Editorial
The Gist
- Service recovery importance. Effective customer service recovery can enhance customer loyalty and transform a negative experience into a positive relationship.
- Building trust matters. Resolving issues swiftly builds trust with customers and leads them to perceive your brand more favorably even after a service failure.
- Empower your teams. Empowering service teams to make decisions can streamline the recovery process and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
I have a favorite customer service anecdote that I’ve been using in most of my workshops for many years. Some may even say that I need a new story! However, the reason I stick with this story is because it really drives home a valuable message about effective customer service recovery.
Years ago, I was at home with my parents, and we were craving Asian food. We had a go-to place from which we always ordered. I took the initiative, picked up the phone and placed the order (dim sums, pad thai, kung pao chicken). I probably ended up ordering more than we could consume!
The person on the other end of the phone confirmed that the order would be delivered in about 45 minutes. So here we were, patiently sipping on our glass of wine and engaging in some interesting banter. With every sip of wine, we got hungrier. Forty-five minutes passed, and there was no sign of the food. Finally an hour passed, and it felt like the right time to call and follow up.
When I called, the person on the other end of the phone was clueless and actually surprised that the food had not yet reached us. He asked for a few minutes to get back to me. Another 15 minutes passed, and no one got back. I called again, and the person was still clueless, saying that they were trying to locate the delivery agent and could not get in touch with him.
Another 15 minutes passed. By now it had been one and a half hours since I had placed the order. My parents were rather hungry and decided to go for the leftovers in the refrigerator. I was determined to wait but was now hungry and angry.
Inside My Negative Customer Experience
My phone rang, and as soon as I picked it up, the man on the other end said, “Mr. Mata, I am extremely sorry that your food has not reached you till now. I understand you have been waiting for a long time, and I also understand how hungry you must be at this stage.”
Something about this opening statement calmed me down — just a little. He then went on to say that they were still trying to locate the delivery agent, and, in the meantime, they had started preparing a fresh order that could be dispatched on priority within the next five to seven minutes. At this point, while this was not the best solution as I would still have to wait, I felt that at least they are taking some action and offering me an alternative.
Before the conversation closed, he introduced himself as the manager of the restaurant and promised to call me back with an update in the next five to seven minutes. Sure enough, in four minutes I got a call from him saying that they had located the delivery agent, and he would be at my doorstep in the next two minutes. Then the manager said, “Mr. Mata, owing to our delay in delivering your food, we will not be charging you for this order. This is my number. Please reach out to me directly for any future orders or anything you require from us.”
I was famished by this time and gobbled up the food, and even my parents joined eventually and enjoyed the dim sums. As I was finishing my meal, the manager called and apologized once again along with a subtle inquiry on whether I enjoyed the food.
Related Article: Bad Customer Service Exposed: 5 Stories to Learn FromThe Role of Customer Service Recovery
This was almost 10 years back. Do I still order from the same restaurant, considering they delayed my food by almost an hour and had no clue where their delivery agent was?
The answer is “Yes.”
The reason behind this is the customer service recovery paradox (SRP). This is a situation in which a customer thinks more highly of a company after the company has corrected a problem with their service, compared to how they would regard the company if non-faulty service had been provided in the first place. The term was first defined in 1992 by McCollough and Bharadwaj and later adopted by others.
Webinar
Sep
25
CMS Briefing: A Live Look at What’s Next in AI-Driven Platforms
Learn how leading organizations are using AI‑driven tools to publish faster, personalize smarter and stay secure.
Register
Webinar
Sep
25
Call Spoofing Trends Financial Institutions Can't Afford to Ignore
Don't let robocalls sabotage your customer relationships. Learn how to secure your voice channel.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Ready or Not: How Data-First Organizations Are Unlocking Agentforce Potential
Learn how to cut through the noise, activate Agentforce and build a Salesforce AI strategy that actually delivers.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
CX Reality Check: What Your Customers Are Really Thinking
Register now and get the insights you need to not just meet rising expectations, but exceed them.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Content Leaders Collective: What a Good CCMS Actually Looks Like
Discover how content leaders transform clunky systems into growth engines — and why your competitors are ahead.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Hype to High-Impact CX Strategies That Actually Scale
Turn buzzworthy AI and outsourcing trends into measurable CX wins with fresh 2025 data.
Watch Now
The reason for the paradox stems from the organization's ability to build trust with the customer by solving a problem, even though that problem was created by the organization itself, rather than through the routine services they provide. Another possible reason is that when things go wrong, there is a greater opportunity for a brand to communicate with customers compared to when regular service is provided.
Related Article: Turn Angry Customers Into Your Company's Best FriendsStrategies for Effective Customer Service Recovery
For the paradox to kick in, the key factor is how customer service recovery is carried out. There are a host of potential models and steps to follow, and many hospitality brands even develop their own models. However, even before the implementation of any model, there are a few questions that service organizations should ask themselves.
- What is your organization’s mindset toward complaints or when things go wrong? Is there a tendency to brush it under the carpet, or is it talked about openly and treated as something that happens in a service environment? Are these issues seen as opportunities to learn, recover and ultimately boost customer loyalty?
- Have you created empowerment frameworks that allow team members to take action and make decisions without delay and without consulting others?
- Do you provide customer service training around recovery? What are the steps, and what should employees do and say?
These questions serve as a starting point for reflection for everyone in a service-oriented organization.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
