K. Douglas Hoffman

A Typology of Retail Failures and Recoveries

Abstract This study extends previous research by developing a typology of retail failures and recovery strategies. Upon sorting 661 critical incidents pertaining to general merchandise retailers, results revealed fifteen different types of retail failures and twelve unique recovery strategies. In addition, the effectiveness of the recovery strategies are examined and research implications are discussed.

Tracking service failures and employee recovery efforts

Demonstrates a method for examining service failures and recovery strategies in service industries and provides a typology of service failures and recoveries in the restaurant industry. Based on 373 critical incidents collected from restaurant customers, uses the critical incident technique (CIT) to identify 11 unique failure types and eight different recovery strategies. Additional data regarding the magnitude of the service failure, the service recovery rating, the lapsed time since the failure/recovery incident, and customer retention rates were also collected. Presents this information along with managerial and research implications.

Service Provider Job Satisfaction and Customer

Considers the impact of multi‐faceted measures of job satisfaction on customer‐oriented behaviours demonstrated by service providers. Reveals how overall job satisfaction, together with specific satisfaction related to supervision, colleagues, promotion and work are positively related to customer‐orientation, while satisfaction with pay is not of significance in this case. Discusses recommendations for management and suggestions for further research.

The relationship between ethical and customer-oriented service provider behaviors

This study examines the relationship between the ethical behavior and customer orientation of insurance sales agents engaged in the selling of complex services, e.g. health, life, auto, and property insurance. The effect of ethical and customer-oriented behavior, measured by the SOCO scale (Saxe and Weitz, 1982), on the annual premiums generated by the agents is also investigated. Customeroriented sales agents are found to engage in less unethical behavior than their sales-oriented counterparts. Further, sales-oriented agents are found to perceive greater levels of unethical behavior among their significant others. Alarmingly, higher levels of sales premiums are found among those agents who engage in unethical behavior.

Sales Organization Recovery Management and Relationship Selling: A Conceptual Model and Empirical Test

This paper presents and tests a model of recovery management practices in business-to-business (B2B) sales organizations. The linkages between organic and mechanistic approaches are integrated to provide a more comprehensive conceptualization of sales organization recovery management relationships than currently exists in the literature. Responses from 177 B2B sales managers indicate that maintaining a positive service recovery culture, analyzing service failures, implementing recovery strategies, and monitoring, evaluating, and seeking feedback about recovery efforts are linked with important customer and financial outcomes. Results indicate the importance of proactive integration of service recovery concepts and behaviors into relationship selling efforts.

The Master Teacher Initiative: A Framework for Faculty Development

Despite the importance of faculty development activities, little is known regarding the type and extent of programming implemented among AACSB Colleges of Business. Hence, the primary purposes of this manuscript are twofold. First, a brief overview is provided that offers insights into the current state of faculty development related to teaching among AACSB schools. Second, the Master Teacher Initiative, a comprehensive set of faculty development activities that enhance the visibility of the teaching mission, is presented and discussed. More specifically, initiative mission and objectives, major components of the initiative, lessons learned, and initiative benefits are revealed.

Multiple paths to customer delight: the impact of effort, expertise and tangibles on joy and surprise

Historically, firms have dedicated an abundance of resources in the pursuit of customer satisfaction and its corresponding favorable consequences. However, research indicates that customer satisfaction may not necessarily result in the outcomes pursued. This paper aims to focus on the concept of customer delight and explore antecedents and consequences of interest to the service firm. More specifically, the proposed model explores the linkages of employee effort, employee expertise and the firm’s tangibles to customer surprise and joy which in turn lead to customer delight and per cent of budget spent.,Data were collected from a grocery store. The hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equation modeling.,Results from this study yield new insights into the dual pathways leading to customer delight through joy and surprise. That is, joy and tangibles lead to both joy and surprise, whereas expertise leads to joy alone. Both joy and surprise are completely mediated through delight to per cent of budget spent. Interestingly, higher frequency customers experience a stronger relationship from joy to delight.,The findings have implications for the ongoing debate on the viability of customer delight and extending the theoretical understanding of why customer delight represents such a powerful force in the service environment.,By providing specific variables that impact both joy and surprise, management can develop tactics to develop delight initiatives.,This is the first study proposing multiple paths to customer delight. Further, this is the first study to link needs based and disconfirmation into a single model.

The Education Service Encounter: The Socialization of Students

The purpose of this article is to examine and discuss the organizational socialization process as it applies to students. An organizational stage model is presented and tested empirically in the context of marketing education using a sample of students. Implications for marketing educators are presented and discussed.

Retrospective: tracking service failures and employee recovery efforts

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an evaluation of the findings first put forward in the article Tracking Service Failures and Employee Recovery Efforts with the benefit of hindsight, and to offer directions for further research and developments in the research area. Design/methodology/approach Research directions which emanated from the publication of the article have been examined in light of current service(s) marketing theory and practice. As a result, promising current and future strands of research have been identified. Findings The original study yielded the initial steps into what has become a systematic step-by-step process that outlines the development and implementation of a service recovery program that now includes failure identification; failure attribution; recovery strategy selection; recovery implementation; and tracking, monitoring and evaluating effectiveness. Subsequent research has linked organistic and mechanistic components of a recovery program to important customer and financial outcomes and the development of a service recovery audit. Practical/implications The original study served as a starting point for the development of a set of implications for services marketing practitioners. Specifically, as a result of the original research, a programmatic approach to service recovery was developed that includes the systematic process of failure identification; failure attribution; recovery strategy selection; (4) recovery implementation; and tracking, monitoring and evaluating effectiveness. Originality/value The original article was highly rated, and generated discussion and important further research. It has value as a part of the history of service(s) marketing research. The retrospective analysis by the author(s) gives a unique insight into processes and thinking associated with understanding key aspects that contribute to the historical development of service(s) marketing, and provides substantial food for thought for future research directions.

Incorporating Ethics into the Services Marketing Class: The Case of Sears Auto Centers

Unique circumstances occur within the service sector that create an ethical environment worth examination and discussion. The authors present a variety of ethics-related topics as they pertain to the service sector. In addition, the case of Sears Auto Centers has been developed to provide a means by which service provider ethical behavior can be examined. The authors hope that the information provided here will aid in the student’s understanding of ethics and will facilitate the further development of the services marketing class.