Analysis Of Service Failure Incident And Service Recovery Strategies: Case Study Of United Airlines

Description of service delivery failure incident/scenario

One of the recent companies that have experienced the negative consequences of service failure is United Airlines. The company had to forcefully eject one of the passengers because the plane was full and the passenger was adamant to wait for another plane or to change the means. The move taken by United Airlines is just a reflection of reality of how most airplanes operate. The companies seek to operate at maximum capacity, since on flights there is a ratio of passengers who do not show up. Using appropriate service quality theories, I will demonstrate what exactly went wrong in terms of service deliverance by the United Airlines.

The section will focus on the background of the scandal, quality service theories related to the scandal and the quality of customer service at United Airlines

The scandal over the expulsion by force of a passenger of a United flight has put in doubt again a model as millionaire as controversial (Victor and Stevens, 2017). Simplifying, with overbooking airlines sell more tickets than the seats they have available. They do so with the premise of operating at maximum capacity, since on flights there is a ratio of passengers who do not show up. And leaving a seat free is losing an opportunity to earn money. It should be noted that airline companies have complicated calculation systems to predict how many passengers will not be presented to flights, always based on previous data. That is, statistics is pulled. It takes more advantage of overbooking in cities where passengers have it easier to find travel alternatives if they run out of seats. For example, in Madrid, where there are ‘B options’ such as the AVE, the train or the bus to get to the rest of Spain. In addition, in most cases different airlines compete on the same routes, so you can also buy a ticket at another company with which you were flying (The Guardian 2017). Another example is Chicago, where the flight of discord came from. It is a United hub, so there are many connections from other flights. As flights arrive late, many lose their connections. United seizes and sells more tickets on flights departing from that point. Prediction models are getting better and better (The Guardian 2017). It is known, among other things, that on Sundays people usually show up because they do not want to be late to work on Mondays. And it is known that in smaller airports and with few alternatives all tend to be presented. So, you are playing with those premises to know where or when to sell more. In 2016, according to data from the Department of Transportation cited by Business Insider, some 475,000 passengers had to leave their flights in the United States when they were ready to fly. 40,629 did so involuntarily (Schacht and Levett, 2017). United removed 3,765 passengers involuntarily in 2016 , yielding a ratio of 0.43 passengers in 10,000. But airlines must also pay a price for this strategy. It is what is intended to compensate those who suffer overbooking, although it is still a very small part of what they earn selling more tickets. Bloomberg reports that as much they will have to pay about 1,200 euros if they have to take a passenger out of a flight, so they can recover the amount quickly with overbooking (Schacht and Levett, 2017).

Service quality and customer satisfaction theories

While United Airlines and other airlines companies are intending to serve the “most needy” customers as a way of improving their services, they end up disproportionately inconveniencing the few customers who may have urgent need but the scarcity of resources forces them to postpone the urgency of their needs. Different service quality theories do not support the approach used by United Airlines.  In order to incorporate different perspectives, Garvin (1984) highlights eight dimensions of quality as a frame of reference for the analysis of strategic planning: Performance characteristics (Tavana, 2012) ; reliability, which is determined by the probability of a malfunction; attachment, which is determined by the ability to meet specifications; durability (Bolton & Drew, 1991); aspects of the service, which is determined by speed, courtesy, competence and ease of correcting problems; esthetic and perceived quality. Although this perspective is notoriously biased towards objective quality, Lovelock (1996, p.464) asserts that it has generalizable value for services, but requires a different approach to measuring service quality due to its distinctive nature.

From a pragmatic perspective, United Airlines failed to meet all dimension of service quality. Talbot (2010) establishes five levels of evaluation of the performance of an organization according to the satisfaction obtained (comparison of expectations). The majority of clients use, according to Talbot (2010), five dimensions to carry out this evaluation. The first dimension is reliability. It is the capacity that the company that provides the service must have to offer it in a reliable, safe and careful way. Overbooking is an indication that the United Airlines does not offer reliable services (Talbot, 2010). The second dimension is the security. United Airlines violated this dimension. According to this dimension, a company should not only the care of the client’s interests is important, but the organization must also demonstrate its concern in this regard to give the client greater satisfaction. The third dimension is the responsiveness. It refers to the attitude shown to help customers and to provide fast service; also part of this point is timely compliance with the commitments made, as well as how accessible the organization is for the client, that is, the possibilities of getting in touch with it and the feasibility of achieving it. The fourth dimension is empathy (Svenson, 2001). It means the willingness of the company to offer customers personalized care and attention. United Airlines did not meet this dimension because under this dimension, good service requires a strong commitment and involvement with the client, knowing in depth their characteristics and their specific requirements. The fifth dimension is intangibility (Mcgrath & Bates, 2017). Although there is intangibility in the service, in itself it is intangible, it is important to consider some aspects that derive from said intangibility: the services can not be kept in inventory; if the service production capacity is not used in its entirety, it is lost forever. The last dimension is human interaction (Mayer, Bowen & Moulton, 2003). To provide service it is necessary to establish a contact between the organization and the client. It is a relationship in which the client participates in the development of the service.

Service recovery program and strategies

United Airlines has poor customer service. Customer service involves task-oriented activities, other than proactive sales, that include interactions with clients in person, through telecommunications or by mail (Lovelock, 1990, p.491). By adding the above to the definition of service itself, a definition can be proposed for customer service and additionally establish the means and their purpose (Denton, 1989). The basic objective is to improve the experiences that the client has with the service of the organization. It is necessary to note the importance of Lovelock’s proposal, but it should be clarified that this is part of the management of the quality of the service and, therefore, of the implementation of integrated quality management systems (a more strategic than operational approach) (Diamantopoulos, 2005).

What United Airlines did is not in line with what a quality service should be like as per the Nordic model (Grönroos, 1978). According to the model, the quality perceived by clients is the integration of technical quality (what is given) and functional quality (how it is given), and these are related to the corporate image (Grönroos, 1978). The image is a basic element to measure the perceived quality.

One of the best recommendations for United Airlines is to focus on client needs. As suggested by Nordic model, the client is influenced by the result of the service, but also by the way he receives it and the corporate image (Grönroos, 1978). All this transversally studies the differences between expected service and perception of the service.

Another recommendation for United Airlines is to offer realistic expectation. Overbooking is not good. Unrealistic expectations contrasted with good experienced quality can lead to a low perceived total quality. Similarly unrealistic expectations may hinder reliability and hence violate what Talbot (2010) termed as a central dimension of service quality

The other recommendation for United Airlines is to restore corporate image. The quality experience is influenced by the corporate / local image and, in turn, by two different components: technical quality and functional quality (Grönroos, 1978).  The technical quality focuses on a technically correct service and that leads to an acceptable result.

Conclusion

From the analysis, it is apparent that United Airlines violated the key dimension of service quality. Although overbooking was a way to ensure that all clients are gathered for, United Airlines exceeded the expectation. In addition, the company could have negotiated with the client rather than forcefully throwing him out.

References

Bolton, RN, & Drew, JH (1991) A multistage model of customers’ assessments of service quality and value. Journal of Consumer Research, 17 (4), pp. 375-384.

Denton, DK (1989) Quality service : How America’s top companies are competing in the customer service revolution … and how we can too . Houston Texas, USA: Gulf Publishing Company.Top of Form

Diamantopoulos, A (2005) The C-OARSE procedure for scale development in marketing: A comment. International Journal of Research in Marketing , 22, 1-9.

Grönroos, C (1978) A Service Oriented Approach to Marketing of Services. European Journal of Marketing , 12 (8), 588-601.

Lovelock, CH (1983) Classifying Services to Gain Strategic Marketing Insights. Journal of Marketing, 47, pp.9-20.

Mayer, KJ, Bowen, JT & Moulton, MR (2003) A model of the descriptors of service process. In Journal of Services Marketing , 17 (6), 621-639.

Mcgrath, J., & Bates, B. (2017). The little book of big management theories…and how to use them. Harlow : Pearson Business

Schacht, K and Levett, C (2017) Passengers removed from overbooked flights on US airlines – in data, The Guardian, Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2017/apr/14/passengers-removed-from-overbooked-flights-on-us-airlines-in-data [Accessed on 10/6/18]

Svenson, G (2001) The quality of bi-directional service quality in dyadic service encounter. Journal of Services Marketing, 15 (5), 357- 378.

Talbot, C (2010) Theories of performance organizational and service improvement in the public domain. Oxford, Oxford University Press. https://cmich.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://lib.myilibrary.com/detail.asp?ID=290450. [Accessed on 10/6/18]Bottom of Form

Tavana, M (2012) Decision making theories and practices from analysis to strategy. Hershey, PA, Business Science Reference. https://site.ebrary.com/id/10553311. [Accessed on 10/6/18]Bottom of Form

The Guardian (2017) Overbooked seats: it’s a bad way for airlines to do business, The Guardian, Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/17/overbooked-seats-its-a-bad-way-for-airlines-to-do-business [Accessed on 10/6/18]

Victor, D and Stevens, M (2017) United Airlines Passenger Is Dragged From an Overbooked Flight, The New York Times, Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/business/united-flight-passenger-dragged.html [Accessed on 10/6/18]Bottom of Form