The Impacts of Service Failure and Recovery Efforts on Airline Customers’ Emotions and Satisfaction

Using online customer reviews for airline services, this study examines the impacts of various attributes of airline service failures and subsequent recovery actions on customer consumption emotions, satisfaction, and recommendation likelihood through text mining, sentiment analysis, and path analysis. Findings suggest that causes, magnitude, and consequences of service failures influence customers’ positive and negative emotions. Providing compensation for the current trip, either monetary or nonmonetary, can alleviate customers’ negative emotions, while providing compensation for future travel does not have any impact on emotions. Findings further suggest that positive employee attitudes, behaviors, and prompt service recovery actions generate more positive emotions while alleviating negative emotions compared to compensations provided. Service failures and timely, reliable, and satisfactory recovery actions have greater influences on travelers who fly with full-service airlines and in business class compared with travelers who fly with low-cost airlines and in economy class. Customers’ emotions influence their satisfaction and recommendation likelihood.