Guest Service Management and Processes in Restaurants: What We Have Learned in Fifty Years

Abstract

Although restaurant-related research has long focused on boosting sales, the focus on revenue as a quantitative discipline has arisen only in the past fifteen years, with restaurant revenue management. This series of studies is emblematic of the increased focus on scientific studies to help restaurateurs improve their operations. Another thread of research, on service process management, included a series of articles explaining the many elements beyond the food itself that go into a successful restaurant operation. A particular element in guest satisfaction is the extent to which employees believe that their restaurant maintains service standards. Finally, when service goes awry, service recovery requires handling guest complaints in a prompt and appropriate fashion. Service failures subject restaurants to negative word of mouth, but it is not simply a matter of a dissatisfied guest complaining to a certain number of friends. Instead, the nature and number of subsequent negative comments depends on the type of failure—with food quality being most critical.