過去對於顧客在經歷服務失敗之後如何給予服務補償的研究多半是以服務提供者的角度解釋其所提供的服務補償方案對顧客所產生的效果與影響。然而調節焦點理論認為，不同目標傾向的顧客會追求不同的最終狀態，當顧客所追求的目標與其心中的目標傾向相符時則會感到「感覺對了」，進而達到較高的滿意度。另一方面，企業在服務失敗後，有可能在成本或其他因素的考量下，以加入說服訊息的方式取代會產生實際支出的實質補償方式來設計服務補償方案，而若干研究也指出不同方向的說服訊息對於不同目標傾向顧客的滿意度會產生相當程度的提升。因此，服務提供者如何謀求能夠符合顧客目標傾向的補償措施，進一步創造忠誠的顧客，是本文探討的中心。本文以四個研究探討不同目標傾向的顧客在接受不同服務失敗補償方案後的反應，研究的重要發現包括：(1)促進導向的顧客對於不同補償程度之補償方案的滿意程度均較預防導向的顧客為低，(2)在補償程度相同但補償方式不同的情況下，促進導向的顧客對於不同方式的服務補償方案的反應會有顯著有差異，但是預防導向的顧客則無此現象，(3)不論追求性的訊息或避免性的訊息都會造成促進導向顧客的滿意度明顯下降，對於預防導向的顧客則可能下降或沒有明顯的作用。此外，本研究認為如果提供服務的企業以不同的順序執行相同的補償內容，對於不同目標傾向的顧客也會在不同的服務補償階段或相同補償內容卻不同實施順序的補償過程中獲致不同的滿意程度。最後根據研究結果歸納研究結論，並討論相關的管理義涵。

With reference to previous researches on the effectiveness of service recovery programs implemented for service failures, this research introduces regulatory focus into the exploration of customer reaction to service recoveries, as our central concern is the importance of service recovery strategies in service providers’ ultimate aim of creating loyal customers. According to regulatory focus theory, customers with different goal orientations pursue different end states, and when they experience a “fit” between their desired end state and goal orientation, they “feel right” and their satisfaction is improved. At the same time, past researches have indicated that persuasive messages can considerably improve the satisfaction of customers, depending on the direction of the message and customers’ goal orientation. Certainly, service organizations may wish to include persuasive messages in their recovery program in place of tangible compensations, on account of the costs entailed or other factors. Therefore, this research also looks into the effectiveness of persuasive messages in service recovery programs. Four studies were conducted for the above purposes, with the following key findings. (1) Promotion-oriented customers have generally lower satisfaction with service recovery programs than prevention-oriented customers. (2) With recoveries that are equal in the degree of compensation but different in type, a significant difference can be found in the satisfaction of promotion-oriented customers, but none in the satisfaction of prevention-oriented customers. (3) With promotion-oriented customers, both approach and avoidance messages cause significantly lower satisfaction; with prevention-oriented customers, they can possibly lower satisfaction or have no significant effect. Furthermore, we believe that, in customers with different goal orientations, the same combination of recoveries can lead to different satisfaction when the recoveries are implemented in different order, and that in a phased implementation of recoveries, different levels of satisfaction can be found after each phase. To conclude, the results are summarized with a discussion of their managerial implications.

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