Variation in consumer outcomes : does the type of failure (process or outcome) matter?

Literature suggests that various customer outcomes are likely to be negative after a failed service encounter. Service failures can arise for many reasons and consumers may react differently, depending on the type of failure. This study focuses on exploring whether consumer outcomes differ based on whether the consumer experiences a process failure or outcome failure. The results from this study suggest that variations in consumer outcomes differ across the two types of failures; with consumers generally being more dissatisfied in outcome failure situations as compared to process failure situations.