Abstract
In this competitive era it is very important for any service industry to meet with customer expectations by providing high quality product and good services. In restaurant business customer satisfaction play an important role in determining success of restaurant. The research study is focused on analyzing relationship between customer satisfaction and various factors like; ambience of restaurant, cleanliness, hygienic food, prompt service, behavior of staff members and their dealing with customers. Tip cups used as a measurement to check the quality of services provided by restaurants owners.
Introduction to the problem: Service quality is an important measurement for success of a restaurant. Tip cups are an attempt by restaurateurs to measure the gap between actual customer opinion and the service quality restaurateurs believe they are providing to their customers. Tip considered as voluntary payment that customer gives when he is delighted with the services provided in the restaurant. During the study it is assumed that the more the tip amount the more customers are satisfied with the services. There is no law which makes tip payment as necessary for the customers hence customer is free to give as much as he wants as per the level of satisfaction. In the research study we will analyze various factors which impact quality of service and customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is directly related with number of customers visiting the restaurants and responsible for success of business. In the study we have taken customer satisfaction as variable which dependent on various factors and established a relationship with tip amount.
Objective of the study: the major objective of the study is to establish a relationship between tip and customer satisfaction. Other objectives of the study are;
Research Methodology: multiple base line design, single subject design, pre-post design and comparison designs will be used to study the impact of treatment on the subject. Under the treatment various independent variables will be introduced to study the impact on dependent variable that is customer satisfaction.
Under the study both primary and secondary research techniques were used. Under primary research customers and other stakeholders were interviewed with the help of questionnaire. Focus group discussions and in-depth interview covering all the employees in each restaurant were carried out. Under secondary research literature review and study of existing information was carried out. Month-wise past data on tip amount and number of customers visited the restaurant were collected from the respective restaurants. Information related with any past research studies focused on customer satisfaction which conducted by restaurants was also gathered.
It was also decided that at the end of the study who so ever restaurant will get higher rating in customer satisfaction will receive a bonus.
Sampling Methodology: Three restaurants located at three different places were covered under the study. Total 300 customers (100 from each restaurant) were interviewed under the study to understand various factors directly related with quality of service and also to understand other objectives of the study. Total 3 focus group discussions (one at each restaurant) covering all the employees were carried out to understand how employees perceive quality and what all things they feel contribute towards good quality. Employees were also asked about things they do to make customer happy and delighted. In-depth interviews with owner and senior management were conducted. Details of various policies to motivate employees and to increase customer satisfaction were discussed with senior management. A relationship between tip cup amount and customer satisfaction were studied during all data collection points.
Time Frame: the study was completed in total three months time. The study was started at the beginning of March and completed in May. Each restaurant was given approx one month time for data collection and evaluation. Last week was devoted in compiling and analyzing the overall data and report preparation.
Literature Review: extensive literature review was conducted to understand the research objective in detail and also gain secondary information on the subject.
A study conducted by Lei Wang in the year 2010 was focused on analyzing tipping practices in U.S. and its relationship with service quality. The study was divided in three parts; part one was focused on tipping as a practice in restaurant and hotel industry specifically in America and part two was focused on history of tipping and part three was focused on establishing a relationship between tip and customer satisfaction. As per study tip is considered as a reward offered for the delight full services. It works as a motivational factor for the employees and make them work more to provide good quality services. Tipping work as a medium when customer praise employee for the services he offered. Customer satisfaction and employee motivation are directly linked with each other; when customer is satisfied, he will pay tip and tip will motivate employee so that he provides good services.
As per study customer satisfaction is related with three aspects; service quality, product price and quality. It is imperative for restaurant owners to focus these three factors to gain maximum profit and revenue. Study has shown that tipping has became a common practice in hotel and restaurant industry, there are certain ways by which managers can differentiate the employees who are good performer and who are bad performer. The study also suggested that collection amount may depend upon the economic condition of customer, price menu of restaurant, timing, gender or other socio economic and demographic factors.
Another study was conducted by Peter M Kerr and Bruce R. Domazlicky to assess how tipping is related with service quality. The authors mentioned there are various socio, economic and demographic factors which influence tipping hence to understand the exact relationship it is imperative to control all the factors which influence the tipping pattern. After controlling all the factors, it was observed that customer satisfaction and tipping are directly related. For even a single minute delay in delivery cost around 10 to 12 percent decrease in tip amount. Some other factors like old age people and children pay little amount of tip.
A study conducted by Michael T Ralis & Richard M. O'Brien, was mainly investigated various factors which helps in increasing the sales of outlets. Comparison design was used to conduct the study in multiple settings. It was observed that suggestive selling increased the sales of product while prompt also increases suggestive selling. The study has shown that use of prompt, praise, feedback and goal setting helps in improving the sales of products. All these factors help in motivating employee for better and good service quality.
The research study was conducted to reduce the problem restaurants are facing in terms of poor service quality, employee motivation and other related aspects which impact customer satisfaction. Various research designs like multiple base line design, single subject design, pre-post design and comparison designs were used while conducting the study. Various behavior techniques will be introduced to increase the productivity of employees.
Result: there are various factors which influence the customer satisfaction. Some factors are related with employees that impact the quality of service and some factors related with restaurant management like its ambience, variety of items and pricing. After using various research designs and techniques, we have assessed the impact of various independent variables on the subject. The most influential variables were quality of food, ambience, behavior and presentation skills of employee and delivery time. Tipping amount is also dependent upon the subject and linked with various independent variables.
References
Michael T Ralis & Richard M. O'Brien. (2008). Prompts, Goal Setting and Feedback to Increase Suggestive Selling. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management , 5-18.
Peter M. Kerra & Bruce R. Domazlicky. (2009). Tipping and service quality: results from a large database. Applied Economics Letters , 1505-1510.
Richard O'Brien, William A.Sperduto and Andrew B. Goff. (1984). An undergraduate practicum in organizational behavior management: Course description and project outcomes. Teaching of Psychology , 149-153.
Wang, L. (2010, December 1). An Investigation and analysis of U.S. restaurant tipping practices and the relationship to service quality with recommendations for field application. Retrieved December 11, 2011, from www.digitalcommons.library.unlv.edu: http://digitalcommons.library.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1660&context=thesesdissertations&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.in%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dservice%2Bquality%2Brelationship%2Bwith%2Btip%2Bcups%2Bin%2Brestaurant%2Bb
