Do you deliberately deliver bad products?
Service Recovery Paradox
Are you already familiar with the Service Recovery Paradox?
In short, this means that people who have a bad experience with a product or service are initially less satisfied. And research also shows that when a problem is properly resolved, these people are ultimately more satisfied with the product and more loyal to the organization than the people who have not had this bad experience. And if that sounds illogical or even contradictory, that’s why it’s called a paradox!
There are even stories about organizations that deliberately leave errors in their products because of the Service Recovery Paradox. Believe me, those are urban legends.
A Service Recovery Paradox example
A manufacturer recently noticed that a possible defect could occur in a large proportion of the devices that were adistributed worldwide. This part had to be replaced everywhere. Initially, there was of course panic. How are you going to approach this? Who will perform it? What will it cost? And how do you reach the consumer?
Ultimately, the organization went to work to replace the component in all these devices free of charge at people’s homes.
And what does research now show?
People have rated this company enormously positively. Many expressions of trust and praise came in, the NPS has risen sharply and the question of whether they would choose this company again in the future was answered with a ‘Yes’ by almost 100% of customers. The organization was positively surprised by these responses. Although it is a difficult period for the organization, it is clear that the Service Recovery Paradox also applies to them. It has strengthened the bond with the customer.
You might almost start secretly wondering: “Should we occasionally leave a defect in the product?”
Dave Wurms