Application of the Concept of Multi-phase Experience to Wait Management in Restaurant Services

摘要

The main purpose of this study was to develop wait management strategies for different stages of a dining experience and to test the effects of these strategies on customer satisfaction and their future behavioral intentions (e.g. loyalty and word-of-mouth). The stages included in this study were pre-process, in-process and post-process. To test successfully the effects of wait management strategies applied to each dining stage, an experimental study was conducted using a 2 (duration information versus no treatment) × 2 (free appetizer versus no treatment) × 2 (discount coupon for future purchase versus no treatment) between-subjects design in which subjects were provided with a written scenario that simulated real-life experience. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to examine the mean differences between treatment groups and no-treatment groups while controlling individuals' level of tolerance with the length of waiting time. The results support the hypotheses that management strategies at in-process and post-process stages are effective in enhancing customer satisfaction as well as behavioral intentions. In particular, providing a discount coupon achieved the most significant effect among the proposed wait management strategies.View full textDownload full textKeywordsmulti-phase dining experience, recovery strategy, wait managementRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2011.588867