An Exploration of Customers’ Online Service Recovery Expectations
(A2019-9026)

AUTHORS

Zonaib Tahir, IAE Lyon School of Management ; Kiane Goudarzi, IAE Lyon School of Management

KEYWORDS

online service recovery; trust; compensation

ABSTRACT

The widespread acceptance and usage of internet as a shopping medium should have led to a sizable examination of online customers’ post-failure expectations. Yet, the limited online service recovery research has produced contradictory recovery expectations. The unique characteristics of e-commerce have elevated the role of trust in selecting an online service provider. If the customers’ aren’t satisfied, the trust with which they entered the relationship, will decline. Although customers exhibit trust even when the service fails, by expecting the company to address the failure. The purpose of this article is to explore the online customers’ recovery expectations for various situations, unique to online service delivery. 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews revealed circumstantial recovery expectations and also the factors that generate differing offline and online recovery expectations. A deeper understanding of recovery expectations will help minimize the trust deficit by responding to the failures as per customers’ expectations.