Evaluation of Service Recovery Strategies in Some Hotels in Lagos Metropolis, Lagos, Nigeria

This study assessed the service recovery strategies in the front office of some hotels in Lagos metropolis. The data were collected through self-administered questionnaire and interview. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) - version 18.0 was used for data processing and analysis. Descriptive statistics and frequency tables were used mainly to process the data collected. A total number of 108 people were sampled. The specific objectives included the following: to identify the common causes of service failures in hotels, investigate the approaches taken by service providers when offering recovery for service failure, and to ascertain if there is any association between service recovery strategy and customer satisfaction, and service recovery time. Chi-square was used to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that there was no association between service recovery time and customer satisfaction and loyalty, and service recovery strategy and customer satisfaction. Also the results showed that service failure comes mostly from the receptionists. The three major causes of service failure manner of response to customers’ needs and wants, inadequate support of services with technology and lack of staff’s knowledge of organizational products and services. It was observed that frontline employees are not adequately trained and empowered to handle service failure recovery. Analysis revealed that every hotel experiences service failure and about 90% of the guests leave with their complaints. Based on the findings, we conclude that service failure recovery has not been given adequate treatment. We therefore, recommend that that every hotel should have some sort of service recovery strategies. The study presents some specific causes of service failure and service recovery elements.