Effects of Service Failure on Consumer Responses across Failure Types: A Moderating Role of Intimacy

This paper investigates a moderating role of intimacy in two service failure types (outcome and process failure), considering two consumer responses: buffering and betrayal effect. Study 1 employs a 3 (failure type: no vs. outcome vs. process) × 2 (intimacy level: high vs. low) experimental design. Findings show that in case involving outcome failure, a high intimacy group has higher service evaluations (satisfaction, re-patronage intention, and positive word-of-mouth intention) than a low intimacy group, substantiating the existence of buffering effect. In case involving process failure, however, service evaluations are not different depending on the level of intimacy, invalidating the existence of betrayal effect. Study 2 analyzes the effects of intimacy (high vs. low) on service evaluations in the setting of process failure and following failed recovery. The results reveal that betrayal effect is indeed present in times of double deviation, process failure and following failed recovery. Consequently, this research offers service providers practical insights on how to utilize intimacy based on the classification of service failure types.