Transactional customers easily walk away when they face service failure because they see a mere constrainment of their immediate consumption goals. They simply switch. Relationship customers on the other hand feel “hurt” because of the deep emotional commitment in the relationship. The organization has the opportunity to use the service failure experience to deepen the relationship quality depending on its institutional processes for handling service failures. Long-standing customers feel a transgression of their service rights when they perceive that the service provider has failed to meet obligations within the relational exchange contract, and the possible occurrence of customer-brand relationship distention is not farfetched because of the very imperfection of human nature. As the saying goes “accidents do happen”
What this means for your business is that your CRM system and processes must be able to provide strategic information on relationship and transactional customers so effective engagement processes at resolution of service transgression may evolve. Relationship disengagement often results from improper handling of service transgression. Research suggests that what customers really want is a simple “sorry”; provide avenues for ventilation of grievances, and follow-up with service recovery initiatives. However, are you likely to receive customer’s forgiveness, what are the issues involved in procuring customers forgiveness, and how timely should the engagement with the customers be? Are there consequences for ignoring service transgression recoveries? In this digital world of impersonalized relationships, what resolution mechanisms and processes, do we adopt? Our team of experienced practitioners would like to collaborate with you on this journey to becoming a customer value leader.