Exploratory Study on Customer-Oriented Service Contact Elements in Foodservice Industry

The purpose of this study was to provide preliminary data for competitive dominance in an institutional foodservice environment. Data were collected from 85 experts and practitioners on customer-oriented service contact elements and contact fields in the foodservice industry. PASW Statistics ver.18 and MS Excel were used for data analysis. From the pilot study, 67 service contact-elements were derived. Contribution rate analysis and frequency analysis in each contact field were performed in order to categorize four factors, including environment-oriented contact, product-oriented contact, service-oriented contact, and image-oriented contact fields. Thirty three contact elements were derived, and environment-oriented contact consisted of eight contact-elements (cleanliness of restaurant/kitchen, etc.), product-oriented contact consisted of twelve contact-elements (food taste, etc.), service-oriented contact consisted of seven contact-elements (service quality, etc.), and image-oriented contact consisted of six contact-elements (image/reputation, etc.). The results of study will be useful to develop an effective marketing program for competitive dominance in an competitive foodservice industry environment.