| Abstract: | This study tried to look into the service recovery practices which had been observed at the Head Quarter
of Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa from January 2010 to June 2011. One of the major
functions of a service giving organization is service recovery practice. It is becoming a source of
competitive advantage in the airline industry. Airlines, which are effective in handling customer
complaints and recover their service failure will be the most desirable in the airline industry and enjoyed
by several advantages that originated as a result of delivering best service recovery practice. To this end,
airlines need to have a well organized service recovery strategy to satisfy their customers and to be
profitable out of the global competitive environment. Even though the Ethiopian Airlines is one of the
known airlines in the airline industry because of its safety record, there are some customer complaints in
its service recovery practice. Among those customers’ complaints, delay flight or cancelled flight
management, denied boarding compensation, misconnecting flights and incidental payment for lost or left
behind baggage are some of them. The goal of service recovery is to identify customers with issues and
then to address those issues to the customers' satisfaction to promote customer retention. However,
service recovery doesn't just happen. It is a systematic business process that must be designed properly
and implemented in an airline may result in effective service recovery practice. Even though the
Ethiopian Airlines has service recovery package of programs, there is a gap between its strategy
and performance in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Airlines is one of the known Airlines in the airline
industry and it has a good service recovery strategy. However, there are some customer complaints in its
service recovery practice. Deviation such as delay without notification, loss of baggage and lack of
proper handling to unsatisfied customers had been the scenarios which initiated this research. The
method of research that was used in this study is descriptive survey research method using convenient
sampling technique in order to gather pertinent data from passengers who had consumed the service. In
addition to the passengers, two station mangers were interviewed using interview guide/protocol as
research instrument. In this study, the student researcher managed to collect both primary and secondary
data from the respective sources. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques were also used to
summarize the data in this study. There were 160 participants in the final sample for this study; all the
respondents were traveled by Ethiopian Airlines. Among the total respondents, 151(94%) experienced a
service failure. A total of 98(61%) of the respondent customers did not present their complaints about the
service failure which they had experienced. Seventy-three (46%) of the respondents had an experience of
traveling with other airlines while the remaining 87(54%) had no experience of other airlines. A total of
82(51%) of the respondents who had had other airline experience believed that the Ethiopian Airlines
had got an effective and unique service recovery practice different from its competitors, while the
remaining 78(49%) didn’t have such a belief. The Ethiopian Airlines is a huge Airline which is in need of
well organized customer service that can fill the gap between its image in the mind of outsiders and those
who experienced the service. Besides, there are unused capacities such as financial strength and physical
facilities that could be utilized to build a well organized service recovery practice. |
