Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2018-8
The Impact of Customer Loyalty and Restaurant Sanitation Grades on Revisit Intention and the Importance of Narrative Information: The Case of New York Restaurant Sanitation Grading System
New York City launched a restaurant sanitation letter grade system in 2010. We evaluate the impact of customer loyalty on restaurant revisit intentions after exposure to a sanitation grade alone, and after exposure to a sanitation grade plus narrative information about sanitation violations (e.g., presence of rats). We use a 2 (loyalty: high or low) × 4 (sanitation grade: A, B, C, or pending) between-subjects full factorial design to test the hypotheses using data from 547 participants recruited from Amazon MTurk who reside in the New York City area. Our study yields three findings. First, loyal customers exhibit higher intentions to revisit restaurants than non-loyal customers, regardless of sanitation letter grades. Second, the difference in revisit intentions between loyal and non-loyal customers is higher when sanitation grades are poorer. Finally, loyal customers are less sensitive to narrative information about sanitation violations.
AgarwalR.MehrotraA.BargerV. A. (2016). Personality traits and repatronage intentions after service failure. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 29, 31-51.
2.
BalajiM. S.RoyS. K.QuaziA. (2017). Customers’ emotion regulation strategies in service failure encounters. European Journal of Marketing, 51, 960-982.
3.
BarlingJ.PhillipsM. (1993). Interactional, formal, and distributive justice in the workplace: An exploratory study. Journal of Psychology, 127, 649-656.
4.
BlodgettJ. G.HillD. J.TaxS. S. (1997). The effects of distributive, procedural and interactional justice on post-complaint behavior. Journal of Retailing, 73, 185-210.
BowenJ. T.ChenS. L. (2001). The relationship between customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 13, 213-217.
7.
ChaikenS. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 752-766.
8.
ChaikenS.LedgerwoodA. (2012). A theory of heuristic and systematic information processing. In LangeP. A. M. V.KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 246-267). London, England: SAGE.
9.
ChaikenS.LibermanA.EaglyA. H. (1989). Heuristic and systematic information processing within and beyond the persuasion context. In UlemanJ. S.BarghJ. A. (Eds.), Unintended thought (pp. 212-252). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
10.
ChaudhuriA.HolbrookM. B. (2001). The chain of effects from brand trust and brand affect to brand performance: The role of brand loyalty. Journal of Marketing, 65, 81-93.
11.
ChoiJ.MiaoL.AlmanzaB.NelsonC. D. (2013). Consumers’ responses to restaurant inspection reports: The effects of information source and message style. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 16, 255-275.
DayR. L.LandonE. L.Jr. (1977). Toward a theory of consumer complaining behavior. In WoodsideA. G.ShethJ. N.BennetP. D. (Eds.), Consumer and industrial buying behavior (pp. 425-437). New York, NY: North Holland.
14.
DewittT.BradyM. K. (2003). Rethinking service recovery strategies: The effect of rapport on consumer responses to service failure. Journal of Service Research, 6, 193-207.
15.
DickA.BasuK. (1994). Customer loyalty: Towards an integrated framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 22, 99-113.
16.
EvanschitzkyH.RamaseshanB.WoisetschlägerD. M.RichelsenV.BlutM.BackhausC. (2012). Consequences of customer loyalty to the loyalty program and to the company. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40, 625-638.
GounarisS.StathakopoulosV. (2004). Antecedents and consequences of brand loyalty: An empirical study. Journal of Brand Management, 11, 283-306.
19.
HerrP. M.ShermanS. J.FazioR. H. (1983). On the consequences of priming: Assimilation and contrast effects. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 323-340.
20.
HirschmanA. O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
21.
JinN. P.LineN. D.GohB. (2013). Experiential value, relationship quality, and customer loyalty in full service restaurants: The moderating role of gender. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 22, 679-700.
22.
KanC.LichtensteinD. R.GrantS. J.JaniszewskiC. (2014). Strengthening the influence of advertised reference prices through information priming. Journal of Consumer Research, 40, 1078-1096.
23.
KandampullyJ.ZhangT.BilgihanA. (2015). Customer loyalty: A review and future directions with a special focus on the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27, 379-414.
24.
KotlerP.BowenJ. T.MakensJ. C. (2006). Marketing for hospitality and tourism (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
25.
LinB. H.GuthrieJ. F. (2012). Nutritional quality of food prepared at home and away from home, 1977–2008. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
26.
LiuS. Q.MattilaA. S. (2015). “I want to help” versus “I am just mad”—How affective commitment influences customer feedback decisions. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 56, 213-222.
27.
MattilaA. S. (2004). The impact of service failures on customer loyalty: The moderating role of affective commitment. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 15, 134-149.
28.
MaxhamJ. G.NetemeyerR. G. (2002). Modeling customer perceptions of compliant handling over time: The effects of perceived justice on satisfaction and intent. Journal of Retailing, 78, 239-252.
29.
MazzocchiM.LobbA.TraillB. W.CavicchiA. (2008). Food scares and trust: A European study. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 59, 2-24.
30.
McKelveyW.WongM.MatisB. (2015). Letter grading and transparency promote restaurant food safety in New York City. Journal of Environmental Health, 78(2), 46-48.
31.
MichaelidouN.HassanL. M. (2008). The role of health consciousness, food safety concern and ethical identity on attitudes and intentions towards organic food. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 32, 163-170.
32.
MittalV.HuppertzJ. W.KhareA. (2008). Customer complaining: The role of tie strength and information control. Journal of Retailing, 84, 195-204.
OliverR. L. (1999). Whence consumer loyalty?Journal of Marketing, 63, 33-44.
35.
OliverR. L. (2010). Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer (2nd ed.). New York, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
36.
PanY.ShengS.XieF. T. (2012). Antecedents of customer loyalty: An empirical synthesis and reexamination. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 19, 150-158.
37.
PetrickJ. F. (2004). Are loyal visitors desired visitors?Tourism Management, 25, 463-470.
38.
PriluckR.WisenblitJ. (2009). The impact of exchange lineage on customers’ responses to service debacles and subsequent recovery. Services Marketing Quarterly, 30, 365-376.
39.
ReynoldsK. L.HarrisL. C. (2009). Dysfunctional customer behaviour severity: An empirical examination. Journal of Retailing, 85, 321-335.
40.
RoH.MattilaA. S. (2015). Silent voices: Nonbehavioral reactions to service failures. Services Marketing Quarterly, 36, 95-111.
41.
SoK. K. F.KingC.SparksB. A.WangY. (2013). The influence of customer brand identification on hotel brand evaluation and loyalty development. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 34, 31-41.
42.
SparksB.FredlineL. (2007). Providing an explanation for service failure: Context, content, and customer responses. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 31, 241-260.
43.
SparksB. A.PerkinsH. E.BuckleyR. (2013). Online travel reviews as persuasive communication: The effects of content type, source, and certification logos on consumer behavior. Tourism Management, 39, 1-9.
44.
StrackF.SchwarzN.BlessH.KüblerA.WänkeM. (1993). Awareness of the influence as a determinant of assimilation versus contrast. European Journal of Social Psychology, 23, 53-62.
45.
TsarenkoY.StrizhakovaY. (2013). Coping with service failures: The role of emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and intention to complain. European Journal of Marketing, 47, 71-92.
WatsonG. F.BeckJ. T.HendersonC. M.PalmatierR. W. (2015). Building, measuring, and profiting from customer loyalty. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43, 790-825.
48.
YooM.BaiB. (2013). Customer loyalty marketing research: A comparative approach between hospitality and business journals. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 33, 166-177.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
