Customers' reaction to servicescape failure and associated recovery strategy: an exploratory study in the food service industry

The term ‘servicescape’ refers to the physical environment in a service encounter which elicits internal reactions from customers leading to the display of approach or avoidance behaviours. This study examines the effects of servicescape failures on customers’ responses to the associated recovery st...

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Main Authors: Chua, Bee Lia, Othman, Mohhiddin, Boo, Huey Chern, Abdul Karim, Muhammad Shahrim, Ramachandran, Sridar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia 2009
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13844/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13844/1/Customers%E2%80%99%20reaction%20to%20servicescape%20.pdf
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author Chua, Bee Lia
Othman, Mohhiddin
Boo, Huey Chern
Abdul Karim, Muhammad Shahrim
Ramachandran, Sridar
author_facet Chua, Bee Lia
Othman, Mohhiddin
Boo, Huey Chern
Abdul Karim, Muhammad Shahrim
Ramachandran, Sridar
author_sort Chua, Bee Lia
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The term ‘servicescape’ refers to the physical environment in a service encounter which elicits internal reactions from customers leading to the display of approach or avoidance behaviours. This study examines the effects of servicescape failures on customers’ responses to the associated recovery strategies in the food service industry. Using the critical incident technique (CIT), data on 226 servicescape failures and 287 recovery strategies were collected from 174 informants who had experienced servicescape dissatisfaction and encountered recovery strategies over various types of the food service industry. The content analysis disclosed that cleanliness issues were the most reported problem in the food service industry, followed by design issues, social issues, and functionality issues. Customers exhibited negative reactions to failures, displaying emotional, physiological, and cognitive responses. It is appears that servicescape failures can significantly diminish perceptions of service performance and evoke feelings of dissatisfaction. The results suggest that customers’ recovery effort evaluations are not much influenced by the type of servicescape failures; overall, a combination of prompt action-oriented responses and sincere empathetic-oriented responses is perceived as the most important determinant of recovery effectiveness.
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institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
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language English
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spelling upm-138442018-07-17T07:28:49Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13844/ Customers' reaction to servicescape failure and associated recovery strategy: an exploratory study in the food service industry Chua, Bee Lia Othman, Mohhiddin Boo, Huey Chern Abdul Karim, Muhammad Shahrim Ramachandran, Sridar The term ‘servicescape’ refers to the physical environment in a service encounter which elicits internal reactions from customers leading to the display of approach or avoidance behaviours. This study examines the effects of servicescape failures on customers’ responses to the associated recovery strategies in the food service industry. Using the critical incident technique (CIT), data on 226 servicescape failures and 287 recovery strategies were collected from 174 informants who had experienced servicescape dissatisfaction and encountered recovery strategies over various types of the food service industry. The content analysis disclosed that cleanliness issues were the most reported problem in the food service industry, followed by design issues, social issues, and functionality issues. Customers exhibited negative reactions to failures, displaying emotional, physiological, and cognitive responses. It is appears that servicescape failures can significantly diminish perceptions of service performance and evoke feelings of dissatisfaction. The results suggest that customers’ recovery effort evaluations are not much influenced by the type of servicescape failures; overall, a combination of prompt action-oriented responses and sincere empathetic-oriented responses is perceived as the most important determinant of recovery effectiveness. Penerbit Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia 2009 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13844/1/Customers%E2%80%99%20reaction%20to%20servicescape%20.pdf Chua, Bee Lia and Othman, Mohhiddin and Boo, Huey Chern and Abdul Karim, Muhammad Shahrim and Ramachandran, Sridar (2009) Customers' reaction to servicescape failure and associated recovery strategy: an exploratory study in the food service industry. Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Arts, 1 (2). pp. 23-47. ISSN 1985-8914; ESSN: 2590-3837 http://www.jthca.org/#!online-issues/x1irv
spellingShingle Chua, Bee Lia
Othman, Mohhiddin
Boo, Huey Chern
Abdul Karim, Muhammad Shahrim
Ramachandran, Sridar
Customers' reaction to servicescape failure and associated recovery strategy: an exploratory study in the food service industry
title Customers' reaction to servicescape failure and associated recovery strategy: an exploratory study in the food service industry
title_full Customers' reaction to servicescape failure and associated recovery strategy: an exploratory study in the food service industry
title_fullStr Customers' reaction to servicescape failure and associated recovery strategy: an exploratory study in the food service industry
title_full_unstemmed Customers' reaction to servicescape failure and associated recovery strategy: an exploratory study in the food service industry
title_short Customers' reaction to servicescape failure and associated recovery strategy: an exploratory study in the food service industry
title_sort customers' reaction to servicescape failure and associated recovery strategy: an exploratory study in the food service industry
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13844/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13844/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13844/1/Customers%E2%80%99%20reaction%20to%20servicescape%20.pdf