Service recovery: An integrated framework and empirical investigation

A survey was utilized to determine which service recovery techniques were most effective in retaining customers who had been involved in a service failure. We found that if no service recovery techniques at all were applied, repeat patronage intentions were close to zero. About half of those who received an apology without a fair fur intended to patronize the business again while about 75 percent of those that received a fair fix without an apology intended to patronize the business again. Those receiving both an apology and a fair fix had repeat patronage intentions about 90 percent, while almost 100 percent of those who also received some sort of value-added atonement (e.g. gift certificate) expressed repeat patronage intentions.