Employee proactivity has been discussed as a key predictor of firm success and organi-zational performance. However, previous proactivity research has rarely focused on cus-tomers, and the few available proactivity studies from retail settings are either cross-sectional, solely based on subjective outcomes (e.g. customer satisfaction) or restricted toaggregateddata of objective outcomes (e.g. profits per store). We investigate the causaleffect of employee proactivity in retail service encounters on customers’ actual purchasebehaviour and satisfaction ratings at the fine-grained level ofindividualcustomers. Byintegrating theories on social perception with prior proactivity findings, we find that em-ployee proactivity positively predicts customers’ shopping responses. This finding extendsfrom correlational to experimental designs across sample types and paradigms, is repli-cated in actual retail settings, and is mediated by customers’ perceptions of employeewarmth and competence. Furthermore, the effect generalizes across several focal out-comes, including behavioural variables (spending and purchase likelihood), and is moder-ated by the time to employee-initiated contact in a way that goes against customers’ ownbeliefs. In sum, the present research quantifies the financial consequences of employeeproactivity and indicates that in ordinary retail service encounters, high proactivity cancompensate for delays, thus counteracting the aversive aspects of waiting.

Despite the widespread adoption of the justice framework in service recovery literature, research findings vary as to what dimension - distributive, interactional, procedural - is most important. This paper contributes to this debate by considering how an easily accessible variable like relationship activity (i.e., the frequency of visiting and purchasing from a company) moderates the impact of the justice dimensions on post-recovery customer outcomes. Findings show that distributive justice is the only dimension impacting word-of-mouth (WOM) and repurchase behavior for low- and medium-relationship-activity customer segments. For a high-relationship-activity segment, all justice dimensions have a positive and balanced impact on WOM and/or repurchase behavior. This research demonstrates the potential of a segmented approach for recovery, while also providing managers with valuable insights into how they can use readily available information to adapt their service recovery efforts.

As one of the retailer’s most potent recovery tactics to offset disgruntled customers, firms invest heavily in compensation to increase customer satisfaction and improve loyalty. However, the effectiveness of this tactic remains unclear. This study examines whether firm-offered compensation affects customers’ emotional responses and bad-mouthing behavior (i.e., telling others about a particular problem). Importantly, the study investigates whether the level of collaboration during the recovery encounter moderates the link between compensation and customers’ emotional responses, and whether collaborative efforts influence the effectiveness of compensation. The findings indicate that collaboration during the recovery encounter is necessary if compensation is to mitigate negative emotional responses, with downstream effects on bad-mouthing behavior. In confirming the importance of collaboration during recovery encounters, the findings have critical managerial and financial implications.

Service recovery research has traditionally been firm-centric, focusing primarily on the time and effort expended by firms in addressing service failures. The subsequent shift to a customer-centric orientation addressed the customer's role in recovery situations, and the recent dyadic orientation has explored the effectiveness of their joint efforts. However, earlier conceptualizations failed to take adequate account of the complexity of service recovery encounters in which multiple actors collaborate and integrate resources. This study explores how multiactor collaborations influence the customer's experience of service recovery by adopting a multiactor orientation and by applying service-dominant logic. After reviewing the customer experience literature, a collaborative recovery experience framework is developed that emphasizes the joint efforts of multiple actors and customers to achieve a favorable recovery experience. In a contextualization, the usefulness of the new framework to explain customer experiences in collaborative service processes is shown. Finally, further research avenues are proposed.