服务失败后自我建构与质量预期对满意和口碑的影响

当顾客遭遇由个别雇员引发的服务失败时,顾客会产生怎样的心理反应?文章基于服务失败情境探讨了顾客的自我建构倾向与服务质量预期对满意度与负面口碑传播的影响。研究运用实验法模拟(餐厅)服务情境,结果发现,当服务失败源于个别雇员的不当行为时,如果顾客对企业的服务持有相对负面的质量预期,那么自我建构类型为互依型的顾客(vs.独立型自我建构)更倾向于认为企业对雇员的服务质量具有可控性,会对企业更不满意;但在负面口碑传播上,独立型自我建构的顾客却反而更有可能通过口碑传播服务失败经历(vs.互依型自我建构)。文章在此基础上主要讨论了自我建构对服务失败研究以及企业实践的启示,并指出未来可进一步研究的内容。     

Service Quality Measurement and Triadic Interaction

Abstract

The authors recognise the importance of the service quality encounter and the critical roles played by three direct stakeholders: customers, front-line staff and operational managers, in the assessment of restaurant service quality. The paper therefore argues the merits of adopting a triadic perspective on restaurant service quality assessment and presents the details of a comparative analysis of stakeholder perceptions of service quality performance that was undertaken in three full-service restaurants in Manchester, U.K. The results showed that service providers tended to overrate the quality of service in full-service restaurants, if customer perceptions are used as the standard of comparison. Managers' ratings showed the least convergence with those of customers whilst there was a high degree of convergence between the perceptions of front-line service providers and customers on many of the dimensions. With the exception of the tangible dimension, there were statistically significant differences in service quality performance between the perceptions of stakeholders. Overall, the results have highlighted areas of particular concern and priority which require more in-depth research with qualitative methods; they therefore support the adoption of a triadic perspective in the assessment of restaurant service quality performance.     

Is guarantee compensation enough? The important role of fix and employee effort in restoring justice

We conducted an experiment examining the influence of guarantee compensation and other service recovery tactics on customers’ justice perceptions across hotel failures of varying severity. Our study was driven by a noted lack of research into the benefits of service guarantees as a recovery tool and past findings suggesting that hotel management may be relying too heavily on guarantee compensation to recover failures. Findings suggest that compensation, fix and failure severity jointly influence customers’ perceptions of distributive justice. Perceived employee effort has a large influence on guests’ perceptions of interactional justice, however, it does not interact with failure severity to influence justice.     

Human staff vs. service robot vs. fellow customer: Does it matter who helps your customer following a service failure incident?

The key to excellent service delivery is to ensure harmonious interactions between service actors. Therefore, in the event of service failure incidents, an understanding of the roles and interactions of these service actors is critical to achieving positive service outcomes. This research addresses the question: How do interactions between customers and these service actors (human staff/automated technological interface/fellow customer) influence their service experience following a service failure? We draw on role theory and answer this question via three experimental studies. Findings show that customers evaluate their service experience less favourably when receiving service recovery from fellow customers rather than firms (human staff and service robots). Furthermore, a firm’s instrumental recovery, rather than informational recovery, leads to a more favourable service evaluation, although this effect is absent when service recovery was given by fellow customers. Findings provide insights into the role of each actor in determining customer service evaluation.     

心理契约违背对饭店顾客忠诚的影响——服务补救策略的调节效应

针对服务企业普遍面对的服务补救低效与顾客忠诚保持的挑战,文章基于心理契约与前瞻性服务补救理论,构建了顾客心理契约违背、服务补救和顾客忠诚间关系的分析框架,实证分析了心理契约违背对顾客忠诚的作用机理,并检验了服务补救策略对这一关系的调节效应。通过对262名饭店顾客的问卷调查,采用回归分析法处理数据,研究结果表明:心理契约违背两个维度与饭店顾客忠诚两个维度均呈显著负相关关系,顾客心理契约违背程度越高,顾客忠诚度越低;服务补救在心理契约违背与饭店顾客忠诚的关系中起到部分调节作用,即当企业服务出现失误而使顾客感知心理契约违背发生时,如果能采用恰当的服务补救策略,可以降低心理契约违背对顾客忠诚的负面影响。     

The Moderating Role of Severity of Service Failure in the Relationship among Regret/Disappointment,Dissatisfaction, and Behavioral Intention

This study examines the moderating role of severity of service failure between emotions and dissatisfaction, as well as between dissatisfaction and behavioral intention. Results showed that when customers’ regret and disappointment are low, service failure severity has an amplifying impact on their dissatisfaction. It also demonstrates that when customers’ dissatisfaction levels are low, service failure severity plays an important role in their negative word of mouth and switching intention. Therefore, if a restaurant can reduce its number and frequency of critical service failures, then restaurant operators can dramatically enhance customers’ word of mouth testimonials and customer retention.     

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.     

Customer Expectations of Casual Dining Restaurants: The Case of Liberty Tap Room

The current research examines the importance of restaurant attributes as rated by customers dining in a casual-style restaurant located in a medium-sized city in the Southeast United States. Previous research and the models used to measure customer perceptions of restaurant attributes were reviewed. The assessment instrument chosen for the current study was adapted from DinEX, developed by Antun, Frash, Costen, and Runyan (2010). A total of 92 customers completed the survey over a 10-day period in late August and early September of 2011. Results showed that customers rate food and service attributes as most important when dining out. Attributes related to atmosphere received moderate importance ratings. In using a confirmatory factor analysis, six latent variables emerged: social connectedness, service quality, atmosphere, food quality, healthfulness, and food value. The only statistically significant differences between the factors related to the demographic variables were that females rated the healthfulness of the food options as more important than males, and dinner customers rated the food value as more important than the lunch customers. Implications for restaurant operators and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

The Impact of Restaurant Service Experience Valence and Purchase Involvement on Consumer Motivation and Intention to Engage in eWOM

This study examines how different service experiences lead to different motives and intention to spread eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth), focusing on the antecedent roles of restaurant service experience valence and purchase involvement. The findings reveal that consumers are motivated to spread eWOM for self-, other-, and company-focused reasons, and that experience valence and purchase involvement significantly impact such motives. Our findings suggest that highly involved customers have more intentions to provide eWOM following negative experiences and that customers receiving negative experience hope to influence companies through eWOM. This article adds to the body of scholarly research related to eWOM by identifying purchase involvement and service experience as significant antecedents of motivation to provide online reviews.     

Customer complaints in restaurants: Do they differ by service stages and loyalty levels?

Complaints by dissatisfied customers provide managers with an opportunity to learn about problems and take appropriate corrective action to ensure that mistakes do not recur. The authors investigate whether restaurant consumers respond differently to service failures at different service stages and loyalty levels. A survey of 289 customers in the United States found that customers are likely to complain at any service stage following a service failure. Highly loyal customers showed a significantly higher willingness to complain than less loyal customers when a service failure occurs during the greeting/seating and order taking/delivery stages (service stages 1 and 2). Four consumer groups with distinct willingness to complain and levels of loyalty emerged from this study: “silent potential,” “pure complainer,” “silent supporter,” and “loyal voicers.” Among those groups, the silent supporter group (high affective loyalty and low propensity to complain) showed the highest behavioral intentions, whereas the pure complainer group (low affective loyalty and high propensity to complain) showed the lowest behavioral intentions.     

Service Failure,Tipping Behavior,and the Effect of Service Industry Experience

The relationship between tipping and the service provided is not always linear. Factors such as demographic profile of the consumer, industry norms, and social norms affect the amount of tip. Results from the current study reveal that tipping varies when service failure occurs due to servers’ fault or organizational failure. Consumers with prior professional experience in the restaurant industry can distinguish between causes of failure, and tip accordingly. Consumers with prior professional restaurant experience were found to tip significantly more than those consumers that do not have prior hospitality experience. Tip rates for service failure due to organization failure tend to be higher compared with the service failure due to servers’ mistakes indicating that consumers do not penalize a server when the organization has caused the service failure.     

Social Servicescape: The Impact of Social Factors on Restaurant Image and Behavioral Intentions

While most previous research has focused on the physical service environment, research on the social aspect in the service environment is scant. This study examined how social factors (employees, other customers, social crowding, and rapport) in the service environment influence restaurant image and customers’ behavioral intentions. Based on past research, a theoretical framework was developed and the data collected from online surveys was analyzed through structural equation modeling. Our findings, based on a survey of 500 participants, suggest that social factors influence restaurant image and, consequently, behavioral intentions.     

Restaurant servers’ risk perceptions and risk communication-related behaviors when serving customers with food allergies in the U.S.

Communication between and among customers with food allergies and foodservice staff has become a concern in the restaurant industry. The purpose of this research was to explore the perceived risks and risk communication-related behaviors of restaurant servers when serving customers with food allergies in the U.S. An online survey instrument was developed based on interviews with full service restaurant managers, pilot-tested, and distributed through an online survey research firm. The results indicated that most servers lacked knowledge about food allergies and perceived that initiating communication and preventing allergic reactions were mostly the responsibilities of customers with food allergies. Servers’ risk reduction and communication behaviors were affected by their perceived severity of food allergy reactions, previous training, sources of media exposure, and the perceived responsibilities of preventing food allergy reactions. Restaurateurs and foodservice educators may use these findings to develop training and strategies for food allergy risk communication in the restaurant industry.     

Effect of corporate social responsibility,customer attribution and prior expectation on post-recovery satisfaction

A conceptual model is proposed to account for how customers’ attributions of the cause of a service failure, their perceptions of a firm's social responsibility and their prior expectations can influence post-recovery satisfaction through the mediating effect of customer–company (C–C) identification. It was tested in the context of hospitality services. Findings from a survey of 281 restaurant patrons show that after a service failure, favorable corporate social responsibility (CSR) perception can help mitigate the negative effects of internal cause attribution on customer identification and ultimately contribute to post-recovery satisfaction. Besides, the interaction effect of CSR perception and attribution on C–C identification is particularly salient for customers with higher prior expectation. Findings also highlight that the dynamic interaction effect among attribution, CSR perception and prior expectation on customer post-recovery satisfaction is mediated by C–C identification.     

The influence of guarantees,active requests to voice and failure severity on customer complaint behavior

Anecdotal evidence suggests that service guarantees and requests by service workers to complain encourage customers to voice following failure, while holding negative word of mouth and exit at bay. However, empirical support for these tactics is limited. To address this deficiency, we conducted an experiment examining the influence of these devices on customer complaint behavior (CCB) across restaurant failures of varying severity. Findings suggest that offering a guarantee, regardless of it being unconditional or combined, encourages voice. Failure severity had the strongest influence on CCB, and it interacted with both active request and guarantee type in influencing exit. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.     

The influence of perceived credibility on purchase intention via competence and authenticity

Due to the significant role of authenticity in the restaurant business, restaurateurs proactively make authenticity claims. However, the literature has rarely examined whether customers view these claims as credible and how the credibility of these claims influences dining intention. Thus, this study examines customers’ perceived credibility of authenticity claims based on the authenticator claiming authenticity, restaurant ownership type, and restaurant history. Furthermore, utilizing trust-transfer theory, this study proposes and tests a model that links customers’ perceived credibility of a restaurant’s authenticity claims, perceived restaurant competence, perceived restaurant authenticity, and purchase intention. The results show that the authenticator of authenticity claims and restaurant ownership type influence the perceived credibility of authenticity claims. Additionally, the perceived credibility of authenticity claims influences customers’ dining intention indirectly through restaurant competence and constructed authenticity.     

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.     

Comparative study of deep learning models for analyzing online restaurant reviews in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic

Online reviews remain important during the COVID-19 pandemic as they help customers make safe dining decisions. To help restaurants better understand customers’ needs and sustain their business under current circumstance, this study extracts restaurant features that are cared for by customers in current circumstance. This study also introduces deep learning methods to examine customers’ opinions about restaurant features and to detect reviews with mismatched ratings. By analyzing 112,412 restaurant reviews posted during January-June 2020 on Yelp.com, four frequently mentioned restaurant features (e.g., service, food, place, and experience) along with their associated sentiment scores were identified. Findings also show that deep learning algorithms (i.e., Bidirectional LSTM and Simple Embedding + Average Pooling) outperform traditional machine learning algorithms in sentiment classification and review rating prediction. This study strengthens the extant literature by empirically analyzing restaurant reviews posted during the COVID-19 pandemic and discovering suitable deep learning algorithms for different text mining tasks.     

Relationship quality matters: How restaurant businesses can optimize complaint management

This research investigates the effectiveness of complaint management according to company–client relationship quality (RQ). Interactional recovery efforts are critical for efficient complaint management in the hospitality management (restaurant) context; this study addresses the potential compensatory interaction effects of interactional recovery efforts (personal apology vs. impersonal apology via email) and two types of compensatory recovery efforts (voucher vs. refund), as well as their intensity (full vs. partial). A robust cut-off effect emerges, such that a minimum level of interactional effort influences the effectiveness of compensation efforts. Furthermore, RQ influences complaint management effectiveness: For loyal, high-RQ customers, interactional recovery effort (personal apologies) is more important, regardless of compensation intensity (full vs. partial) or type (voucher vs. refund). High- (low) RQ customers are more (less) likely to accept vouchers than refunds; vouchers symbolize their willingness to continue relationships. Thus, interactional effort allows firms to decrease the intensity of customer compensation required.