Customer experiences of phone encounters in a restaurant context

Walter, Ute (author): Örebro universitet,Restaurang- och hotellhögskolan - Grythytte akademi

(creator_code:org_t)

Abstract Subject headings

The research presented in this paper focuses on table reservations made by phone regarded as early events in customers’ total restaurant experiences. A majority of table reservations still are made by phone and there is little research about how reservation phone encounters at restaurants are handled in practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to describe how restaurants handle customers’ reservation phone calls, as documented by customers and whether these voice-to-voice encounters influence customers’ expectations. In addition, customers’ satisfaction with the total dining experience was examined and compared with customers’ perception of the phone encounter. The study was conducted in two steps. First, 209 phone encounters were documented by restaurant customers. Second, customers’ satisfaction with their dining experience was examined using a survey and 47 observations of customers’ ratings of these two points of measurement were compared. The results indicate that organizational routines such as phone reservations and how they are treated by restaurants are an important precondition for customers’ service experiences. For restaurants, especially exclusive à la carte restaurants, there is potential to further develop how they handle phone encounters towards a more proactive approach, keeping in mind that a phone reservation is not only a formal order, but also part of a customer’s total experience.

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