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Faculty & Research

Hospitality Leadership Through Learning
Faculty & Research

Dining Duration and Customer Satisfaction

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Vol 5 No 9
By:  Breffni Noone Ph.D. and Sheryl E. Kimes Ph.D.

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Executive Summary: Restaurateurs may be tempted to speed up the pace of their customers' meals during busy periods in a bid to increase table turns. While selling more covers should boost revenues, a study of restaurant patrons finds that strategies aimed at reducing dining time should be applied carefully. By dividing a dining experience into three segments, one can assess the effects of duration-reduction efforts at each point in the process. On balance, restaurant patrons do not want to feel that they are being rushed nor do they want to be unduly delayed. Indeed, it is the perception of the speed (or lack thereof), rather than the actual time spent dining, that carries the most weight with restaurant patrons. If a perceived wait is longer than what guests expected, their satisfaction is likely to diminish, along with their assessment of the server's abilities and their likelihood to return. By the same token if a meal proceeds at a tempo much faster than expected, diners will feel rushed and will conclude that their server is not willing or able to attend to their needs. In particular, restaurants should approach the actual meal, that is, the in-process stage of the dining experience, with care. On the other hand, the pre-process stage, when guests are ordering drinks and reading the menu, and the post-process stage, when guests are receiving and settling the check, can be hastened in certain situations. The study found that patrons in casual and upscale casual restaurants are more willing to accept duration-reduction strategies than are patrons of fine-dining restaurants, where an appropriate pace is essential to satisfaction.

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Comments

Congratulations to you on this article. I'm happy that you examined this topic. In Europe, it is still the norm in good restaurants that once you are at the table, it is YOURS. Turnover means more profits, but, as you say, it also results in less satisfied guests. One has to choose what is a better long-run sustainable strategy." Kurt Ritter, President & CEO, Rezidor SAS Hospitality

Excellent piece of research. Belated congratulations to Breffni on her doctorate.

Sean Mooney
-Retired Head of Hospitality Management at Blackpool and The Fylde College
-faculty Hibernia College, Dublin, Ireland

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About Sheryl E. Kimes Ph.D.

Dr. Sheryl E. Kimes is a professor of operations management at the School of Hotel Administration. From 2005–2006, she served as interim dean of the Hotel School and from 2001-2005, she served as the school’s director of graduate studies. Kimes teaches restaurant revenue management, yield management and food and beverage management. She has been named the school’s graduate teacher of the year three times. Her research interests include revenue management and forecasting in the restaurant, hotel and golf industries. She has published over 50 articles in leading journals such as Interfaces, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Service Research, Decision Sciences, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. She has served as a consultant to many hospitality enterprises around the world, including Chevy’s FreshMex Restaurants, Walt Disney World Resorts, Ruby’s Diners, Starwood Asia-Pacific and Troon Golf. Kimes earned her doctorate in Operations Management in 1987 from the University of Texas at Austin.

For more information visit http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/facultybios/faculty.html?id=43