Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Outcome Fairness


Outcome fairness deals with the outcome or the result that the customer receives from the service recovery process (Stephen A. Samaha's lecture notes). It is when the customer receives the outcome in a desired fashion. Therefore, the outcome should include an apology, a fixed problem, a helpful employee, and anything else the customer is expecting.

I thought of this example based on my experience with Helzberg Diamonds. I bought my girlfriend a diamond necklace from Helzberg on Valentine's Day. The company screwed up and forgot to put my apartment address on the delivery package. As a result, I had to drive 20 minutes to pick up the package the day before Valentine's Day.

This is a great example of outcome fairness because of the way the Helzberg handled the situation. I called the company to complain and they immediately apologized. The company openly admitted it was the company's fault. Secondly, the company immediately offered me store credit for the mistake. On top of that, the customer service representative was very polite. This is outcome fairness because I got the outcome I wanted of getting store credit and an apology. The way Helzberg handled the situation met all of my needs.

Trevor Power , Section E

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