3e2a1b56-dafb-454d-87ad-86adea3e7b86

594
Part Four
Improvement
been if the operations manager had not worked out what to do. Recovery procedures will
also shape customers’ perceptions of failure. Even where the customer sees a failure, it may
not necessarily lead to dissatisfaction. Indeed, in many situations, customers may well accept
that things do go wrong. If there is a metre of snow on the train lines, or if the restaurant
is particularly popular, we may accept that the product or service does not work. It is not
necessarily the failure itself that leads to dissatisfaction but often the organization’s response
to the breakdown. While mistakes may be inevitable, dissatisfied customers are not. A failure
may even be turned into a positive experience. A good recovery can turn angry, frustrated
customers into loyal ones. One research project used four service scenarios and examined the
willingness of customers to use an organization’s services again. 11 The four scenarios were:
1 The service is delivered to meet the customers’ expectations and there is full satisfaction.
2 There are faults in the service delivery but the customer does not complain about them.
3 There are faults in the service delivery and the customer complains but he/she has been
fobbed off or mollified. There is no real satisfaction with the service provider.
4 There are faults in the service delivery and the customer complains and feels fully satisfied
with the resulting action taken by the service providers.
Customers who are fully satisfied and do not experience any problems (1) are the most
loyal, followed by complaining customers whose complaints are resolved successfully (4).
Customers who experience problems but don’t complain (2) are in third place and last of all
come customers who do complain but are left with their problems unresolved and feelings
of dissatisfaction (3).
Recovery in high-visibility services
The idea of failure recovery has been developed particularly in service operations. As one
specialist put it, ‘If something goes wrong, as it often does, will anybody make special efforts to
get it right? Will somebody go out of his or her way to make amends to the customer? Does anyone
make an effort to offset the negative impact of a screw-up?’ 12 It has also been suggested that service
recovery does not just mean ‘return to a normal state’ but to a state of enhanced perception.
All breakdowns require the deliverer to jump through a few hoops to get the customer back to
neutral. More hoops are required for victims to recover. Operations managers need to recognize
that all customers have recovery expectations that they want organizations to meet. Recovery
needs to be a planned process. Organizations therefore need to design appropriate responses
to failure, linked to the cost and the inconvenience caused by the failure to the customer,
which will meet the needs and expectations of the customer. Such recovery processes need to
be carried out either by empowered front-line staff or by trained personnel who are available
to deal with recovery in a way which does not interfere with day-to-day service activities.
Failure planning
Failure planning
Identifying how organizations can recover from failure is of particular interest to service
operations because they can turn failures around to minimize the effect on customers or even
to turn failure into a positive experience. It is also of interest to other industries, however,
especially those where the consequences of failure are particularly severe. Bulk chemical
manufacturers and nuclear processors, for example, spend considerable resources in deciding
how they will cope with failures. The activity of devising the procedures which allow the
operation to recover from failure is called failure planning. It is often represented by stage
models, one of which is represented in Figure 19.11. We shall follow it through from the
point where failure is recognized.
Discover. The first thing any manager needs to do when faced with a failure is to discover its
exact nature. Three important pieces of information are needed: first of all, what exactly has
happened; second, who will be affected by the failure; and, third, why did the failure occur?
This last point is not intended to be a detailed inquest into the causes of failure (that comes