The effects of nonverbal communication of employees in the family restaurant upon customers’ emotional responses and customer satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to understand interrelationships among customers’ perception of nonverbal communication, customers’ emotional responses and customer satisfaction in the family restaurant. A total of 333 customers in Korea participated. The results showed that employees’ kinesics and proxemics among nonverbal communications have a significant effect on customers’ positive emotions, while employees’ kinesics and paralanguage affect customers’ negative emotions. Also, it was found that whether customers feel positive or negative determines their satisfaction. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.     

The impact of mood states and surprise cues on satisfaction

Mood effects have been studied in consumer behavior literature, but prior research investigating the joint impact of mood and surprise on satisfaction is scant. To bridge this gap, this study examines the relationship among these three constructs. We manipulated customers’ pre-consumption mood and provided surprise cues with hypothetical scenarios in a 2 by 2 factorial design in a restaurant setting. The results show that a positive surprise yields high satisfaction without a significant effect from customers’ pre-consumption mood. Conversely, with a negative surprise, customers in a negative pre-consumption mood indicate lower satisfaction than those in a positive mood.     

Effect of experiential value on customer satisfaction with service encounters in luxury-hotel restaurants

Exactly how the restaurant industry creates good quality service experiences has attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners. Some scholars advocate creating high quality service encounters to enhance customer satisfaction. However, recent research has not examined hotel restaurant service, and a detailed understanding of its potential effects on the customer meal experience and customer satisfaction is needed. Consequently, this study of service encounters and restaurant consumer behavior constructed a comprehensive framework via a literature review. Empirical data were collected by a questionnaire distributed to luxury-hotel restaurant customers. The empirical results indicated that restaurant environmental factors and interactions with service employees and other consumers positively influence the consumer experiential value. Additionally, only interactive relationships with service employees directly and positively affect consumer satisfaction. Restaurant environment factors and interactions with other consumers indirectly and positively influence consumer satisfaction through experiential value. Finally, with respect to marketing and development initiatives, the results of this study can help improve the physical attractiveness of the examined luxury-hotel restaurants.     

Perceptions of Chinese restaurants in the U.S.: What affects customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions?

This study investigates American customers’ perceptions of Chinese restaurants in the U.S., using the Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA) approach. This study also examines which attributes of Chinese restaurants influence American customers’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The IPA shows that environmental cleanliness and attentive service are two important areas where Chinese restaurateurs can make improvements. In addition, food taste and service reliability appear to be key attributes for Chinese restaurants’ success. Overall, this study indicates that food quality, service reliability and environmental cleanliness are three pivotal attributes to create satisfied customers and positive post-dining behavioral intentions. Chinese restaurant managers should reasonably allocate their limited resources to restaurant attributes based on their contributions to customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions.     

Perceived justice in service recovery and behavioral intentions: The role of relationship quality

This study examined restaurant customers’ perceptions of justice according to service recovery effort levels and whether perceived justice influences customers’ future behavioral intentions. This study also investigated whether the effects of perceived justice on future behavioral intentions vary across customers’ relationship quality levels. The results showed that high recovery efforts were consistently evaluated highly in terms of perceived justice when compared to low recovery efforts, regardless of the level of relationship quality. Additionally, perceived justice brought about by service recovery efforts has a positive effect on customers’ future behavioral intentions. Hierarchical regression analyses suggested that relationship quality plays a moderating role between perceived justice and behavioral intentions in the distributive and procedural justice dimensions. Implications for the restaurant industry are also discussed.     

Waitresses’ facial cosmetics and tipping: A field experiment

It had been found that cosmetics do improve female facial attractiveness when judgments were made based on photographs. However, these studies were conducted only on laboratory and field studies are scarce in the literature and none of them have tested the effect of customers’ behavior. An experiment was carried out in restaurant in order to verify if waitresses’ makeup is associated with an increase in patrons’ tipping behavior. Female waitresses with and without makeup were instructed to act in the same way than usual with their patrons. Results showed that the makeup condition was associated with a significant increase in tipping behavior of the male customers.     

Commercial hospitality in restaurants and tourist accommodation: Perspectives from international consumer experience in Scotland

This study investigates international consumer perceptions of their restaurant dining and hotel accommodation experiences to identify the common core elements of hospitality in commercial settings. A qualitative approach was adopted to explore the deep-rooted reactions, feelings, and perceptions of consumers. The empirical data are based on semi-structured interviews with 20 international postgraduate students in Scotland. The data analysis specified five categories of perceived commercial hospitality, including: interpersonal interaction, psychological connection, openness to different cultures, sensation satisfaction, and perceived value. Additionally, this study proposed a model of commercial hospitality for interpreting the dynamic and interactive relationships among different components. Complex hospitality experience relies primarily on customer emotional and social values. Several strategies based on perceived value and cultural differences were also developed to cater to various customer needs.     

Perceived values,satisfaction, and behavioral intentions: The role of familiarity in Korean restaurants

This study examined American customers’ perceptions of values regarding dining experiences in Korean restaurants in the United States. Specifically, the effects of hedonic and utilitarian values on customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions were investigated. This study also examined the moderating effect of familiarity with Korean restaurants on the relationships among perceived values, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. Overall, the results indicated that American customers valued the utilitarian aspects of Korean restaurants more than the hedonic aspects. Additionally, utilitarian aspects had a stronger impact on customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions than hedonic aspects. However, when considering customers’ familiarity level with the restaurants, hedonic aspects more effectively induced positive behavioral intentions in the low familiarity group, proving that familiarity has a moderating role. Conversely, utilitarian aspects appeared to be more influential in terms of the behavioral intentions of the high familiarity group. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.     

Customers’ cognitive,emotional, and actionable response to the servicescape: A test of the moderating effect of the restaurant type

This article explores the psychological processes by which the servicescape influences perceived service quality, pleasure-feeling, situational factor, and revisit intention. Drawing on Bitner's framework of environmental perception, the following questions are hypothesized: (1) Will the servicescape have a significant effect on customers’ perceived service quality and pleasure-feeling? (2) Do customers’ perceived service quality and pleasure-feeling positively influence revisit intention? (3) Does the situational factor, namely, the theme restaurant type have a moderation role among perceived service quality, pleasure-feeling, and revisit intention? The results emphasize that theme restaurant managers should seek an understanding of customers’ perception process in relation to emotion and cognition.     

The relationships among overall quick-casual restaurant image,perceived value,customer satisfaction,and behavioral intentions

The purpose of this research is to explain the relationships among overall quick-casual restaurant image, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions in the quick-casual restaurant industry. The findings indicate that overall quick-casual restaurant image significantly influences perceived value, and overall quick-casual restaurant image and perceived value had a significant role in influencing customer satisfaction. Additionally, overall quick-casual restaurant image, perceived value, and customer satisfaction are significant predictors of customers’ behavioral intentions. Finally, customer satisfaction can act as a partial mediator in the relationship between overall quick-casual restaurant image/perceived value and behavioral intentions. Furthermore, we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings and future research ideas.     

Influences of consumer characteristics on fairness perceptions of revenue management pricing in the hotel industry

Fairness perceptions play an important role in customers’ behavior, and this study explores which consumer characteristics influence fairness perceptions of revenue management (RM) pricing in the hotel context. To examine such differentiating characteristics, the study conducts a logit analysis by comparing two groups: one group of customers who consider hotels’ RM practices to be fair and the other group considers the practices to be unfair. The findings provide an opportunity for hotel managers to identify customers’ particular characteristics that affect customer's perceptions of the fairness of hotels’ RM pricing practices.     

The effects of dining atmospherics: An extended Mehrabian–Russell model

This study examined the relationships among dining atmospherics, emotional responses, perceived value, and behavioral intentions, using Chinese restaurants as its research setting. Results of the study revealed that dining atmospherics had significant effects on customers’ positive emotions, negative emotions, and perceived value. Further, both positive and negative emotions and perceived value also influenced customers’ post-dining behavioral intentions. Perceived value not only functioned as the greatest contributor to behavioral intentions but also mediated the relationship between emotional responses and behavioral intentions. Positive emotions and negative emotions had asymmetric effects on perceived value. Positive emotions showed a stronger capability in predicting perceived value. Chinese restaurant managers must utilize the effects of restaurant atmospherics to improve customers’ perceived value of the restaurant and their revisit intentions. Other practical implications are discussed as well.     

Restaurant experiences triggering positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) motivations

This study empirically examined which restaurant experiences trigger customers to engage in positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), where the quality of restaurant service (food quality, service quality, atmosphere, and price fairness) is the antecedent of eWOM communication. The results of this study suggest that (1) restaurants’ food quality positively influences customers to spread positive eWOM, motivated by their desire to help the restaurant; (2) satisfactory restaurant experiences with service employees triggered positive eWOM, motivated by the need to help the restaurant or to express positive feelings; (3) a superior atmosphere in restaurants elicited positive eWOM motivated by a concern for others; and (4) price fairness in restaurants did not drive restaurant customers toward eWOM. Additionally, this study investigated sources of positive eWOM and types of eWOM media used among opinion leaders in the restaurant industry to enhance the practical implications of the study regarding online marketing. Because of the small number of opinion leaders in the study sample, specifying who the opinion leaders were (the source of eWOM) and the type of eWOM media the opinion leaders used had no effect. Further discussion and implications are provided in the text.     

Applying loss aversion to assess the effect of customers’ asymmetric responses to service quality on post-dining behavioral intentions: An empirical survey in the restaurant sector

Using the loss aversion concept, this paper attempts to investigate the relationship between service quality and customers’ post-dining behavioral intentions in the restaurant sector. Incorporating the DINESERV instrument, the results gained from a Chinese chain restaurant indicate that a decrease in service quality from the reference point (customer's expectation) will decrease the perceived service value and customer satisfaction, but that an increase in service quality may not have significant effects on these two behavioral constructs. Moreover, the behavior-related causal relationships underlying service quality suggest that perceived service value and attitudinal loyalty succeed in acting as mediating variables within the model.     

Customer value in the hotel industry: What managers believe they deliver and what customer experience

Delivering value for customers has become a central theme in business. The paper examines customer value from two perspectives, i.e. that of service provider and that of the customer. A total 231 managers and 385 customers responded to the survey. The results indicate that managers’ perception of customer value is different to what customers’ experience as customer value. The differences persist across different classes of hotels. These results suggest there is a need to align management and customer perspectives to optimize customer value as delivered and experienced. Specifically, hotels should invest in customer understanding and customer linking activities.     

The impact of the servicescape on the desire to stay in convention and exhibition centers: The case of Macao

This study examines the important role of the servicescape in relation to customers’ cognitive (beliefs about servicescape quality), affective (affect and satisfaction) and behavioral responses (desire to stay) in the context of convention and exhibition centers in Macao. Unlike previous servicescape studies, we include two personal customer characteristics, namely perceived sacrifice and value-for-money considerations, as potential moderators of the relationship between customers’ satisfaction and the desire to stay. Overall, our results suggest that servicescape elements positively influence customers’ perceived quality of the service, their affect, customer satisfaction and desire to stay. Furthermore, this study reveals that value-for-money considerations enhance the positive impact customer satisfaction has on customers’ desire to stay in convention centers and that customers’ perceived level of sacrifice has a direct effect on their desire to stay. Theoretical and managerial implications are also presented.     

It is all about the emotional state: Managing tourists’ experiences

When consuming tourism and leisure services tourists do not only expect professional services but also desire satisfying emotional experiences. To measure satisfaction with emotional experiences traditional service quality and satisfaction research is outdated because those models are based on cognitive components and neglect emotional aspects of customer satisfaction. This research investigates factors determining the service setting that enhance customers’ emotional reactions and lead to psychological states and behaviours. Referring to existing theories and empirical evidence in environmental psychology, a research model is developed explaining the relationship between different components of service settings influencing emotional states and satisfaction. Guests’ emotions are assessed during service consumption in hotel settings in order to investigate the importance of emotional states. The paper derives three main factors (leisure experience, hardware and human ware) significantly influencing emotional states of customers in high-quality hotels.     

A top box analysis of DinEX to optimize restaurant resources

This study examined the relative perceived importance of the various dimensions of the restaurant experience, as captured by DinEX. Over 1,000 U.S. restaurant patrons provided perceived importance ratings of six DinEX dimensions as they related to their most recent dining experience across a variety of meal periods and restaurant categories. To make comparisons, an innovative approach to analyzing top box data was utilized. The results indicate significant differences exist across each of the DinEX dimensions, with food quality emerging as the top concern of restaurant patrons. The results of the study offer valuable guidance to the restaurateur in terms of the distinct ordering of experience dimensions that were observed, as well as the straightforward methodology demonstrated for monitoring and evaluating customers’ importance perceptions.     

Why do satisfied customers switch? Focus on the restaurant patron variety-seeking orientation and purchase decision involvement

Company efforts to make customers switch from competitive brands to their own or induce them to repurchase their own brands are very important in their marketing activities and in this regard studies of customer variety-seeking orientation and level of involvement in decision making play a crucial role in explaining customers’ product selection activities. The purpose of this study intends to examine interrelationships among customer satisfaction, loyalty, and switching intent in family restaurants and verify the moderating effect of customer variety-seeking orientation and purchase decision involvement. A total of 305 patrons in Korea participated. The results showed a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Participants expressing a high level of satisfaction were more likely to switch restaurants. Whether customers feel loyalty determines their switching intent. There were moderating effects related to customer variety-seeking orientation in the causal relationships between customer loyalty and switching intent. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.