Abstract

Purpose: This study analyzed the influence of restaurant service perception on customer satisfaction and its implications on customers' attitude towards, intention to return to, and word-of-mouth (WOM) regarding a restaurant chain. Research design, data and methodology: Data from 421 respondents were collected using the convenience sampling method. After analyzing the data normality and removing responses with missing data and outliers, 342 responses were selected for further analysis, and the hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results: We found that service perception affected customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction affected the customers' attitude toward the restaurant chain, which affected customers' intention to return and WOM about the restaurant chain. Conclusions: This paper provides one of the most important empirical results for managers in the restaurant sector, especially in Indonesia. Restaurant managers should thus provide training to their employees to improve the quality of the interaction with the customers and thereby increase customer satisfaction. The limitations listed in this study include the exclusion of respondents' income. For future research, we suggest investigating models of customer participation or consumer value co-creation for restaurant marketing success. Consumers are generic actors in the service ecosystem engaged in the value co-creation process.