of intimacy in two service failure types (outcome and process failure), considering two consumer responses: buffering and betrayal effect. Study 1 employs a 3 (failure type: no vs. outcome vs. process) × 2 (intimacy level: high vs. low) experimental design. Findings show that in case involving outcome failure, a high intimacy group has higher service evaluations (satisfaction, re-patronage intention, and positive word-of-mouth intention) than a low intimacy group, substantiating the existence of buffering effect. In case involving process failure, however, service evaluations are not different depending on the level of intimacy, invalidating the existence of betrayal effect. Study 2 analyzes the effects of intimacy (high vs. low) on service evaluations in the setting of process failure and following failed recovery. The results reveal that betrayal effect is indeed present in times of double deviation, process failure and following failed recovery. Consequently, this research offers service providers practical insights on how to utilize intimacy based on the classification of service failure types.

Chinese Abstract本文探讨了在两类服务失误 (结果失误和过程失误) 中亲近关系起到的调节作用，考虑两种消费者的反应：缓和效应和背叛效应。研究1采用3 (失误类型：无失误 vs. 结果失误 vs. 过程失误) × 2 (亲近关系：高 vs. 低) 的实验设计。实验结果表明，结果失误的情况下，高亲近度组对服务评价 (满意度、再次光顾的意愿和推荐口碑的意愿) 比低亲近度组更高，证实了缓冲效应的存在。然而，在过程失误的情况下，亲近程度对服务评价并没有太大影响，表明不存在背叛效应。研究2分析在先后经历了过程失误和修复失败后，亲近程度 (高 vs. 低) 对服务评价的影响。结果表明，背叛效应在经历了双次失误（过程失误和修复失败）后确实存在。因此这项研究向服务提供商提供了实用的信息，让他们了解如何根据服务失误类型利用亲近关系改善评价。