Dick's last resort restaurants: a unconventional theme "bad service" becomes unique experience for guests
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: The hospitality industry has focused on increasing customer satisfaction by offering services that are generally described as flawless, courteous, and friendly. Dick's Last Resort restaurants, however, are distinguished by intentionally staged erroneous, obnoxious, and rude services that nevertheless provide a unique experience for customers. This unconventional service theme might work for some customers but not for others. This study focuses on exploring the factors that lead to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction at Dick's Last Resort restaurants. In addition, customer satisfaction levels are examined according to gender and location. Using the modified critical incident technique, 518 online reviews were analyzed through a categorization process. The results of this study suggested that "overall theme experience" and "employee performance" are the most important factors in determining customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. However, the findings suggest that there is no satisfaction rate difference by customers' gender and restaurant's location. The study's limitations and managerial implications for future research are discussed.
Author: Sunghyeon Kim
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2600581862