Do women like options more than men? An examination in the context of service recovery

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the benefits of letting customers choose among compensation methods following a service failure. The author is also interested in the role of gender in influencing satisfaction with the compensation method and post‐recovery emotions. Design/methodology/approach – A between‐subjects quasi‐experiment was conducted in addition to a series of pretests. Findings – Findings from this study indicate that women are more satisfied with the compensation when given the opportunity to choose from alternatives than are men. Moreover, women seem to value the act of choosing more than their male counterparts. The findings further suggest that service operators and retailers might benefit from offering the customer a choice between hedonic and utilitarian compensation options as part of the service recovery process. Letting the customer choose his/her preferred recovery option enhances satisfaction with the chosen compensation method, thus somewhat mitigating the ill‐effects of service failures. Originality/value – This research contributes to understanding of service recovery efforts both from a theoretical and practical standpoint.