2.3 service failure

2.3 service failure

Service failure occurs when the service does not live up to the standards or expectations set by the customer (Bell and Zemke ,1987). Dissatisfactory experiences have been labeled as negative incidents (Bitner at al ,1994;1990; Keaveney, 1995) or unsuccessful processes that trigger failed encounters (Roos & Strandvick, 1997; Smith, Bolton & Wagner, 1999; Coulter & Ligas, 2000).

The hotel sector service failure is inevitable because in the hospitality industry there is a high level of human contact which can lead to failure of a service (Mattila 2001).

Although service failures are viewed as a defect or problem area within the organization, Zemke and Bell (1990) believed that the true test of an organization of their commitment to service quality is how it responds to failure of a product or a service, when it has failed to live up to the expectations of customers (Parasuraman et al.,1985,1993;Oliver,1997).