"His lack of a mask ruined everything." Restaurant customer satisfaction during the COVID-19 outbreak: An analysis of Yelp review texts and star-ratings

Sentiment analysis of restaurant customer satisfaction during COVID-19 pandemic in Pattaya, Thailand

The tourism and hospitality industry, particularly the restaurant business, has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To comprehend customer behavior and preferences during this unprecedented time, it is crucial to analyze online restaurant customer reviews. Thus, this study utilized the valence aware dictionary for sentiment reasoning (VADER) model to examine TripAdvisor reviews of restaurants in Pattaya City, Chon Buri, Thailand, covering the period 2017-2022, which encompasses both pre-pandemic and pandemic years. The findings reveal a significant decrease in the number of reviews and a notable increase in negative sentiments during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to normal circumstances. We noticed two concern areas, i.e., service and staff, and food and taste, that should be addressed urgently. The findings of this study offer valuable insights into customer behavior and requirements, thereby empowering restaurant businesses to enhance service quality, satisfy customer requirements, and strategically plan for a post-COVID-19 future.

The effect of customer satisfaction on floral product purchase behavior, evidence from Shanghai, China

China's flower industry is developing rapidly, and the size of the retail market is increasing year by year. Studying the factors influencing residents' flower purchasing behavior and understanding their flower needs can help promote the sustainable development of the flower industry. Based on customer satisfaction theory, this paper uses 838 consumer research questionnaires from 15 districts in Shanghai to analyze the influence of customer satisfaction on residents' flower purchasing behavior by conducting a binary logit model and to investigate the moderating effect of flower purchasing purpose on the influence of satisfaction. The results show that price satisfaction and satisfaction with promotional methods have a significant negative effect on flower purchasing behavior, service satisfaction has a significant positive effect on purchasing behavior, and different customer purchase purposes lead to different intensities of the effect of satisfaction on purchasing behavior. According to the conclusion of the study, three countermeasures are proposed: to popularize the knowledge of flower culture, guide the concept of flower consumption, and promote the transformation of flower consumption to daily consumption; to conduct regular research on consumers by flower merchants to clarify consumers' needs and improve their satisfaction; to clarify consumers' purchase intention, increase the investment in the research and development and cultivation of flower products, and improve the supply level of flowers.

Exploring user-generated content related to vegetarian customers in restaurants: An analysis of online reviews

This study aimed to explore and evaluate factors that impact the dining experience of vegetarian consumers within a range of vegetarian-friendly restaurants. To explore the factors and understand consumer experience, this study analyzed a vast number of user-generated contents of vegetarian consumers, which have become vital sources of consumer experience information. This study utilized machine-learning techniques and traditional methods to examine 54,299 TripAdvisor reviews of approximately 1,008 vegetarian-friendly restaurants in London. The study identified 21 topics that represent a holistic opinion influencing the dining experience of vegetarian customers. The results suggested that "value" is the most popular topic and had the highest topic percentage. The results of regression analyses revealed that five topics had a significant impact on restaurant ratings, while 12 topics had negative impacts. Restaurant managers who pay close attention to vegetarian aspects may utilize the findings of this study to satisfy vegetarian consumer requirements better and enhance service operations.

Evaluating the influence of service quality, hedonic, and utilitarian value on shopper's behavioral intentions in urban shopping malls during the COVID-19 pandemic

Shopping malls are subjected to a lot of changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the Philippines. The objective of the study was to evaluate the influence of service quality, hedonic, and utilitarian value of malls on shopping mall goers' behavioral intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic. SERVQUAL five dimensions were utilized to represent the service quality aspect, while utilitarian and hedonic values are used to embody the shopping mall values among Filipino citizens. Additionally, we included convenience and social experience as part of our model, to which relationships were assessed toward the utilitarian and hedonic shopping mall values, respectively. An online survey was distributed and collected 519 valid responses among Filipino shopping mall goers. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), results showed that for service quality aspect, tangibles, empathy, and assurance had significant effects on shopper's shopping mall satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, both shopping mall values present positive effects on shopper's satisfaction on which utilitarian value gave the strongest influence in the overall model, followed by the hedonic value. Convenience and social experience also showed positive effects on utilitarian and hedonic values, respectively. The utilized extended framework from SERVQUAL dimensions and hedonic and utilitarian values to measure satisfaction and behavioral intentions was seen to be applicable to measure human behavior and lifestyle studies. Overall, the satisfaction from both service quality and shopping mall values aspect strongly influences shoppers' behavioral intention in going to the mall.

Initial Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Perspective on Health Risk Communications in the Restaurant Industry

Restaurant online review websites have made changes to adapt to customers' shifting needs during the COVID-19 crisis. Based on information behavior theory and social penetration theory, the present study investigated the changes in customers' emotions and how the volume of online reviews as an indication of sales is impacted by the instructional (i.e., with quantitative variables) and emotional (i.e., with qualitative variables) information on review websites. By comparing the same month (January-April) during 2017-2020, positive sentiment experienced a plunge, while negative sentiment showed an upsurge in April 2020. The volume of reviews was impacted by five quantitative variables (i.e., confirmed COVID-19 case number, food delivery option, takeout option, delivery fee, and delivery time) and seven qualitative variables (i.e., anticipation, fear, trust, anger, disgust, joy, and sadness). This study provides new insight into understanding information content on review websites during the crisis (e.g., pandemic) from the perspective of health risk communication.

Customer satisfaction with Restaurants Service Quality during COVID-19 outbreak: A two-stage methodology

Online reviews have been used effectively to understand customers' satisfaction and preferences. COVID-19 crisis has significantly impacted customers' satisfaction in several sectors such as tourism and hospitality. Although several research studies have been carried out to analyze consumers' satisfaction using survey-based methodologies, consumers' satisfaction has not been well explored in the event of the COVID-19 crisis, especially using available data in social network sites. In this research, we aim to explore consumers' satisfaction and preferences of restaurants' services during the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, we investigate the moderating impact of COVID-19 safety precautions on restaurants' quality dimensions and satisfaction. We applied a new approach to achieve the objectives of this research. We first developed a hybrid approach using clustering, supervised learning, and text mining techniques. Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) was used to cluster customers' preferences. To predict travelers' preferences, decision trees were applied to each segment of LVQ. We used a text mining technique; Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), for textual data analysis to discover the satisfaction criteria from online customers' reviews. After analyzing the data using machine learning techniques, a theoretical model was developed to inspect the relationships between the restaurants' quality factors and customers' satisfaction. In this stage, Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique was employed. We evaluated the proposed approach using a dataset collected from the TripAdvisor platform. The outcomes of the two-stage methodology were discussed and future research directions were suggested according to the limitations of this study.

Food safety practice and associated factors in public food establishments of Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

In terms of global impact, foodborne infections have been likened to major infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, with 1 in 10 people becoming ill and 420,000 deaths per year. A large number of these incidents are caused by improperly handled food in foodservice establishments. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aims to estimate the proportion of food handlers in Ethiopian commercial food service establishments who have safe food handling practices and their associated factors.

METHODS

Studies conducted before 02-05-2022 were explored in PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, Google Scholar, ProQuest, and Ovid MEDLINE®, as well as other sources. A total of fourteen studies were included in the final synthesis. Data were extracted using a standardized data extraction format prepared in Microsoft excel and the analysis was done using STATA 16 statistical software. The quality of included studies was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute's Critical assessment checklist for prevalence studies. To evaluate publication bias, a funnel plot and Egger's regression test were employed. The I2 statistic was calculated to examine for study heterogeneity. To assess the pooled effect size, odds ratios, and 95% confidence intervals across studies, the DerSimonian and Laird random-effects model was used. Subgroup analysis was conducted by region and publication year. The influence of a single study on the whole estimate was determined via sensitivity analysis.

RESULTS

Of 323 identified articles, 14 studies were eligible for analysis (n = 4849 participants). The pooled prevalence estimate of safe food handling practices among Ethiopian food handlers was 47.14% (95% CI: 39.01-55.26, I2 = 97.23%). Foodservice training (OR, 3.89; 95% CI: 2.37-5.40), having on-site water storage facilities (OR, 4.65; 95% CI: 2.35-6.95), attitude (OR, 4.89; 95% CI: 1.39-8.29), hygiene and sanitary inspection certification (OR, 3.08; 95% CI: 1.62-4.45) were significantly associated with safe food handling practice among food handlers.

CONCLUSION

This review identified that improvements are needed in food handling training, government regulation, and infrastructure. Standard regulations for food service enterprises must be implemented on a local and national level. Though long-term food safety requires legislation and training, failure to address infrastructure challenges can harm public health efforts. Access to safe drinking water and the presence of sanitary waste management systems should all be part of the basic infrastructure for ensuring the safety of food in food businesses.

Consumers' perceived effectiveness of COVID-19 mitigation strategies in restaurants: What went well and what could we do better?

As restaurants are resuming normal operations, COVID-19 mitigation strategies are still in place. An effective COVID-19 mitigation protocol may facilitate a more successful rebound since consumers may perceive a lowered risk to purchase food from the restaurant with protocols in place. However, little is known regarding how consumers evaluate restaurants' present efforts to contain the transmission of COVID-19. By using a rigorous scale development procedure, this study creates a scale to measure restaurant consumers' perceptions of COVID-19 mitigation strategies (acronym: PHASE): Protective equipment/technology (P); Health and hygiene (H); Access of purchase/serving (A); Safety measure for customers (S); and Employee safety measure (E). The study further identifies the areas that need to be improved by using importance-performance analysis. Findings of this study provide guidelines for restaurant professionals to potentially reallocate their existing resources to refine their COVID-19 mitigation strategies and to better prepare for the future.