Expensive Dining

Q. How do your expectations alter regarding the following aspects when eating at an expensive restaurant?

Not important Extremely important

1 2 3 4 5

Good service by well-trained/experienced staff Good atmosphere and décor

Cost

Good quality food

Provision made for children, friends/groups The location of the restaurant is convenient Cleanliness of restaurant and staff

Menu provides a good range of choices Good quality beverages

You are recognised or made to feel special/valued Reliability/consistency of good food and experience Food not standardised

The restaurant has a good reputation

Service expectations of customers are very high for expensive restaurants with 96.2%

of respondents’ choosing extremely important (88.1%), or important (8.1%) as their levels of expectation. Possibly this is because there is an additional element being paid for in an expensive restaurant, such as, staff knowledge, ‘theatre’ elements and consideration being shown towards customers.

The expectation of atmosphere and décor has increased for each type of priced restaurant - starting at neutral for an inexpensive restaurant and finally extremely important for an expensive restaurant. This category has a significantly higher number of responses than the next category down, which is important, (78.8% and 15.4% respectively). Only 4.2% of respondents’ considered atmosphere to be neutral, or less.

Cost for mid-priced restaurants was only rated as important, however, for an

inexpensive restaurant it is was extremely important and for expensive restaurants it has become an important factor. This could possibly be respondents’ considering a restaurant that is expensive carefully before deciding whether to eat there. There is a steady decline from extremely important down to not important (52.2%, 22.6%, 16.5%, 5.2% and 1.8% respectively). When the pattern of responses appears logical, as it does for the responses to cost, once again this would indicate that people’s responses are considered, rather than just random.

There was a significant increase in numbers and ratings of importance as to how respondents’ expectations changed with regard to provisions being made for children and groups. The increase can be seen in a movement from respondents rating this aspect in the main as neutral, or important for inexpensive and mid-priced restaurants to the higher end of being important in expensive restaurants (33.7%, 20.4%, 21.4%, 11.5% and 10.6% extremely important to not important). There may always be a group of people who consider this aspect to be not so important mainly due to the fact that not everyone will have children and the number of times that some people may choose to go out in a group could be limited.

The responses relating to the location of the restaurant has previously been mainly rated as being neutral in respect of customers’ expectations. However, responses for the importance of location for an expensive restaurant are not clearly defined. The main group of 33.1% do consider a convenient location to be important, however, 27.3% remain neutral and although 17.3% consider this aspect as important, 20.6% do not, as they have chosen the less important and not important options (13.8% and 6.8%

respectively). Potentially, this could indicate that some people want a convenient location if they are paying a lot for a meal, maybe if drinking with the meal is being considered for example, whereas others could in fact be happy to travel in order to reach an expensive restaurant that they wish to eat in. Some respondents may think the experience of particular restaurant is worth investing the time and travel into.

Again, as for previous categories of restaurant, very few customers are willing to accept anything less than a clean restaurant and staff. With 87.2% rating this as extremely important and 8.1% indicating it still as an important issue to respondents in an expensive restaurant as it was for mid-priced and inexpensive restaurants. There could also be a rise in expectations because, for previous categories, as long as a restaurant was hygienically clean maybe that was all that concerned the cohort. However, with expensive restaurants potentially there has to be an even greater emphasis of care taken, such as, polished glassware, pressed tablecloths, smart uniforms and so on.

The more expensive the restaurant the more choice respondents expect to have, subsequently rating this aspect as extremely important (70.5%). The most populated categories have increased a level each time the restaurant scenario has become more costly. It is not possible to tell what respondents have interpreted choice as, but possibly it is to do with style, as well as range, as opposed to just quantity of items on the menu.

The importance of beverage quality has been very surprising in previous restaurant categories. Respondents considering expensive restaurants do not move away from this trend with the majority concluding that beverage quality is either extremely important, or important with 69.5% and 20.4% of respondents’ choosing these categories

respectively.

The way that the staff treat customers has increased in respondents expectation levels as the cost of the restaurant categories has increased. As previously mentioned this could be due to wanting a form of recognition from staff as the amount being spent increases. Potentially, the more a customer pays the better they expect to be treated, perhaps there is a link between affordability and status which respondents would like acknowledged. Hence, subsequently rating this aspect as extremely important 66.5% and important 19.5% and only 12.3% rating this as neutral, or below.

The reliability/consistency of good food and experience has been significant for all previous categories of restaurant, being important both times. It is no surprise, therefore, that it should increase to the next level when customers are paying more. This time there is a less of a spread of respondents, with 85.2% indicating that they expect reliability and consistency when visiting an expensive restaurant. 10.1% of respondents’ rated the issue as important. With a mere 3.21% of respondents saying that their expectations of consistency and reliability in an expensive restaurant were neutral, or below.

An expensive restaurant is very unlikely to have a fixed menu and a la carte is far more expected, or at the very least a menu that is regularly changed and plays to the chefs’ strengths. Therefore, food not being standardised is rated as extremely important to respondents and this is possibly a reflection of the style of food that customers expect depending upon the amount they are paying for their meal. 71.7% and 16.6% of respondents’ considered this aspect to be either extremely important, or important respectively. There were only 9.7% combined who considered that a restaurant serving

non-standardised food was neutral, or less important.

A good reputation is what traditionally expensive restaurants want to achieve and maintain. It is therefore, not a surprise that respondents’ expectations have increased the more expensive the restaurant category becomes. Initially, for an inexpensive restaurant the main level of expectation was neutral, this then moved to important and for expensive restaurants opinion has changed again, with respondents thinking an expensive restaurants reputation is extremely important (76.4%). Even at the important level of expectation there are still 16.3% of respondents with only 5.4% indicating that their expectations on reputation are neutral, or less.

What is evident from the responses to questions relating to dining out at expensive restaurants is that the percentages reclassify into higher levels of expectations in nearly all incidences. Subsequently, there is less of an equal split between categories and certainly less respondents considering neutral, or below as a reflection of their levels of expectations (see Table 4-13).

Not Important

Less

Important Neutral Important

Extremely Important Service 0.1% 0.4% 2.0% 8.2% 89.3% Atmosphere 0.1% 0.4% 3.8% 15.6% 80.1% Cost 1.8% 5.3% 16.8% 23.0% 53.1% Food quality 0.2% 0.7% 2.8% 6.2% 90.2%

Children and groups 10.9% 11.8% 21.9% 20.9% 34.5%

Location 6.9% 14.1% 27.7% 17.6% 33.6% Cleanliness 0.1% 0.6% 2.4% 8.3% 88.6% Choice 0.2% 1.0% 6.4% 20.7% 71.7% Beverage 0.6% 1.4% 6.5% 20.8% 70.7% Recognised 0.8% 2.2% 9.4% 19.9% 67.7% Consistency 0.1% 0.4% 2.7% 10.2% 86.6% Non-standardised 0.7% 1.4% 7.8% 16.9% 73.2% Reputation 0.3% 0.5% 4.7% 16.6% 77.9%

Table 4-13: Customers Ratings of Expectations within an Expensive Restaurant

Overall, the following are the most important expectations that need to be met by an expensive restaurant when a customer is dining out:

 Good quality food

 Good service by well-trained/experienced staff  Cleanliness of the restaurant and staff

 Reliability/consistency of good food and experience.

Although there have been studies into expectation and customer satisfaction before, there has not been any research looking at how expectations can change and how the levels of importance move in accordance with the cost of a restaurant meal.

From the questions investigating expectations of dining out, it can clearly be seen that expectations do change depending upon the amount that the meal is costing – there is not a consistent set of requirements from the customer. It can be identified from the

data, that there is more closeness in customer opinion between inexpensive and mid- priced restaurants than there is between mid-priced and expensive restaurants. In some cases between inexpensive and mid-priced the numbers for different levels of expectation for various aspects are similar, or although a movement upwards in expectations may occur, the pattern remains the same. However, expensive restaurants appear to be seen by customers in a totally different way, with responses changing pattern so that the majority of respondents consider their expectations to be extremely important, or important for the different aspects posed. This complete change in levels of expectation may be why disappointment can occur quickly in expensive restaurants and customers are very unforgiving, often not returning to the restaurant if any problems arise (Soloman, 2009).

Recommendations from the responses to questions regarding expectations in relation to meal cost have been made for each category of restaurant. However, looking at eating in a restaurant from a customer perspective, there would appear to be some clear aspects that need to be met in order to meet customer expectations, whatever the cost bracket of the meal:

 Good atmosphere and décor

 Cleanliness of the restaurant and staff

 Good service by well-trained/experienced staff  Reliability/consistency of good food and experience.  Menu providing a good range of choices