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Student ID Number: 2 0 1 0 3 7 3 0
LUBS5472M
Module Code:
International Services Marketing
Module Title:
Ghasem Zaefarian
Module Leader:
1935
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Service recovery of Malaysia Airlines

1. Introduction

1.1 Backgrounds
Founded in 1947, Malaysia Airlines, of which headquarters settled at the
Kuala Lumpur International Airport is the second-largest flag carrier in
Malaysia. As a member of the oneworld airline alliance, it connects
passengers to 57 destinations all over Asia, Oceania and Europe. In addition,
it was also rewarded to be 'The World's 5-Star Airline' by Skytrax and
recognized as 'Asia's Leading Airline' for several times in the past few years
(Wikipedia, 2017).

1.2 Problem definition

Even though Malaysia Airlines had been highly rated and kept a good record
on safety before, its image suffered a disastrous decline after two air
accidents of Flight 370 and Flight 17which happened only less than a few
months apart in 2014 (Wikipedia, 2017). Based on customer reviews of
Malaysia Airlines on Skytrax, now it is only rated overall 6 out of 10 stars
from over 700 customer reviews and has lost its 5 stars since 2014.

According to the online reviews, people are generally satisfied with in-flight
service of Malaysia Airlines. There was only a few complaints about the food,
entertainment or the service attitudes of flight attendants. However, when it
comes to the handling of service failures customers encountered, most people
expressed their discontent. According to some reviews, several customers
whose bags was delayed or lost could not get a fast reply from the company
even they emailed for many times. And it commonly took such a long time for
Malaysia Airlines to help them to find their bags. Additionally, a large portion of
customers also pointed out that when flights were cancelled or changed
accidentally, Malaysia Airlines did not give them any apologies or refund.
Moreover, a lot of customers also criticized that the customer service staff
showed no care about their problems and did not treat them courteously in the
process of their complaining (Airlinequality.com, 2017).

1.3 Service blueprint

2. literature review

It is nearly impossible for firms to provide customers with perfect service due
to the heterogeneity and inseparability of it. Even a customer-oriented
company with good service will not avoid service failure completely (del Ro-
Lanza et al, 2009). Migacz, Zou and Petrick (2017) also point out that a good
service recovery not only raises the satisfaction and loyalty of customers but
also generates positive WOM and help the firm to make more profit. However,
a bad service recovery makes a company pay much more cost on attracting
new customers than maintaining existing customers (Maxham, 2001). Thus,
doing well in service recovery plays a vital role on the development of a firm
with service issues. Justice fairness theory is the most frequently-used
theory in evaluating service recovery and it can also measure the satisfaction
of customers towards it to a great degree (Migacz, Zou and Petrick, 2017). In
addition, Mccoll-Kennedy and Sparks (2003) mention that when service failure
occur, people will think about the current situation they are facing and then
think of the three dimensions of justice they would like to get, which are
distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice.

Related to achieving fair exchange, the perceived distributive justice of

customers is influenced by how service providers compensate their customers
on the unfair exchange caused by service failure (Smith, Bolton and Wagner,
1999). Distributive justice is perceived mostly difficult to be measured by
customers, since customers tend to receive the similar compensation with
others and compare the outcome they got with others. However, it is almost
impossible for us to know what others receive from the service provider
(Mccoll-Kennedy and Sparks, 2003). Even so, it is proved that distributive
justice improves satisfaction of customers and promote positive WOM,
especially in airlines industry (Migacz, Zou and Petrick, 2017).

As for procedural justice, research indicates that failing to deal with procedural
justice will have extremely negative influence on the satisfaction of customers
(Vzquez-Casielles et al, 2010). Being an important factor of procedural
justice, response speed is proportional to customer perceived procedural
justice (Smith, Bolton and Wagner, 1999). Additionally, according to del Ro-
Lanza et al (2009), procedural justice is a critical dimension which affects the
emotion of customers. Procedural justice of low level results in negative
emotion which leads to dissatisfaction of service recovery.

Interactional justice is perceived to be less important than procedural justice

when customers are not able to complaint to frontline employees face to face
(Vzquez-Casielles et al, 2010). However, Mccoll-Kennedy and Sparks
emphasize the fact that interactional justice effects the customers trust
towards service provider and their attitudes towards service recovery to a
large extent. According to Smith (1999), apology which has positive impact on
customers perceived interactional justice shows respect and sympathy to
customers suffered from service failure. In addition to apologize, service
recovery initiated by company spontaneously also improves perceived
interactional justice and thus raise overall satisfaction of customers.

2.1 Culture
Customers with different culture backgrounds have different perceptions of
service failure and service recovery. The researches into how culture factors
influence perceived service experience play an important role on making
international service strategies (Wong, 2004). Researches show that Western
people who are individualistic value more on distributive justice than Asian
people. In terms of procedural justice, Western people would like a casual
explanation and a quick solution. But Asian people want themselves to be
informed of what service provider did to compensate them. Additionally, they
also need wise apology from the manager not front-line employees (Mattila
and Patterson, 2004). And according to the study of Wong, Asian people tend
to be more concerned about interactional justice than Western people.
3. discussion

Based on on-line forums and interviews, Malaysia Airlines frequently failed to

deal with the service failure and an important proportion of customers who
encountered service failure were unsatisfied with their service recovery.
According to Mccoll-Kennedy and Sparks (2003), encountering of service
failure can force people to think of the three dimensions of justice theory. If the
perceived justice is low, it will generate negative emotions of customers, thus
bringing about negative e-WOM. From the answers of interviewees, it is also
proved that customers with unsatisfied experience would switch to other
Airlines and refused to recommend Malaysia Airlines.

In terms of distributive justice, according to Smith (1999), distributive justice is

closely linked to the equity in exchange. Customers would like the service
providers to give them compensation which is sufficient to make up their
inequitable exchange in the ways they want. According to answers of some
respondents, Malaysia Airlines did not pay attention on giving their customers
enough outcome justice in a proper way. They failed to arrange hotel or
provide food for a customer who had waited to midnight. And even they did
not give any refund to the customer after making him missing connecting
flight. It confirms the findings of Migacz, Zou and Petrick (2017) that service
recoveries in many airlines industry always highlight procedural and
interactional justice but ignore the importance of distributive justice. In
addition, it is mentioned in the answer of the fourth respondent that she was
unsatisfied with Malaysia Airlines service due to the poor quality of the
suitcase they compensated for her even though they had sincerely apologized
to her for several times. From this we could know that customers are satisfied
with such a recovery of which the resources match type and magnitude of
service failure they encountered (smith et al.1999).

Putting themselves in the customers position and being able to solve their
problems promote perceived interactional fairness and overall satisfaction of
customers (Vzquez-Casielles et al, 2010). According to the answers from
several respondents, the staff of Malaysia Airlines did not show full respect
and care for their customers. The problem also includes that sometimes they
could not give customers appropriate explanations and even made excuse to
shift responsibility. According to Blodgett, Hill, and Tax (1997), Interactional
justice is the most important satisfaction's determinant and it can make up for
the deficiency of distributive justice to some extent. Many previous studies
also establish that interactional justice effects satisfaction of service recovery
most significantly. Additionally, under the situation that service provider knows
the service failure, the initiative service recovery of company could enhance
customers perceived interactional justice and promote their satisfaction
(Smith, Bolton and Wagner, 1999). However, according to the first respondent,
Malaysia failed to send someone to inform customers the situation of their
bags after they had found their service failure and did not apologize for their
faults, which made customer feel not being respected.

In the respect of procedural justice, a fast response speed and the

effectiveness of dealing with customers problems will prompt their perceived
procedural justice (Smith, Bolton and Wanger,1999). Furthermore, Wilson
(2012) also states that an easy and convenient complaint process is preferred
by customers. Based on the answers from respondents, most of them thought
Malaysia Airlines were not efficient on handling with their problems and spent
more time than they had expected. In addition, some of them had a great
trouble to complain or contact with the staff, which made customers more
anxiety and disappointed.

On account of the important role of culture on influencing peoples perception

of service failure and their perception of staffs efforts on service recovery
(Wang and Mattila, 2011), it is necessary for service providers to know the
culture differences among their customers. Both UK participants highlight the
fast solution of their problems and the compensation they expect to get.
Meanwhile, it can be seen from interviews that the fifth participant
emphasized his right to get some reimbursements and outcomes from
Malaysia Airlines, such as hotel, food or refund. It is consistent with the
research result of Mattila and Patterson (2004) that Western people who is
more individual pay much attention to the things they deserve and prefer a
quick solution. In contract, from the answers of other Asian participants, we
can see that Asian people who care much about others and their faces want
more detailed explanations, more courtesy of the employers and even
apologies from the manager (Mattila and Patterson, 2004). In other words,
people who is collectivistic and live in the society of high power distance, are
more concerned about interactional justice (Wong, 2004).

4. Managerial implication

In airlines industry, study indicates that distributive justice has the most impact
on customers satisfaction of service recovery, which is often ignored by many
airline companies (Migacz, Zou and Petrick, 2017). In consequence, Malaysia
Airlines should make great efforts on building up reasonable compensation
packages for the people who encountered service failure. Additionally,
according to Migacaz (2017), people usually think they are fairly treated only
when all the three dimensions are satisfied. Therefore, airline companies are
supposed to do everything right and balance these three justice in their
recovery process. Regarding procedural justice and interactional justice,
Malaysia Airlines is supposed to strengthen the education and training of their
employees. They need to make their employees to realize the importance of
their own in recovery process and improve their ability to handle with
problems efficiently. Meanwhile, rewards system could be used to employees
to encourage them work better in service recoveries (Maxham, 2001). In
addition, company needs to construct a customer-oriented culture, raise staffs
awareness of service and promote their levels of courtesy towards customers.
Moreover, it is also very important for company to develop employees ability
to take active attitudes towards customers complaints and use initiative to
carry on service recovery spontaneously, especially when they have been
aware of the service failure. Given that customers would like to understand
what staffs have done in their perception (Mccoll-Kennedy and Sparks, 2003),
managers should stand in customers position and make recovery strategies
which can really meet customer standards.

5. Appendix

Respondents Information

1. Could you please succinctly describe your unpleasant flight experience

with Malaysia Airlines?

Respondent 1: Although my experience with Malaysia Airlines before had

been not very bad, the last time when I took my flight back to UK, I really
encountered a nightmare. After I arrived at my final destination, I couldnt
found my baggage. Then I went to the customer service desk for help, they
told me they had found that my baggage was mistakenly delivered to another
destination. They said they would told me if my bag was sent back. However,
one week past and I didnt hear any information from them and even I had
sent emails for several times, no reply came to me. I made several phone
calls, the lines were always busy. Finally, they answered my phone but only let
me be patient and wait. And I got my bag after waiting for about 5 weeks in
fear and inconvenience. No apology, no more explanation, and it is the worst
flight experience I have had.

Respondent 2: I didnt take Malaysia Airlines frequently. The only unpleasant

experience with them is the flight cancelation of my flight to Japan. And after
being informed about that, I was moved to a later flight on the same day, the
weather was not the greatest so it was good enough.

Respondent 3: I remembered that about one year ago, I took Malaysia Airline
back to Singapore. Despite I arrived KLIA for checking in 2 hours in advance,
they told me that my booking status was closed and I had to wait for them to
handle with my problem and get a ticket for me. During the time of waiting, I
spoke to customer service of Malaysia Airlines but they were not very
enthusiastic and only showed no sympathy for my situation. After about 2
hours, they got my ticket back, but they informed me that my return flight from
Singapore to Kuala Lumper had to be put off to the next day of the dated on
which it should had been. I checked on their website but there were still some
seats left on the date. And then they only gave me some excuses and
persevered that there was no seat left.

Respondent 4: My suitcase was damaged seriously during my flight to the

Kuala Lumpur Airport last year. You cannot imagine you found all wheels of
your suitcase was gone away after flying with Malaysia Airlines. It is so weird!

Respondent 5: It is a very bad experience. My flight from Kota Bharu to Kuala

Lumpr delayed for about 6 hours. A few minutes before the boarding time, we
were informed that there was a mechanical breakdown on the craft and the
flight had to been put off. After waiting for two hours, I went to the Malaysia
Airlines office to find more information about my flight. However, the staff
seemed to be unconcerned about my mood of anxiety and only told me I had
to be patient and it would departure after about 2 hours. However, 2 hours
passed, it was still unavailable for us to broad. No staff of Malaysia Airlines
came and told us what was going on and the only thing I could do is just
waiting. We waited until the next morning but during that time no one had put
us up into a hotel or buy some food for us. They even did not give me any
refund and apologies for my missing connecting flight. I was really
disappointed with their poor service.

Respondent 6: It was roughly about six months ago when I took a Malaysian
airlines flight from Malaysia back to UK and never would I imagine that I would
have encounter such unprofessional service by one of the flight attendants. I
left a laptop inside the cabin when I reached UK and when I went back to ask
one of the female flight attendant, she did not show any empathy nor patience
in helping me locate my laptop bag while I was already very anxious. She
raised her voice at me and blamed me for not taking care of my belongings
which really left me with a negative experience with Malaysian airlines. In the
end, I brought the case to the manager instead and yet she still shown no sign
of remorse and the manager was the one who apologized to me instead.

2. Did they take a fast response towards your complaints and solve your
problem efficiently?

Respondent 1: I dont think so. Even though they told me that they would
handle with my problem and help me to find my bag as soon as possible. After
that, they did not tell me any further information about my bag and let me wait
for about 5 weeks to receive my bag.

Respondent 2: Although it was not exactly their fault, they still managed to
handle all the customers efficiently.

Respondent 3: I think waiting for getting my tickets for 2 hours is too long for
me and I cannot understand why they failed to check the records of
reservation before the departure date. They were so careless!
Respondent 4: I emailed to the complaint center. They took a fast response
and they promised to buy me a new suitcase but it still took me 2 weeks to
receive the new suitcase.

Respondent 5: I remembered several hours had passed before someone

came and repaired the aircraft. And quite obviously, they were extremely
inefficient.

Respondent 6: As I have mentioned before, I brought the case to the

manager. But I still had to wait for roughly two hours before they could locate
my bag and I felt that was due to a lack of professionalism and efficiency. The
manager called many parties, yet they could not locate my bag though it
would have been rather obvious that my bag is just under my seat. I had to
wait and delay one of my meetings with my supervisor in the afternoon due to
this unpleasant experience.

3. Do you think they are capable of handling well with your problem and do
you think the front-line staff were helpful and courteous?

Respondent 1: They were in a good manner, but it seemed that they did not
show much care about my problem. They should have send staff to tell me
about the situation of my bags initiatively.

Respondent 2: They were more than helpful as they managed to respond to

the problem quickly.

Respondent 3: Absolutely not. I think they lack sense of responsibility and I

cannot stand their poor service attitude.

Respondent 4: They were courteous and have sincerely apologized to me for

several times. But the quality of the suitcase I received was not so good as
mine. In my view, they should have bought a better one for me.

Respondent 5: They failed to give me any accurate and useful information

about my flight. The staff had no courtesy and care about their customers.

Respondent 6: No. The front-line staff (which was the manager) at that time
gave me the impression that he was rather blur and did not encounter much
of these scenarios before. I feel that more training should be provided to the
staff of Malaysian airlines as in the way to communicate and handle
complaints in a more polite and efficient manner. This applies as well to the
higher authorities.

4. After encountering your unpleasant experience, what did you expect most
from Malaysia Airlines during the process of your complaints and their
 solving your problem? (e.g. courtesy and respect from staff, a fast
response and an efficient process, a proper explanation of the failure,
compensation or refund, etc.)

Respondent 1: For me, an efficient process and the manner of staff are most
important. I was really despair during the time of waiting for my bag. As I did
not know if they were really care my problem and if my bag was lost forever.

Respondent 2: Courtesy and respect from staff.

Respondent 3: I think they could have given me a rational explanation and

apologize to me. They are supposed to know that Customer is God.

Respondent 4: Fast response and compensation.

Respondent 5: I wanted them to improve the work efficiency and I definitely

should have been given some reimbursement for such a long waiting and
missing my connecting flight due to them. I have fed up with their poor service
and I was not balanced in my heart.

Respondent 6: In my opinion, I do not really demand any sort of

compensation in this matter as I know that it is partially my fault leaving my
belongings unattended however I highly suggest that the ground staff and
cabin crew receive more training in terms of courtesy and efficiency in dealing
with customer complaints.

5. Do you think Malaysia airlines is doing good on the aspect of what you
answered in question 4 and would you like to recommend Malaysia
Airlines to your other friends?

Respondent 1: Of course not. I have switched to other airlines and never

recommend my friends to take Malaysia Airlines.

Respondent 2: The staff acted according to their duties as they should and is
perceived to be professional workers. Therefore, I would undoubtedly
recommend Malaysia Airlines as they are noticeably cheaper than some other
airlines while providing great quality of service simultaneously.

Respondent 3: No. I would recommend my friends to take Singapore Airlines

instead of Malaysia Airlines.

Respondent 4: Not so good. I may not recommend them to my friends.

Respondent 5: Why they have lost 5 stars seems so obvious. I will never
take Malaysia Airlines or recommend them to others.
Respondent 6: This really disappoints me and I do not think that I would
recommend Malaysian airlines to any of my friends and I believe there are
better and cheaper flight providers outside who are able to provide me more
professional services.

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