SERVICE RECOVERY - ITS VALUE AND LIMITATIONS AS A RETAIL STRATEGY

Contributes to a growing body of service recovery knowledge by examini ng the impact of service recovery as a relationship tool, in addition to its well-accepted role as a means to enhance customer satisfaction at the transaction-specific level. Begins by providing an overview of the evolving concept of service recovery and continues by explaining t he important and unique role that recovery plays in the service sector . A comparison of the concept of service consistency and reliability w ith the concept of service recovery leads to a statement of hypotheses tested in an experimental setting. Specifically, results indicate tha t while service recovery results in encounter satisfaction, service re covery does not significantly influence overall satisfaction, quality, image and future expectations. Rather, consistency of service influen ces these constructs.