Strategies for effective crisis management : a service-oriented perspective

Kurzfassung/Abstract

Paper 1: This paper examines how service firms (i.e., car dealers) should manage the remedy for a recalled vehicle, specifically the timing of the repair and the message on its outcome. Drawing on the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM), we consider the repair for a recalled product as a protective action and propose a central role of customers' risk concerns for managing this process. Across multiple studies (including interviews with car dealers, archival data, and experiments with car owners), we show that firms' service processes are not well-aligned with these concerns. Regarding the timing, firms often delay the repair service until the next regular inspection for convenience, while customers prefer an immediate repair if they perceive a high risk and if risk exposure time (time until next inspection) is long. Regarding the outcome message, firms often communicate a benefit such as a value increase (a camouflage signal), which is ineffective. Instead, customers' satisfaction and loyalty with the service firm are increased by communicating a risk reduction (a need signal), mediated by perceived credibility. We recommend that service firms should let customers choose the timing for the repair and frame its outcome as a risk reduction, rather than concealing it as a benefit.

Paper 2:
This paper examines the remedial effect of complaint process recovery (CPR) on customer outcomes (trust and repatronage intentions) after double deviations. CPR refers to improvements in complaint-handling processes aimed at avoiding another recovery failure.
Drawing on the stereotype content model, we propose that CPR communication (i.e., informing customers about the improved complaint-handling processes after a double deviation) and CPR
verification (i.e., providing evidence of these improvements when customers experience another service failure) foster repatronage intentions, serially mediated by perceived competence and trust. Further, it is proposed that CPR communication reinforces the latter
mediation effect. Findings from one scenario-based experiment and two longitudinal field
experiments support these hypotheses. Further, the effects of CPR communication and verification are robust across different levels of perceived failure severity and across strong- vs. weak-relationship customers. As a major managerial takeaway, firms learn how to signal their competence and remedy a double deviation, even when accepting and admitting that service failures can reoccur.

Paper 3:
Purpose: This paper examines how customer expectations of service quality change if a service provider is forced to adapt its service provision due to the social distancing rules applied during pandemic times. Design/methodology/approach: This research draws on the concept of zone of tolerance for service quality, using field data to determine the zones of tolerance for different service quality dimensions in traditional and adapted service settings for mass events. Customers’ zones of tolerance are compared through repeated measures analyses of variance. Further, the effect of perceived service quality on customer outcomes (i.e., satisfaction with the adapted service and repatronage intention after the pandemic) is examined through a mediation analysis, with usage frequency as the mediating variable. Findings: This paper shows that customers’ zones of tolerance narrow following service adaptations, which can be explained by rising expectations of minimum tolerable service levels. If the perceived service exceeds this lower threshold of the zone of tolerance, customers show higher satisfaction with the adapted service. Additionally, satisfaction with the adapted service has a positive effect on repatronage intention for the traditional service (i.e., after the pandemic), mediated by usage frequency of the adapted service.
Originality: The topic of service adaption is examined from a customer point of view. Practical implications: The findings of this study provide important implications for service providers about how to handle service adaption during times of social distancing.