Service recovery

Service recovery is, according to Fitzsimmons (2011 - p136), a "Service recovery converting a previously dissatisfied customer into a loyal customer." It is the action a service provider takes in response to service failure. By including also customer satisfaction into the definition, service recovery is a thought-out, planned, process of returning aggrieved/dissatisfied customers to a state of satisfaction with a company/service Service recovery differs from complaint management in its focus on service failures and the company’s immediate reaction to it. Complaint management is based on customer complaints, which, in turn, may be triggered by service failures. However, since most dissatisfied customers are reluctant to complain, service recovery attempts to solve problems at the service encounter before customers complain or before they leave the service encounter dissatisfied. Both complaint management and service recovery are considered as customer retention strategies Recently, some researches proved that strategies such as value co-creation, follow up, etc. can improve the effectiveness of service recovery efforts