ABSTRACT

Client upset is one of the greatest challenges for service providers. Anger, in particular, can have dramatic and negative effects on clients’ responses to hospitality services and to the service providers themselves. This study explores how staff might best respond to angry clients. Guided by justice theory, psychological coping theory, and the service recovery literature, we examine conditions that generate anger among clients and how angry clients prefer to be involved in service recovery efforts. Specifically, we consider whether anger predicts clients’ desire to co-create the recovery process. Participants (n = 271) responded to a hypothetical scenario describing a service failure common to hospitality and tourism settings. As expected, participants were most angry when the problem was perceived as severe and when they attributed blame to the provider. Further, anger (and not clients’ personal traits) predicted greater preferences for co-created service recovery. We conclude with implications as they relate to understanding service recovery.

摘要

客户不满意是服务提供商面临的最大挑战之一。尤其是愤怒，会对客户对酒店服务和服务提供商本身的反应产生巨大的负面影响。这项研究探讨了员工如何最好地回应愤怒的客户。在正义理论、心理应对理论和服务恢复文献的指导下，我们研究了在客户中产生愤怒的条件，以及愤怒的客户更愿意参与服务恢复工作的程度。具体来说，我们考虑愤怒是否能预测客户共同创建恢复过程的愿望。参与者（n= 271) 对描述酒店和旅游环境常见的服务失败的假设情景做出了回应。正如预期的那样，当问题被认为是严重的并且当他们将责任归咎于提供者时，参与者最生气。此外，愤怒（而不是客户的个人特征）预示着对共同创造的服务恢复的更大偏好。我们得出结论，因为它们与理解服务恢复有关。