Influence of Interactional Justice Strategy on Recovery Satisfaction among Customers of Mobile Money Services in Kenya

Abstract

Despite the subject of service recovery attracting great interest among service marketing scholars and practitioners, there is a scarcity of empirical studies focusing on justice perceptions and satisfaction in the East Africa region. This research empirically tested the role of interactional justice as a recovery strategy following service failure and its consequence on recovery satisfaction among consumers of mobile money services in Kenya. A descriptive survey approach was used. The population of the study encompassed mobile money transfer service subscribers in Kenya. Primary data were collected through a computer assisted telephone interview (CATI). A final nationally distributed sample of 622 respondents was realized. Reliability and validity tests were conducted using data from a pilot study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, correlation, and regression analysis. The results revealed that interactional justice has a positive and statistically significant relationship with recovery satisfaction. This implies that the adoption of interactional justice strategy to address service failure positively impacts customer evaluation of service recovery. The results further indicated that when a company applies interactional justice strategy to assuage the negative effects associated with service failure customers are willing to forgive and continue patronizing the business. The study recommends that managers should design effective interactional strategies and train employees on how to properly implement them to ensure recovery satisfaction. Further, policy makers are advised to incorporate interactional justice elements in developing operators’ guidelines for service failure redress systems.

Keywords: Interactional justice; recovery satisfaction; recovery strategy; service failure; service recovery; mobile money.