Other customers' service failure and recovery encounters: a qualitative exploration

Purpose Service failure and recovery encounters are often witnessed by other customers, but little is known about how these encounters impacts other customers. With an aim to bridge this gap, the purpose of the paper is to explore why and how service recovery directed at a focal customer impacts other customers who are present in the same service environment. Design/methodology/approach The paper follows a qualitative research methodology. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from 30 customers through semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. Findings Findings of the study show that service recovery directed at a focal customer has an impact on other customers' fairness judgments, emotions, service quality perceptions and behaviour. Other customers' behavioural reactions in response to observed service recovery are driven by two different motives: self-interest and moral obligation. Observing customers' cautious behaviour and (re)purchase behaviour are found to be primarily driven by self-interest, whereas their helping behaviour, punishment behaviour and word-of-mouth behaviour are found to be driven by moral obligation. Research limitations/implications This study findings contribute to theory development on "other-oriented" effects of service recovery and provides valuable insights for effective management of service failures in the shared service environment. Originality/value This is the first study, which qualitatively explores the "other customers" perspective of service recovery in the context of shared servicescape.