Perceived justice and service recovery satisfaction in a post-transition economy

Abstract

This paper aims to improve the understanding of outcomes of service recovery in a post-transition context by examining the relationships between four dimensions of perceived justice and service recovery satisfaction (SRS), positive word of mouth (PWOM) and repurchase intentions. Results from a survey of 217 Slovenian telecommunications customers with actual recovery experiences reveal that distributive, informational and interpersonal (but not procedural) justice are positively related to SRS, which acts as a mediator between these three justice dimensions and repurchase intentions and PWOM. Further analysis indicates that duration of customer-firm relationship negatively moderates the link between interpersonal justice and SRS. These findings provide a theoretical explanation of inconsistent findings in previous studies regarding the importance of interactional justice. For managers, our findings indicate that service providers should always pay attention to providing fair compensation, truthful information and fair interpersonal treatment to complainants, while the interpersonal treatment during service recovery matters even more to customers whose relationships with the provider are in the development phase.