Does social class matter in recovering self-service technology failures?

Purpose This paper aims to examine the interaction effect among the subjective social class, service level and recovery type on post-failure service evaluations (recovery satisfaction and willingness to spread positive word-of-mouth). Design/methodology/approach A total of 270 US consumers were recruited via Amazon MTurk. This study adopted a 2 (Subjective social class: high vs low) x 2 (Service level: luxury vs mid-scale) x 2 (Recovery type: customer self-recovery vs joint recovery) between subjects' factorial design using a scenario-based survey method. Findings The results from the three-way multivariate analysis of covariance confirmed that a joint recovery is ineffective for high subjective social class individuals in a mid-scale hotel setting. Moreover, the moderated mediation analysis revealed that this tendency can be explained by high subjective social class individuals' tendency to attribute blame externally to self-service technologies (SSTs). Practical implications The results of this study suggest that mid-scale hotels should deploy employees in the SST service area based on the profile of their main customers. If a mid-scale hotel is positioning itself to appeal to high subjective social class customers, then employees should be aware of the fact that customers may not be highly satisfied if they receive assistance. Originality/value This study expands the current knowledge on customers' psychological differences based on subjective social class. Furthermore, the findings of this study contribute to academia by providing evidence of external attribution among high subjective social class individuals.