Thesis

that these contribute to customers’ overall perception of the restaurant and its brand.
While it is important to present customers with an aesthetically pleasing environment, it
is imperative that businesses continue to train employees on best practices in good
customer service.
In order to assess the role of customer value within existing service quality and
customer satisfaction, a study for the International Journal of Hospitality Management
concluded that the future of service quality may be improved with the use of an
integrated approach (Oh, 1999). The perceived value of a service is determined based
on the trade-off between price and service quality and also the influence of
performance perceptions. This observation indicates that there is a relationship
between all of these concepts and conventional methods may be ineffective.
Technology has also dramatically changed the way the service industry works and
operates, and it has also greatly affected service quality, relationship quality and
customer loyalty. About 81 percent of U.S. restaurants use an electronic register system,
68 percent of restaurants offer Wi-Fi for guests and 32 percent of restaurant operators
consider their operations to be lagging in technology use (National Restaurant
Association, 2017). A 2013 survey by Ipsos MediaCT showed that 80 percent of U.S.
restaurants use social media and 68 percent said they monitored restaurant review sites
(eMarketer, 2013).
Social Media in Business and the Restaurant Industry:
One of the biggest changes in technology over the last decade has been the expansion
of the world of social media. Businesses all over the U.S. were forced to join the online
conversation if they wanted to interact with and market to customers. Everyday there
are over 500 million Tweets, 4.5 billion likes on Facebook and 5 million photos and
videos uploaded to Instagram (Copp, 2016). Social Media has provided businesses with
the unique opportunity to market and interact directly with its most loyal customers,
but only about 3 percent of businesses use social media to its full potential (Holmes,
2015). These social sites provide a wealth of information on customers including, who
they are and how they feel about certain brands (Copp, 2016).
Most of the studies previously referenced highlighted the importance of service quality
and how it can be used to build customer loyalty, and social media is another way to
increase brand awareness and loyalty. Connecting with customers on social media will
most likely increase customer retention and brand loyalty (Copp, 2016). Businesses can
now take an extra step in providing the best service quality by giving customers the
opportunity and platform to express their opinions. Over 67 percent of customers now
go to social media for customer service and expect fast responses (Copp, 2016).
Businesses that can deliver this experience and level of customer service see bigger
financial gains; businesses with helpful social media see about 7.5 percent year over
year growth, while businesses without only see 2.9 percent growth (Copp, 2016).
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