The effects of perceived service recovery justice on customer affection, loyalty, and word-of-mouth

Purpose – This research aims to examine the consequences of customer justice perception and the role of customer affection in the context of service failure and recovery. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings – The authors' findings indicate that procedural and interactional justice perceptions significantly influence customer affection, with distributive justice perception being significant only if the failure severity is high. The present research also provides evidence for the links between customer affection and loyalty, and customer affection and word-of-mouth respectively, indicating that strengthening the emotional tie between customers and companies is crucial after service failure and recovery. Research limitations/implications – The present research makes a significant contribution by demonstrating the relationship between customer affection and other key constructs such as justice perception, customer loyalty, and word-of-mouth intention. Practical implications – Customers' distributive justice perception has a significant impact on customer affection especially in a severe service failure situation. Therefore, managers may need to provide monetary compensation for service recovery in a timely manner along with apologies to enhance customer affection when customers experience a high-magnitude service failure. On the other hand, in the case of a low-magnitude service recovery, providing apologies and prompt response to service failures may be enough to win customers back. Originality/value – The current findings highlight the importance of customer affection in service recovery. The effect of customers' distributive justice perception on customer affection, which is moderated by service failure severity, is also highlighted.