Dissatisfaction with Services

In stagnating, competitive markets existing customers are worth their weight in gold. Retaining existing customers rather than obtaining new customers is becoming the guiding star for an increasing audience of service companies. A common assertion within the service marketing literature is that successful service recovery may improve dissatisfied customers' repurchase intention, perception of and attitude toward the supplier. In short: they are assumed to be more loyal than ordinary customers. Dissatisfaction with Services extends our current understanding of customer relations by investigating dissatisfied complaining customers reactions to supplier initiated service recovery. It investigates this assertion by 1) discussing the customer - supplier interaction, 2) identifying important factors influencing satisfaction with service recovery and future repurchase intention and 3) analyzing the consequences of satisfaction with service recovery on corporate image and future repurchase intention. Three groups of customers are studied; dissatisfied complaining customers, dissatisfied non-complaining customers and ordinary satisfied customers.