When demographic differences exist: an analysis of service failure and recovery among diverse participants

Purpose – This paper aims to explore whether demographic differences between diverse customers and service providers impact service failure and recovery perceptions. Design/methodology/approach – The critical incidents technique was used to gather data on service failures and recovery. Chi‐square test of independence and analysis of variance was used to test the hypotheses. Findings – Results from the main study provide little support to the notion that different service failure types or service recovery efforts are being applied when demographic differences exist. However, a post‐hoc analysis focusing on respondents who felt that their demographic differences had impacted their encounter revealed that ethnic differences impacted service failure and recovery perceptions the most. Research limitations/implications – One limitation is the use of quota sampling that may limit the generalizability of the results. However, due to the exploratory nature of the study and the need for representative cases, this technique was viewed as an effective sampling technique for the purposes of the study. Practical implications – The post‐hoc results suggest that future diversity training should include employee‐customer diversity, especially in the case of age and ethnicity. Further, that managing perceptions is important so that customers do not feel that they are treated any differently based on a visible demographic variable. Originality/value – In general, the exploration of customer‐employee demographic differences in the services marketing literature is still somewhat nascent. This paper is unique in that it specifically examines several demographic differences between customers and employees in terms of service failure and recovery perceptions.