“货币补偿”总是最优策略吗?——高星级酒店不同服务失误归因下的情境研究

Is Monetary Compensation Always Optimal?A Scenario Study on Different Causes of Service Failure in Upscale Hotels

酒店服务的异质性和顾客需求的多样性使得服务失误在所难免。服务补救成为酒店修复服务失误,赢得顾客口碑和再次光顾的重要举措。在酒店管理实践中,货币补偿颇受管理者青睐,通常被作为应对服务失误的首要选择。然而,货币补偿是否为服务失误发生时的最优选择?文章以高星级酒店为研究背景,对服务失误进行情境设计,检验不同失误归因下货币补偿和非货币补偿的补偿满意度差异。数据分析结果显示:酒店因素导致的服务失误情境下,相比货币补偿而言,非货币补偿具有更好的补偿效果;其他顾客因素和顾客自身因素导致的服务失误情境下,货币补偿与非货币补偿间没有显著效果差异。此外,补偿满意度对顾客信任、重购意向与口碑有显著正向影响。

With more and more international brands entering the upscale hotel market in China, competition is getting intense increasingly. Nowadays hotels aim to improve customer satisfaction and gain customer loyalty by providing quality and flawless services. However, service failure is almost inevitable due to the heterogeneity of hotel services and the diversity of customer demand. Service failure is one of the most vital factors that cause customers to switch to other hotels. When service failure occurs, monetary compensation is the most widely used compensation strategy in practice. In the meanwhile, there is no evidence to indicate that monetary compensation is superior over other compensation approaches. Service failure may be derived from different causes. This study attempts to compare the effects of monetary and nonmonetary compensations under three causes of service failure： hotel caused service failure, service failure caused by other customers, service failure caused by the customer himself/ herself. Furthermore, this study aims to examine the impact of compensation satisfaction on customer attitude and behavior, including customer trust, intention to revisit and the word-of-mouth effect. The targeted respondents are EMBA and MBA students who had upscale hotel service consumption experiences during the year preceding the survey. A 3x3 scenario plan is designed according to three types of service failure causes and three compensation strategies, namely monetary compensation, nonmonetary compensation and no compensation （as a control scenario）. A 7-point Likert scale is employed to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty under each scenario. Questionnaires are designed with each including three failure causes and one compensation strategy. Each respondent is required to complete one questionnaire only to avoid comparison between different compensation types. The survey was conducted during July and October 2012 and finally 494 usable questionnaires were used for data analysis. Both ANOVA analysis and contrast test were employed for the comparison of compensation satisfaction levels, and a regression analysis was used to examine the impact of compensation satisfaction on customer loyalty for each scenario. The empirical results showed that （1） customers＇ satisfaction with compensation strategy adopted was significantly higher than the satisfaction without any compensation strategy adopted; （2） when service failure was caused by the hotel, nonmonetary compensation contains significant superiority over the monetary alternative; （3） when the service failure is caused by other customers or the customer himself/herself, monetary and nonmonetary compensation strategies did not have significant difference in improving customer satisfaction; and （4） compensation satisfaction had significant positive impact on customer＇s trust, intention to revisit and word-of-mouth effect. The findings provide new insights into the effects of different compensation strategies under various service failure situations and provide practical implications for managers in the hospitality industry. When service failure occurs, compensation is necessary to restore customer satisfaction no matter who caused the failure. If service failure is derived from the hotel, nonmonetary compensation is better to restore customer satisfaction and loyalty than monetary compensation. If service failure is caused by the customer himself/herself or others, then the hotel could adopt either monetary or nonmonetary compensation strategy to regain customer satisfaction and loyalty. The implementation of appropriate compensation strategies can enhance the relationship between the hotel and its customers, and increase the likelihood that customers will be loyal to the hotel.