Research method
Research design
Secondary sources were explored first to assess past research
conducted on customer satisfaction in the restaurant
industry. The next stage involved gathering information
via qualitative methods from restaurant goers. This process
allowed us to identify and narrow down the key factors and
the related items comprising the factors that were expected
to explain customer satisfaction for the restaurant industry.
The next step involved designing and pre-testing a
questionnaire that was administered to a convenient
sample. The pre-test was instrumental in assessing the
strengths and weaknesses of the questionnaire and in
ensuring that all pertinent variables were included. At this
stage, several modifications were made to the instrument to
remove ambiguities, to eliminate items that did not seem to
fit the context (e.g. feeling safe in one’s transactions with
restaurants), and to improve the flow of the questions. The
final version was administered to a representative sample in
a test-market city in Pennsylvania.