Getting emotional twice: an analysis of patterns of emotional states after failure and recovery

Service failure and recovery are powerful triggers of customer emotional reactions. However, research has overlooked the combined effect of emotions triggered by both service failure and service recovery on customers’ satisfaction with complaint handling (SATCOM) and with the company overall (OS). This study addresses this research gap through two studies. In study 1 we summarize theoretical and empirical findings of emotional reactions in the service failure and recovery episodes. In Study 2 we experimentally manipulate service failure and recovery attributes in two scenarios to trigger emotions and estimate a model of the effect of the emotions on customers’ satisfaction. Findings show that different patterns of emotions following both service failure and service recovery differently affects SATCOM and OS. The authors discuss theoretical and managerial importance of emotions in complaint handling research.