Service Failure and Complaint Behavior in the Public Hospital Industry: The Indonesian Experience

The main objective of the study is to examine dimensions of service failures in the hospital industry. It is also the intention of the study to see if there is a specific pattern of complaint behavior in Indonesian context. The primary study was conducted in four cities in Bengkulu province, Southwest Sumatra, Indonesia. The number of questionnaires distributed in the survey was 350 and 300 questionnaires were returned and analyzed. Factor analysis and cluster analysis were employed to the dataset. The result of the analysis reveals that service failure constructs can be categorized into six underlying dimensions: medical reliability errors, physical evidences errors, poor information, medical treatment errors, costly service, and complaint handling failures. The study also indicates that hospital patients can be clustered into three segments, namely core service patients, complainers, and salient patients. Service failure dimensions and the clusters found can be used by hospitals in Indonesia to improve their service process and delivery. The study found a specific pattern of complaint behavior in the hospital industry.