Relational Damage and Relationship Repair

Abstract

Using attribution and balance theories, the authors argue that service employee-customer relationship transgressions are events that can damage particular service relationships. The results of two experiments involving service customers and two different service types demonstrate two different damaging effects of service transgressions—a locus effect and a transference effect that stem from customers' commitment to various relationships with service providers. The findings illustrate the need for service managers to focus efforts on relationship repair alongside service recovery. An examination of two different approaches to relationship repair suggest that proactive approaches (i.e., building customer commitment, such as extra-role relationships with customers) appear to be more effective than more reactive ones enacted in concert with basic recovery efforts. The findings also suggest that while extra-role relationships between service employees and customers entail risks to the firm, since transgressions in these relationships can damage the customer-company relationship, encouraging these relationships can act as a proactive repair strategy since these relationships can also serve to buffer the effects of service transgressions.