Comparing objective service failures and subjective complaints: An investigation of domino and halo effects

Abstract Customer retention and service recovery require accurate information to diagnose and prevent service failures, address customer complaints, and continuously improve service performance. The present research investigates the performance relationships between two sources of marketing information: actual objective service failures and consumer complaints. Data were obtained from two U.S. governmental agencies, the Department of Transportation for airlines and the Interstate Commerce Commission for the household goods moving industry. Several correlational analyses support the existence of consumer “halo effects” for additional complaining and, to a lesser degree, a “domino effect” across objective service failure attributes. The results also demonstrate that both sources of information need to be obtained to successfully diagnose and proactively prevent future service problems. The nature of the information obtained should vary by type, however. Objective service failure measures should be gathered on an attribute-specific basis, whereas global or overall measures may be sufficient for capturing complaints, especially under time or budgetary constraints, and when detailed information is not needed.