Coping behavior of tourists during service failure: the role of perceived competency of human resources

The purpose of the present study is to adopt a preventive approach to tourists' coping behaviors during service failure. This research is an applied research and descriptive-survey. The statistical population of this study was tourists of Babolsar in summer of 2019 and the data were collected through systematic random sampling from 401 people. To test the research hypotheses, mean comparison test of two independent populations was used. In this study, different coping behaviors were examined when faced with the service failure experienced by tourists, and it was found that the type of coping behaviors used by customers depending on their perceptions of the competency of service providers are different. findings showed that perceptions of employees' competency had a significant negative effect on tourists' antagonistic coping behavior during service failure, in other words, those with a higher perception of employees' competency were less likely to use revenge and avoidance coping behaviors and more likely to use a forgiving strategy than those with a lower perception.