Electronic meal experience: a gap analysis of online Cape Town restaurant comments

Abstract

This article presents a gap analysis of 1037 guest comments regarding ninety Cape Town restaurants on an online restaurant guide. The primary objective of this study was to determine the electronic meal experience in restaurants. In order to achieve the primary objective, the following secondary objectives were formulated, namely; to: (a) assess the meal experience in restaurants, (b) establish the significance of difference between perceived and expected service quality, (c) identify the number of dimensions for expectations and perceptions scales of modified DINESERV model and (d) draw conclusions to restaurant management regarding the meal experience in restaurants. The empirical research was conducted using primary data. The questionnaire was based on Markovic, Raspor and Segaric‟s (2010) research. In order to meet survey goals, gap analysis was conducted. The empirical results show that perception scores were higher than expectation scores, which indicate high level of meal experience. The item with the highest gap was “the desirable level of noise” whilst the item with the lowest gap was “staff has food and beverage knowledge”. However, most of the mean perception scores were more than the mean expectation scores giving an overall meal experience of 0.02.Therefore, restaurateurs should not underestimate electronic guest comments, but should continuously monitor and compare their guests‟ expectations and perceptions electronically, for the long-term sustainability of restaurants. Keeping track of comment patterns over long periods of time can also act as a key performance indicator for restaurants and enable restaurateurs to protect their brand online.

Keywords

• expectations
• guest comments
• meal experience
• perceptions