Restaurant Service Failure Recoveries: Role Expectations in a Chinese Cultural Setting

ABSTRACT This research explores service failure-recovery strategies within the Chinese context in order to create a consumer-centered typology of failure types and expected roles of restaurant service providers in recovery attempts. Findings indicate that consumers classify recovery strategies into three categories of human intervention, monetary incentives, and no response. Any recovery attempt is far more beneficial than none. Human intervention is expected from the service provider when the failure is part of the core service product while monetary incentives are expected when the failure is peripheral to the core product. Although this finding confirms previous research from the West, culture is found to influence what the definitions of peripheral and core products are, with the Chinese cultural emphasis on collectivism influencing both failure seriousness ratings and expectations for recovery strategies. The importance of culture within the restaurant context is discussed. Implications for restaurant service providers are included.