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Weekly UpdatesResearch Procedure
A self-administered survey was used to test the effect of the pace of the dining experience on customer satisfaction. We mailed the survey to 580 people who were members of a handicraft association, parents of students at a university located in the northeastern United States, and employees of a clinical research organization. We asked them to respond if they had dined in a sit-down restaurant within the previous three weeks. To encourage participation, we offered a drawing for gift certificates at a number of service outlets.
At the beginning of the survey, we asked respondents to write a description of their recent dining experience. For the purpose of this study, we asked respondents to rate their experience from the time they sat down at the table to the time they stood up. To make sure that respondents checked the appropriate restaurant type, we included on the questionnaire a description of each restaurant type, including the average check per person and examples of popular chain restaurants.
To make sure that we had responses covering different meal paces, we sent out equal numbers of three versions of the questionnaire. Thus, one questionnaire examined a moderate-pace experience, another looked at a slow-pace meal, and the third version asked respondents to consider a fast-pace experience. (A sample of the questionnaire appears in the appendix.) We were careful not to characterize slow or fast as necessarily negative (or positive) conditions. Respondents were also asked a number of general questions in relation to the experience they recalled for the questionnaire, including how recent was their experience and whether their purpose was convenience, business, or social (which comprised a meal with family or friends and a special occasion or celebration).
Respondents were then asked to answer questions to measure their perceptions of pace and satisfaction. Given our proposal that satisfaction with the pace of service depends on the stage of the meal, we measured respondents' perceptions of pace and satisfaction for each stage of the dining experience and their overall evaluation of the service encounter. To aid recall, we provided respondents with a description of the relevant stage of the dining experience immediately before the questions relating to that stage of the experience. The definitions of service stages used in the study, which were largely consistent with previous research, are shown in Exhibit 1 (Dube-Rioux, Schmitt, and Leclerc 1989).
Measures
Perceived pace was measured using two 7-point items. One item was, "How would you describe the pace of the meal [stage]? (extremely fast to extremely slow)"; and the other asked, "How would you describe the duration of the meal [stage]? (extremely short to extremely long)."(2) Satisfaction was measured using Westbrook and Oliver's (1981) six-item, 7-point bipolar scale. (3)
Sample
A total of 228 questionnaires were returned (39 percent response rate). We had to discard 10 of these responses, because the experience rated on the questionnaire was beyond our three-week cutoff point. Just more than half of the responses (56 percent; n = 123) involved a meal within the previous week, 17 percent (n = 38) recalled a meal within the prior two weeks, and the remaining 26.2 percent (n = 57) of the questionnaires involved a meal as old as three weeks. Of the respondents, 69 percent (n = 150) were female, and the majority of respondents (87 percent, n = 189) were between thirty-five and fifty-five years of age.
The distribution of restaurant type was reasonably even. Thirty-five percent (n = 77) of responses covered casual restaurants, 37 percent (n = 81) involved upscale casual restaurants, and 28 percent (n = 60) rated a fine-dining experience. The majority of questionnaires (72 percent; n = 158) rated a dinner experience. Many respondents (71 percent; n = 154) had previously dined in the restaurant. Social purposes was the foremost reason for dining (69 percent; n = 151), while 30 questionnaires (14 percent) involved a business meal, and convenience was the purpose for 17 percent (n = 37) of respondents. The mean ratings for perceived pace, by pace condition and restaurant type are provided in Exhibit 2.
The Effect of Pace on Satisfaction
To test the effect of dining experience pace on satisfaction, we ran a polynomial regression analysis with satisfaction as the dependent variable and pace as the predictor variable. We controlled for the following variables: restaurant type, meal type, reason for dining, gender, age, and number of people in the party.
Our results indicate that respondents' perceptions of the pace of dining experiences affected their satisfaction with those experiences. When respondents perceived the pace of a dining experience as being either very fast or very slow, their satisfaction diminished. This relationship between pace and satisfaction applied to the dining experience as a whole and also to each individual stage of the experience.
The technical aspects of the regression analysis are as follows. The cubic term for pace was insignificant and was dropped from the analysis. A test of the difference between the [R.sup.2] for the quadratic model and the linear model was significant (p < .005), providing support for the inclusion of the quadratic pace term. The quadratic pace term was significant in all regression equations, including the regression of overall satisfaction on overall pace and the regressions of satisfaction on pace for each of the three stages of the dining experience. Exhibit 3 summarizes the key regression results. The negative sign of the coefficient for the quadratic pace term indicates that the curve turns down from its maximum point. This is reflected in the plot of perceived pace and satisfaction, derived using the standardized beta coefficients for the pace terms, in Exhibit 4. (4)
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Meal Stage
When we tested for the effect of service stage on the relationship between perceived pace and service stage satisfaction, we found that respondents had a much greater tolerance for a fast pace in the postprocess stage than during the preprocess and in-process stages of the dining experience. (5)
That said, we found that the pace of the in-process stage had the greatest influence on satisfaction. When we tested for the effect on overall satisfaction of satisfaction with the individual service stage, the satisfaction variables for all three service stages were significant (p < .001). However, the coefficient for in-process satisfaction (.66) was considerably larger than those for either the preprocess (.26) or postprocess stages (. 15).
Restaurant Type, Meal Type, and Reason for Dining
We found that our respondents had clear pacing expectations for different restaurant types. Respondents gave lower satisfaction ratings when they felt rushed at a fine-dining restaurant than when the pace picked up in casual or upscale casual restaurants. (6) Beyond that finding, meal type and reason for dining had no influence on the relationship between the overall pace of the dining experience and overall satisfaction with the experience.
The findings were different for specific stages, however. For the preprocess stage, the type of restaurant and meal type influenced the relationship between pace and satisfaction. Again, a fast pace in the preprocess stage meant low satisfaction ratings for fine-dining experiences, as compared to those of casual or upscale casual restaurants, (7) Likewise, a fast preprocess pace at dinner diminished satisfaction ratings as compared to a speedy preprocess stage at lunch. (8) Again, respondents' reason for dining did not influence the relationship between pace and their satisfaction during the preprocess stage.
None of the three restaurant environment attributes (restaurant type, meal type, or reason for dining) were found to influence the relationship between perceived pace and satisfaction for the in-process and postprocess stages. Thus, the negative effects of a fast pace on satisfaction held for both stages irrespective of the restaurant type, meal type, or reason for dining.
Discussion and Managerial Implications
We found that customers are sensitive to the pace of dining experiences, particularly with regard to the meal itself. Consistent with previous work, we found that when the pace of the dining experience was perceived as being either too slow or unduly fast, customer satisfaction diminished (see, e.g., Katz, Larson, and Larson 1991; Pruyn and Smidts 1998). These findings provide empirical support for the anecdotal observations that we mentioned earlier (Szuchman and Tesoriero 2004; Bhatia 2002). Furthermore, we found that the stage of the dining experience influences the relationship between pace and satisfaction. This study provides empirical support for those experienced managers who believe that customers favor a faster pace during the postprocess stage of their dining experience and that they dislike being "rushed along" during the preprocess and in-process stages. We also found that the effect of pace on overall satisfaction with a dining experience varies by restaurant type, with fine-dining customers being most sensitive to pacing issues. Additionally, restaurant type and meal type influence the relationship between pace and satisfaction for the preprocess stage of the dining experience.
Returning to our opening discussion of how to reduce dining duration for the purpose of revenue management, let us consider our findings as we examine ways to minimize potential customer dissatisfaction stemming from speeding up a meal.
1. Focus duration reduction efforts on the postprocess stage. It is clear from our findings that restaurateurs can speed up check settlement and departure (the postprocess stage). Regardless of the type of restaurant, meal type, or the reason for dining, respondents reported little reduction in dining satisfaction when the pace picked up during the postprocess stage, as compared to the rest of the meal. Actions that could be taken at this stage could include reducing the time for check delivery and processing. For example, significant time savings can be accrued through the use of handheld devices that print the bill and process credit card payments at the table. For most restaurants, speeding the postprocess stage is primarily a matter of training servers to make sure that parties are not forced to wait for a check when they are ready to settle.
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