Alleviating the negative impact of delayed recovery: process- versus outcome-focused explanations

Purpose – Limited research has explored the potential marketing strategies to counter the damage associated with delayed recovery. Based on the construal level theory, this study seeks to suggest that customers tend to focus on different aspects of the compensation according to the speed of recovery. Thus, providing an adequate explanation to customers corresponding to expected recovery speed can effectively alleviate customer dissatisfaction with a delayed recovery. Design/methodology/approach – This study examined the proposed hypotheses using a 2 (immediate vs delayed) by 2 (explanation: process-focused vs outcome-focused) experimental design. Findings – The analytical results show that when an immediate recovery is available, an outcome-focused explanation will result in higher post-failure satisfaction than will a process-focused explanation. Conversely, when a delayed recovery is expected, post-failure satisfaction is higher for customers who receive a process-focused explanation than for those who receive an outcome-focused explanation. Practical implications – This study thus recommends that firms should provide explanations compatible with expected recovery speed to better enhance post-failure satisfaction. Originality/value – This study contributes to the body of service recovery literature by examining the differential effectiveness of outcome-focused and process-focused explanations under immediate and delayed recovery conditions. The findings provide a guideline that managers can use to formulate suitable explanations to alleviate the detrimental effects of delayed recovery.