Study Design for Customer Loyalty to Restaurants

Food chain industries are starting to realize the significance of service quality and how it affects customers’ satisfaction. Customer dissatisfaction occur all the time whether it is something as simple as getting the wrong order at a fast food chain restaurant or a service complaint at an expensive restaurant. A customer must be the priority of every business around the world because customers are the ones to buy the goods and services (Lesley & Faure, 1992). According to Thompson (2014), everyone working in the food chain industry will have to deal with customer dissatisfaction at some point in their career, how you handle those dissatisfaction makes all the difference.

The key to ensuring good quality service is meeting or exceeding what the customers expect from services. Judgements of high and low quality depend on how customers the actual service performance in the context of what they expected. Service quality, as perceived by the customers, can be defined as the extent of discrepancy but customers’ expectations or desires and their

Customer satisfaction and service quality are the two important components that direct anyone’s attention in every concept related to marketing, services, etc. (Spreng and Mackoy, 2006). In today’s competitive era, the success lies in

Customer preferences are important concept within services marketing theory. According to my review, service quality have significant relationship with customer preferences. Their finding indicates that the service quality provided by staff is fundamental and crucial to the customer satisfaction in the restaurants. Furthermore, customers will choose the restaurants based on their satisfaction level. In another study by Cronin and Taylor (1992), the study have shown the perceived service quality can greatly affect customers’ satisfaction and customer preferences. Many restaurants out there will pay more attention on service quality because it will directly influencing the customer preferences which will lead to customer revisit and customer will become loyalty to the restaurants. And will directly affect he restaurant revenue. In addition, Yüksel & Yüksel (2002) stated that service quality had the most significant impact on dining satisfaction at the aggregate market

Secondary research which is based on prior researched information can be utilized in qualitative research. The data collected and analyzed can be translated into the information that is needed for the project. “Any study that is conducted using an observational technique or unstructured questioning can be classified as qualitative research.” (Burns & Bush, 2006). However, there are some advantages and disadvantages to qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research is implemented in some cases as an exploratory form of data collection at the beginning of a research project. “Qualitative data can give the researcher a better idea of what to look more closely at for later trails.” (Varoskovic, 1999 – 2010). Qualitative research also allows for a more in-depth or detailed results from the respondents. The disadvantage of qualitative research is that the data is the opinion of the researcher. On the other hand, the advantages of quantitative research are that the data is focused on the numeric qualities that can be recorded. However, the disadvantage of quantitative research is that it is difficult at times to provide meaning to what is being examined. Overall, both quantitative and qualitative research can be combined to enhance primary and secondary research.

Similarly, Molinari, Abratt, and Dion (2008) assert that there is a direct and strong link between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty behavior. If the customers enjoy the product or service, they will not be bothered to become loyal to the company. In other words, high levels of satisfaction commonly occur when the customer is delighted or happy with either the products or services provided by a business supplier. As Caceres and Paparoidamis (2005) state, customer satisfaction levels are determined and influenced by many elements. For example, it is commonly admitted that the customers will naturally repeatedly return to the company when things are done right, or in other words, business service companies successfully meet the customer’s expectation (Gil-Saura, et. al., 2009). Furthermore, increases in satisfaction could result to increase customer loyalty. A business enterprise, which could address the elements moderating the level of satisfaction of customers, probably would reach the higher level of loyalty. In other words, customer satisfaction is likely to improve customer loyalty in general.

To verify the validity of SERVQUAL model in the assessment of service quality, Zeithaml et al (2006, p. 106-107), said that “service quality is a precise assessment that demonstrates the customer’s perception of reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibility”. Furthermore, they said that “of all the stated dimensions, “reliability” is consistently shown to be the most significant in terms of service quality”.

SERVQUAL is a model used to measure service quality management in relation to customer service quality needs. It analyzes the gap between the two. In measuring service quality, SERVQUAL has been proved to be the most popularly used instrument in the past one decade. Oftenly, it is used to measure service quality of a service providing organizations to compare the expectations of customers beforehand and their perception in regard to the services being offered (Shahin, 2010). The model can be employed to assess the quality of services provided by any service organization, it being universal. Services are economic activities, they provide benefits, and create value for clients. As such, there is a need for measurement of their quality at specific points due to the desire for change, or on behalf of the customers that receive the services (Shahin, 2010).

The structure of literature review begins with of definition of brand loyalty and then moves to the general theories surrounding factors contributing for brand loyalty d then a focused research on Apple’s achievement of brand loyalty.

It is generally recognized that there are linkages between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty Caruana, (2002). However Oliver (1999) stated that the suggestion that satisfaction generates loyalty in erroneous, with between 65% and 85% of satisfied customers defecting to other suppliers. There have been a number of studies that have looked at the antecedents of loyalty, including value, levels of functional and emotional risk, and brand reputation, trust, effect and preference. A number of studies by various researchers (Caruana, 2002; Oliver, 1999) have contributed to the understanding of the relationship between the consumer and provider.

Hypothesis 2: The relevance of factors affecting loyalty depends on the levels of loyalty of customers.

Service quality represents a fundamental aspect of delivery, which strongly influences consumer satisfaction and, as a result, loyalty. In today’s global market a customer’s service expectation has to be met and exceeded eventually in order to retain customers as well as achieve success. Perceived quality of a product or a service is becoming one of the major competitive factors in the business world and has led to the innovation of the ‘Quality Era’ (Peeler, 1996). In simple words, the comparison of customer expectations with service performance is service quality. On the other hand, customer satisfaction is defined as a pleasurable fulfilment response toward a good, service, benefit, or reward (Oliver, 1997). Both of these

Gronorous(2000,p.46) “ service is a intangible activities which take place between customers and employees for interaction or physical resolution or services of service provider to solve the clients problems “ Fogli (2006,p 4) “Service is the global judgement of the inferiority or superiority of the corporation " “ customers satisfaction is the comparison of performance expectation and evaluation of the company”(Goode & moutinho 1995). “Customers satisfaction is the feelings towards services & products of customer.There are different antecedent of satisfaction differ from customers to customers which is global. “(Taylor & Baker 1994).Bhatia 's(2008)most concern on customers loyalty

The relationship between customer satisfaction and brand loyalty has proven its role and importance in Management as well as in marketing. Throughout previous decades, Marketing researchers have acclaimed the advantages of satisfaction and loyalty, and have mentioned them as directories of an organizational competitive benefit. On the other hand, brand loyalty is one of the most important constructions in marketing, due to its final effect on customers’ repeated purchases, and in fact, those loyal customers who purchase repeatedly are

Since the early 1980s customer satisfaction surveys have maintained a conspicuous place in the research agenda (Allen & Rao, 2000). Quality is the core strategy that organizations execute to bring better values to customers for gaining a competitive advantage. Quality is conformance to requirements (Crosby, 1979). However Juran et al. (1974) see quality as fitness for use while according to Kanji (1990) quality is satisfying the customer’s requirement continually. Service quality is the ability of the organization to meet or exceed customer expectations (Kitchroen, 2004). Research diagnose several characteristics those are associated with service quality. Schneider & Bowen (1995) proposed three crucial issues security, esteem and justice