Frontline Service Staff Behaviors and Customer Satisfaction: A Micro-Level Analysis of Restaurant Service Encounters in Chandigarh

Abstract

The study examines the impact of frontline service staff behavior on customer satisfaction in restaurants of Chandigarh. The study focuses on the "people" aspect of the food and beverage service-practices framework, in which the customer's attention is captured by the way the staff behaves, communicates, attends to him/her and/or handles the service accuracy. The study employs quantitative, cross sectional design with 435 usable responses from food and beverage outlets in Chandigarh. Frontline service behaviour items were measured on a 5-point likert scale with 22 items and customer satisfaction items had 5 items. Data were analyzed by reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression. Four aspects of frontline service behavior emerge from the analysis: professionalism, personalisation, communication and accuracy. The four dimensions have good reliability and positive correlations with customer satisfaction. The results of the regression model indicate that accuracy is the most powerful predictor of satisfaction, followed by communication, personalisation and professionalism. The variance in customer satisfaction is explained by the overall frontline service behaviours construct (62.0 %). The paper advances the restaurant service research field by combining the general service quality measurement with the specific behaviors that a customer has to face while eating a meal at the restaurant. The results of the research for managers can be translated as a general concept of good service into staff behaviours that can be trained, monitored and improved.