

The Service Recovery Paradox - FreshCode
http://blog.krit.com/post/28124453588/the-service-recovery-paradox

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FreshCode
I first experienced this when doing customer support for an online music store
I built. A technically illiterate customer would email me with a simple
question like, "How do I download my music?" even though the download links
are _right there_. When I answered them with detailed instructions within 5
minutes, they would become evangelists for the store by recommending us to all
their friends because of the "amazing service".

If those customers had spent just a minute figuring out how to find something
they downloaded, I could not have helped them and they would not have become
as loyal.

~~~
Xcelerate
This is very interesting. I will have to keep that in mind because I would
have the temptation (not sure that I'd act on it) to say "Click the download
link?"

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bradleyland
This result doesn't seem contradictory in the least.

* All services have outages. Customers know this, even if they express otherwise.

* Prior to an outage with a new service, responsiveness to outages is an unknown to customers. Uncertainty is a common source of anxiety, resulting in dissatisfaction.

* After a provider has responded positively to an outage, the uncertainty is alleviated, leaving the consumer with a greater sense of confidence. Remember, the consumer knows that regardless of provider, they run the risk of experiencing an outage, so this confidence becomes an anchor.

The tipping point is when frequent outages outweight the benefit of certainty.
There comes a point at which your customer deems you to be incompetent,
despite the hustle you exhibit in the face of a failure.

~~~
FreshCode
"Uncertainty is a common source of anxiety, resulting in dissatisfaction," is
an assumption. When I sign up for a new service, I'm not thinking about
outages. Conventional wisdom says that reliable services that are always
online would be perceived as being more trustworthy than those which go down.
It is a paradox because an occasional outage correctly handled results in
greater customer loyalty than if _no outage occurs, ever_. Yes, there will be
tipping point where the inconvenience of too many outages, even if handled
well, will outweigh any loyalty gained from recovery.

~~~
bradleyland
It's not an assumption at all. Anxiety is well understood to have negative
emotional effects. I wholely disagree with the "I'm not thinking about
outages" point.

It's natural -- responsible, even -- to consider the "what if" any time you're
introducing a new dependency on a service. You may not consider it
consciously, but even the most reliable services we use fail us sometimes. It
would seem impossible not to develop this sense at some level.

> Conventional wisdom says that reliable services that are always online would
> be perceived as being more trustworthy than those which go down.

That's not conventional wisdom, it's naivety. 100% reliability doesn't exist
over any significant time scale, thus the assertion of this particular
"conventional wisdom" is a wisdom that no one has developed. If it is
anything, it is a conventional misconception. We might tell ourselves this
with our consious minds, but we are all weary of the risk of failure at some
level.

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Maxious
Does anybody else find it funny that you can't contact Krit using Krit or
phone or SMS? But you can contact them via email, facebook, twitter or tumblr
ask?

And doesn't this miss the whole engaged consumer phenomenon - I don't want you
to fix the problem, my day has already been ruined, I want to express my anger
about your business on all my social networks (earning me kudos) and decide
not to do business with others in the same way!

~~~
FreshCode
Maxious, you make good points about reachability. We should be as open to
criticism on every channel as we are in encouraging it. Right now we are
focusing on our web app (krit.com/m) where customers can leave feedback for
nearby venues when they see our signage. "Krit.com" is listed as a business on
there, and we do respond to feedback. That being said, we should have a phone
contact on there.

However, I disagree on the engaged customer phenomenon. Customers would rather
have their problem resolved with amazing service than just vent about it on
social networks with no resolution. This is bad for the customer and bad
business. Managers would rather save face by comping your meal and resolving a
problem that would otherwise go unnoticed (to them). If an amicable solution
cannot be reached over Krit, then you can always go to Twitter or Facebook,
but at least now there's a chance the issue will be resolved harmoniously.

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webjunkie
Okay, everyone invent some service failures!

~~~
FreshCode
Zappos actually wants little things to go wrong so they can go over-the-top in
fixing them. I would not be surprised if they intentionally engineered service
failures.

