Exploration of Customer Compliant Behavior toward Asain Full-Service Restaurants

Abstract

The first law of service productivity and quality in restaurants is doing it right the first time. In today’s highly competitive environment, restaurants should acquire feedback from their customers to improve further the products and services they offer. One means to obtain customer feedback is to encourage and facilitate the complaint process. In response to an unhappy service, customers either speak with the management, their friends or do nothing, and they may also expect fair compensation whenever service failure occurs. This study aimed to investigate the complaint behavior of Hong Kong customers toward Asian full-service restaurants. A qualitative approach was adopted with a sample of 30 respondents who often dine in Asian full-service restaurants. Semi-structured questions were asked through an in-depth interview. Based on the results, the reasons for the complaints and complaint behavior of Hong Kong customers were identified, and recommendations were made to provide insights for industrial practitioners.