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The purpose of this paper is to present results from an empirical study of various service recovery designs. When service failures occur, service recovery is the primary way a firm can retain its customers and minimize the costs associated with customer defection and negative word of mouth. While researchers concur on the importance of service recovery in retaining customers, recommendations on implementation differ considerably. Consequently, actual service recovery design and results vary widely among practitioners.

The method employed uses an experimental design, employing controlled scenario manipulations.

This paper examines two issues that offer possible explanations for the variation in previous research results: elements of service recovery system design that make a difference and degree of primary failure. An additional issue, research methodology, may also contribute to variations in research results and is likewise addressed.

In failed service encounters, the degree of failure significantly affects customer satisfaction and loyalty. Both psychological and tangible factors are important contributors to service recovery satisfaction.

This study builds upon previous research and fills previous gaps by being the first study to experimentally test the impact that varying service recovery design has on recovery success within environments of varying levels of degree of failure.

While researchers in other disciplines seek to determine the impact that humour has in personal interactions, studies of humour in service delivery are lacking. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether it is beneficial to deliberately use humour in service encounters.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of humour research in multiple disciplines to assess the applicability of their key findings to the service domain. By establishing the antecedents, types, and consequences of humour, the authors build a framework and propositions to help service researchers uncover the potential of injecting humour into service interactions.

The authors find that using humour in service encounters is an ingenious affiliative behaviour which strengthens rapport between service employees and their customers. Humour also permits frontline service employees to better cope with the emotional challenges of their work, thus promising to reduce emotional labour and increase well-being. The effectiveness of service recovery efforts may also grow if employees use humour successfully to soften unpleasant emotional reactions and accept responsibility.

The authors explore cross-disciplinary humour research to apply the findings to the use of humour in service encounters. The authors also attempt to identify situations in which humour usage is most promising or beneficial, as well as its main beneficiaries.

This paper aims to contribute to a growing body of service recovery knowledge by examining the relationship between service recovery, consumer satisfaction and loyalty in a commercial banking environment.

A conceptual framework encompassing th\e concepts of service recovery, communication, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the commercial bank setting is developed. A questionnaire is designed to focus on issues related to efforts made to investigate causes of service failure and to develop recovery strategies that meet customer expectations of how their banks should handle such problems.

Results show that communication had a significant relationship with service recovery and that higher levels of redress independently increase positive consumer responses. The findings also show that the interaction of employee responsiveness and courtesy can also have a positive impact on consumer evaluations. Satisfaction was highest and negative word‐of‐mouth intentions lowest only under conditions of high responsiveness and courtesy.

Service recovery is process‐oriented, and does not assess whether the reported problem that led to the actual complaint has been resolved. This aspect of the study opens a number of directions for future research with the goal of increasing the still limited understanding of service recovery issues in commercial banks. To achieve an in‐depth view, a more comprehensive qualitative study that pursues the same research questions may be appropriate.

An implication is that, when managing complaints related to customer dissatisfaction, the approaches undertaken by service quality leaders should aim to provide just resolutions/fairness in service recovery. This study also provides insight into a company's customer relationship management practices. However, in order to encourage customers to complain directly, a company, if complained to, needs to enhance the perception of a possible outcome.

A conceptual framework is developed and used to investigate the relationship between service recovery, consumer satisfaction and loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the degree of customer engagement resulting from complaint-handling processes. The authors will also analyze the extent to which consumer demographics play a moderating role in this context.

To this end, the study analyzes the Spanish mobile phone sector based on a survey of individuals who filed a complaint and were provided with a solution by their mobile carrier. Data analysis was carried out using SmartPLS structural equation software.

The findings indicate that effective complaint-handling processes result in engaged customers. Moreover, socio-demographic variables such as age and gender do not have a significant impact on post-complaint-handling satisfaction or on customer engagement levels.

This study has focused on only one industry – the mobile phone sector – which in Spain exhibits particular characteristics.

Firms which effectively employ complaint-handling strategies when service failures occur can count on an increase in customer engagement which, theoretically, will boost company value and have a positive impact on business performance.

The small body of research in this area assumes initial customer satisfaction. No evidence was found of the existing literature assessing customer engagement in dissatisfied customer contexts.