Determinants of Pre-Service Failure Satisfaction and Post-Service Recovery Satisfaction and their Impact on Repurchase and Word-of-Mouth Intentions

A gap in the literature was found in terms of customer satisfaction before and after faults occurred in service delivery, i.e., pre-service failure satisfaction and post-service recovery satisfaction. The aim of this study is fivefold. First, to identify the effect of service quality and food quality on pre-service failure satisfaction. Second, to explore the effect of compensation and apology on post-service recovery satisfaction. Next, to test the effect of pre-service failure satisfaction on post-service recovery satisfaction. Fourth, to investigate the effect of pre-service failure satisfaction on repurchase and word-of-mouth intentions. Finally, to determine the effect of post-service recovery satisfaction on repurchase and word-of-mouth intentions. Convenience sampling method was adopted to ensure a high level response rate. Data were collected by a questionnaire developed on the ground of prior research. A total of 311 questionnaires were received valid out of 400 questionnaires distributed to restaurant customers in Saudi Arabia. The results revealed that service quality and food quality exerted significant effects on pre-service failure satisfaction, compensation and apology exerted significant effects post-service recovery satisfaction, pre-service failure satisfaction had a significant effect on post-service recovery satisfaction. Finally, the results showed that both pre-service failure satisfaction and post-service recovery satisfaction had significant effects on repurchased and word-of-mouth intentions. It was concluded that service quality, food quality, compensation and apology were predictors of customer satisfaction in service failure and service recovery context in restaurants. The paper contributed to the literature can be seen through studying customer satisfaction as a variable of two sub-dimensions: pre-service failure satisfaction and post-service recovery satisfaction. Although the two variables are different, their effects on consumer outcomes are significant. Note that the effect of the second variable is greater than the effect of the first variable. The study recommends restaurants to use service recovery strategies such as compensation and apology in order to maintain customer satisfaction and to improve the intention of repurchase and positive word-of-mouth.