The effect of meal pace on customer satisfaction.(analysis of restaurant management)

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(1.) For the purpose of this study, a restaurant service encounter was defined as beginning when a party is seated at its table and ending when the party vacates the table. It could be argued that the service encounter begins when the party enters the restaurant. However, the narrower definition used in this study reflects the revenue management objective of maximizing the revenue generated per unit of inventory, that is, a seat at a table. Therefore, it is time spent at the table that was relevant in this study, and not time spent waiting for a table.

(2.) Cronbach's alpha = .83 (overall service encounter), .76 (preprocess), .81 (in-process), and .83 (postprocess).

(3.) See Westbrook and Oliver (1981). Cronbach's alpha = .99 (overall service encounter), .98 (preprocess), .99 (in-process), and .98 (postprocess).

(4.) Standardized beta coefficients, as opposed to raw data points, were used to better facilitate the detection of the nature of the relationship between pace and satisfaction.

(5.) The in-process stage was used as the reference group to test the interaction between pace and service stage. To satisfy the independence-of-observations assumption required for regression analysis, a data set comprising three data subsets was generated. Every third observation from the set of all observations was selected for inclusion in the preprocess stage data subset. Then, every second observation from the remaining observations was placed in the in-process stage data subset, with the remaining observations placed in the post-process data subset. The interaction was significant (p<.05), and the effect of perceived pace on satisfaction for the post-process stage when compared with the in-process stage was marginally significantly (p<.1).

(6.) Casual restaurants were used as the reference group to test the interaction between pace and restaurant type. The interaction was significant (p < .05), and the fine-dining category was significantly different to the casual category (p < .05).

(7.) Casual restaurants were used as the reference group to test the interaction between pace and restaurant type. The interaction was significant (p < .05), and the fine-dining category was significantly different from the casual category (p < .05).

(8.) Lunch was used as the reference to test the interaction between pace and meal type. The interaction was significant (p <. 05), and the dinner category was significantly different from the lunch category (p < .05).

Breffni M. Noone, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at The Pennsylvania State University School of Hospitality Management (bmn2@psu.edu). Sheryl E. Kimes, Ph.D., is a professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration (sek9@cornell.edu). Anna S. Mattila, Ph.D., is an associate professor at The Pennsylvania State University School of Hospitality Management (asm6@ psu.edu). Jochen Wirtz, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the NUS Business School, the National University of Singapore (bizwirtz@nus.edu.sg).

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