Logistics Service Recovery and the role of Technology

The logistics industry is becoming increasingly competitive, and supply chains becoming increasingly complex. Service failures are inevitable and part of the logistics landscape. Service recovery is relevant given the logistic industry’s trend toward a proactive approach to service failures. Furthermore, service recovery has the potential to become a source of organisational differentiation. Service failure management needs to be an integral part of the greater customer service program, rather than a reactive ad hoc process. Technology, already underpinning much of the industries capabilities, is seen as a likely enabler of sophisticated service recovery processes. The service recovery process is broken down into components and, subsequently, potential targets for technology led improvements are identified. A literature review of top tier journals has been undertaken to determine the current body of knowledge in this area. Findings show little coverage on service recovery in respect of the logistics industry. Moreover, there is a dearth of material on technology-based service recovery solutions. A case study is outlined as a future research path.