Would the blind box be more effective? The role of uncertainty in consumers’ post-recovery satisfaction

The tourism and hospitality industries are notably highly likely to experience service failures due to frequent contact with service personnel. These industries actively seek innovative strategies to enhance consumers’ post-recovery satisfaction without increasing costs. Drawing on social exchange theory and regulatory focus theory, this study examines whether uncertainty can be an effective recovery method for service failures through four experiments. Findings indicate that uncertainty can enhance perceived fun and post-recovery satisfaction in situations of low-severe failure severity and hedonic consumption. However, in cases of high-severity failures and utilitarian consumption, uncertainty can lead to perceived insincerity and reduce post-recovery satisfaction. We also investigate the moderating role of customer inoculation and find that customer inoculation is effective in amplifying the positive impact of the uncertainty effect and mitigating its negative impact. This paper expands the literature on uncertainty utilization and service recovery strategies by determining whether and when uncertainty is appropriate in service recovery.