Linking error management practices with call center employees' helping behaviors and service recovery performance

Abstract

Organizations wish to minimize the probability of service errors; however, complete elimination of service errors is not possible, especially in industries where human interactions are frequent. Particularly, the ways in which various sources of support may affect service recovery behaviors and related outcomes have yet to be fully articulated. Therefore, this study examined the direct and moderating effects of supervisor and coworker support for error management on the helping behavior and service recovery performance. Data were collected from 287 call center frontline employees in a large mobile network operator in Thailand. Results showed that both supervisor support and coworker support were significantly related to helping behaviors and service recovery performance. Similarly, the interaction between supervisor and coworker support for error management accounted for unique variance in each of the performance indices. The findings advance our understanding about the role of support in the service delivery and error management process, and provide prescriptive insights about means for driving continuous improvements to the service process. The implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed at the end.