RTM: Quite a list. Care to elaborate?

SHL: Successful service recovery is highly influenced by the effectiveness of the employees who receive and deal with the complaints. Service-recovery performance must therefore be incorporated into HRM practices.

The relevant staff need to acquire appropriate skills, attitudes and behaviours. Combined with the necessary authority, staff can respond to the "fairness" attributes identified earlier.
 
The Samaritan Health Services "AAAA" Action plan for service recovery is but one example of establishing guidelines and standards:

Anticipate and correct problems as they occur.
Acknowledge mistakes when they occur, without placing blame or making excuses.

Apologise sincerely for the mistake, even if it is not your fault, and make

Amends for the mistake by taking corrective action and following it up to ensure the problem has been resolved.

With the evolving technology of the computer, the Internet and telephone centres, access can be relatively easy, yet staff capabilities remain a challenge for most organisations.

Finally, databases are important because they enable trends to be identified, knowledge of customers and complaints to be logged and service-recovery personnel to be kept informed.

RTM: How important is the database?

SHL: Very. But the majority of companies fail to document and categorise complaints adequately, which makes learning more difficult. Thus there is a lack of dissemination out to relevant managers and therefore the quality issues that caused the complaints are not dealt with, but merely repeated. Complaints are viewed as failures and hidden, rather than being learnt from.

RTM: You seem to be suggesting that identifying and responding to customer complaints is very important.

SHL: I believe it is. The logic and evidence are absolutely clear.

"The majority of companies fail to document and categorize complaints adequately."

First, customer loyalty drives profitability, and this has led companies to shift their emphasis away from customer acquisition to customer retention (which has led to the growth in the concept of relationship-marketing). Secondly, customer satisfaction has been shown to be a strong influence on positive word of mouth and future loyal behaviour.

Finally, complainants who perceive that their complaints have been responded to fairly, in all its meanings, can actually increase their level of satisfaction with the company at fault. Therefore, good service recovery is directly linked to increased retention and profitability.

It is also worth noting that a company that compounds an error with an insufficient recovery incurs a large penalty in terms of both negative word of mouth and potential exit from the relationship.

Thus, firms really do need to develop a comprehensive service-recovery strategy that encourages dissatisfied customers to voice their complaints and that provides a fair process and outcome, through which organisational learning can take place.