Measuring customer

satisfaction in the fast

food industry:
a cross-national approach
G. Ronald Gilbert
Cleopatra Veloutsou
Mark M.H. Goode and
Luiz Moutinho
The authors
G. Ronald Gilbert is an Associate Professor at Florida
International University, Dade, Florida, USA.
Cleopatra Veloutsou is a Lecturer in Marketing at the
University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Mark M.H. Goode is a Lecturer in Marketing and Market
Research, at Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
Luiz Moutinho is Foundation Chair of Marketing at the
University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Keywords
Customer satisfaction, Fast foods, Cross-cultural studies,
Factor analysis
Abstract
In todays ever-increasing globalization of services and brands,
service-oriented businesses need to attend to the satisfaction of
their customers both domestically and abroad while
transcending unique cultural differences from country to country.
This study provides a cross-cultural comparison of service
satisfaction of fast food establishments in four English-speaking
countries. It is based on data collected from customers of ve
globally-franchised fast-food chains, using a previously
developed service satisfaction instrument. The study reveals two
empirically derived, cross-cultural fast-food customer
satisfaction dimensions: satisfaction with the personal service
and satisfaction with the service setting. Should future research
support this studys ndings, the measurement of cross-cultural
service satisfaction among franchised brands and services could
aid business managers efforts to assess the quality of the
services they provide across national boundaries and on a more
real time, practical basis.
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An executive summary for managers and
executive readers can be found at the end of
this article
Service satisfaction and long-term
business success
It is a common assertion among management and
marketing theorists that customer service quality is
essential to business success (Kristensen et al.,
1992; McColl-Kennedy and Schneider, 2000;
Zeithaml et al., 1996). Firms that provide superior
service quality as measured by customer
satisfaction also experience higher economic
returns than competitors that are not so service-
oriented (Aaker and Jacobson, 1994; Bolton,
1998). Satised customers are central to the long-
term success of business, and the linkage between
customer satisfaction and customer behavior has
been well documented in marketing literature.
High consumer satisfaction leads to greater
customer loyalty (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993;
Boulding et al., 1993; Yi, 1990), which, in turn,
leads to future revenue (Fornell, 1992; Bolton,
1998). For example, Xerox found that totally
satised customers were six times more likely to
repurchase Xerox products than were its merely
satised customers (Jones and Sasser, 1995).
Service quality is dependent on a chain of
subsystems that are linked to consumer behaviors
and protability (Rucci et al., 1998). This set of
relationships has been termed the service prot
chain (Heskett et al., 1997; Loveman, 1998).
Increased customer satisfaction leads to decreased
customer complaints and increased customer
loyalty (Fornell and Wernerfelt, 1988).
Anderson and Fornell (2000) assume businesses
exist and compete to create satised customers.
Investors are attracted to companies that excel at
satisfying their customers. It is not possible to
increase business prosperity without increasing
customer satisfaction. It is not the amount of goods
and services a company can produce that leads to its
success as much as howwell it satises its customers
so they will return and keep the business growing.
The quality of what is produced is tied not only to a
business, per se, but to the viability of its industry
and national standard of living. It should be
measured systematically and uniformly. Customer
satisfaction is a great complement to other, more
traditional measures of economic viability such as a
growing stock market, corporate earnings growth,
trade decit, consumer and business debt,
unemployment, and gross domestic product.
In keeping with this general business imperative,
satised customers are essential to the long-term
success of internationally franchised fast food
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 pp. 371-383
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited ISSN 0887-6045
DOI 10.1108/08876040410548294
371
establishments. As satised loyal customers, their
continued patronage is assured on a global basis.
On the other hand, those who become dissatised
customers of these same franchises may not only go
elsewhere, they will likely become active champions
to persuade others to go elsewhere, as well. If fast
food franchises are to be effective, they will need to
deliver consistent, timely, quality meals and
services to satised customers across cultures and
national boundaries. Yet, in the hospitality and
tourism industry, there remains a lack of empirical
studies that compare the relative reliability and
validity of measurement methods (Yuksel and
Rimmington, 1998).
The aim of this paper is to develop and validate
a scale for the measurement of customer
satisfaction within the international fast-food
industry. As an initial cross-cultural investigation,
it limited its investigation to English-speaking
countries. It rst examines various approaches
adopted for the measurement of customer
satisfaction. It then outlines the research questions
and the methodology used for the collection of the
primary data in the four different international
contexts. It then identies two empirically derived
measures of customer satisfaction that are
applicable to cross cultural analysis of customer
satisfaction within the fast food industry and
compares the ndings from this cross-cultural
investigation with those reported in other studies.
The concluding section addresses the study
limitations, managerial implications and
recommendations for further research.
Customer satisfaction measurement
Because of the important linkages between
customer service quality, customer satisfaction
and long-term business success, considerable
effort has been made to develop measures of them
and their relationships. Of particular note is the
creation of the American Customer Satisfaction
Index (ACSI) and the European Customer Service
Index (ECSI). These two customer satisfaction
indices (CSIs) function as intangible economic
indicators used to monitor the nancial viability of
companies, industries, and international trade
unions (Anderson and Fornell, 2000; Fornell,
2001). Today, the ACSI conducts annual analyses
of customer service quality in 35 separate
industries, 190 companies, and government
agencies. It has been reported to meet rigorous
standards of precision, validity, reliability and
predictive power with regard to nancial returns
(Anderson and Fornell, 2000). As the CSIs
become more uniformly established across
international economies, a global network of CSIs
will likely be created from which organizations and
industries can be compared across borders.
The predictive models of the ACSI and ECSI
comprise prior customer expectations, perceived
quality based on the customers post service
assessments, and the customers perceived value
(product versus price) which lead to the creation of
a customer satisfaction index (CSI) score ranging
from 0-100. The post service assessments are
completed by telephone based on the customers
ratings on three criteria: overall quality, reliability,
and meeting the customers needs. The national
CSIs measure the quality of goods and services as
experienced by those who consume them. An
individual rms CSI represents its served markets
(i.e. customers) overall evaluation of the total
purchase and consumption experience, both actual
and anticipated (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993).
The measurement of customer satisfaction
varies, depending on the assumptions made as to
what satisfaction means. There are several theories
that merit review in this regard. In general, it is
agreed that customer satisfaction measurement is a
post-consumption assessment by the user about
the product or service gained (Churchill and
Surprenant, 1982; Yuksel and Rimmington,
1998). Also, there is a general agreement that the
closer the assessment is to the actual service
encounter, the more accurate the assessment of the
service quality itself. As stated by Mittal et al.
(1999), attributes that are experienced closer to
the nal evaluation may contribute more than
those with a larger distance in time.
Expectancy-disconrmation approach
This theory is used in the ACSI and ECSI models.
It is associated with the identication of customer
expectations versus what they actually
experienced. This is also known as the
conrmation and disconrmation of expectations
approach (Yuksel and Rimmington, 1998). It
focuses on the comparison of the product or
service performance with the customers prior
expectations. The customers expectations can be
gathered after the service encounter by asking the
customer to recall them, or it can be identied by
asking the customer prior to the service encounter.
Both of these methods are problematic.
There is a contamination effect when a
customer is asked after the service episode about
his or her prior expectations. The service
experience, itself, may lower or raise the
customers reported expectation. As a counter to
this contamination concern, some researchers
indicate the expectation needs to be measured
before the service experience (Carman, 1990). Yet,
this too is problematic, because the prior service
expectation may change during the actual service
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
372
encounter and such revised expectations are a
better gauge than those held prior to it (Danaher
and Mattson, 1994; Weber, 1997). As the
customer progresses from the lighted parking lot,
to the entrance, to the waiting line, to the order
taker, to the time between the order and the food
served, the accuracy of the food served versus the
food order, to the self-service counter, then to the
seating, the look, feel and taste of the meal itself,
and the ambience within the establishment, the
customers expectations may change.
A number of researchers support this concern
about the use of the expectancy-disconrmation
approach because it may not be valid (Halstead
et al., 1994; Yuksel and Rimmington, 1998). In the
summation of their review of the pros and cons of
the expectation-disconrmation analysis method,
Yuksel and Rimmington (1998) concluded that the
use of perceived performance is a better method,
as it is more straightforward and convenient, and is
better suited for the human cognitive process.
Performance-only approach
Assessment of service quality is also gauged by
simply asking customers about their level of
satisfaction with various service and product
features following a service episode. There are
some advantages to this perceived service
approach, especially in the fast food industry. In
the restaurant industry, the customers stated
expectations have been found to be biased, as
customers tend to rate or espouse exceedingly high
expectations when asked about the quality of
service and food that they expect. In such cases,
the customers inated expectations could rarely
be exceeded in actual practice; thus, biasing their
service quality assessments using the
expectancy-disconrmation approach. This has
led Crompton and Love (1995) to suggest that the
inclusion of expectations in an assessment
instrument in the restaurant industry is likely to
cause more problems than it is worth, and should
be dropped because they will not yield more useful
information than what is gained from the
perception scores alone following the service
episode.
Technical and functional dichotomy
approaches
Some researchers (Gwin and Lindgren, 1986;
Lehtinen and Lehtinen, 1982; Nicholls et al., 1993;
Oberoi and Hales, 1990) have identied customer
satisfaction to be based on two service components:
the technical quality of the product (the what),
and the temporal (the how). Technical quality is
based on such product characteristics as reliability,
durability, security, and physical features, while
temporal characteristics are associated with the
relationships between server and customer, i.e. the
courtesy, helpfulness, speed of delivery, and
pleasantness of the service (Berry, 1987). It may
focus on the value derived from the transaction
(service) or the value derived from the product
(Frenzen and Davis, 1990).
Service quality versus service satisfaction
approach
This focuses on the two service factors that are
interrelated; the transition-specic assessment and
overall assessment (Bou-llusar et al., 2000; Cronin
and Taylor, 1992, Rust and Oliver, 1994). It is
associated with the identication of perceived
quality at the time of the service episode or
immediately after it, and overall satisfaction with
product and service features. Perceived quality is
more specic than overall quality. Perceived
quality is based on specic features, while observed
quality is based on attributes over which the
company may or may not have control. Perceived
quality is based on those features of the
organization over which the rm has control. It is a
measure of the customers assessments of the
service or products value without comparison to
prior expectations.
Attribute importance approach
This method focuses on the relative weight on the
importance the customer places on attributes found
to be associated with service or product satisfaction.
The weightings can be identied indirectly through
empirical methods such as regression analysis or by
directly questioning the respondent (Barsky and
Labagh, 1992: Carman, 1990; Yuksel and
Rimmington, 1998). While seemingly
quantitatively more accurate, this method has some
notable aws. The most common way of calculating
the overall importance of a satisfaction attribute is
to multiply the weight of the attribute times the
score assigned it on a rating scale. Thus, it is
possible for an attribute weighted 0.4 times a
rating of 2 to equate to an attribute of 0.2 times
a weighting of 4 to be equivalent in such a
scheme. Although appearing to be alike, the
respondents ratings are essentially different. While
there are mathematical models that can be created
to address this issue, such models may become far
too complicated for practitioners to apply in a
timely, understandable, easily translatable, and user
friendly manner in the fast food industry.
Research objectives
The development of a universally valid instrument
for the measurement of customer satisfaction is a
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
373
pressing concern. The American and the
European Satisfaction Indexes (ACSI and ECSI)
include all of the above approaches in their
measurement schemes. However, such models are
excessively complex and not user friendly for the
average management team attempting to gauge its
own level of customer satisfaction in their own
business, and then create ways to improve it on a
continuous basis. Therefore, there is a need for the
development of a simpler and more user-friendly
method to access the satisfaction construct.
While it is argued that the perfect rating scale
does not exist, it is clear that some scales are better
than others. The CSIs are exceptionally helpful to
large companies and industries; they are not
specically useful to any one product line within a
company, or grouping of specic stores. They do
not provide information that the management of a
specic retail store can use to gauge and improve its
own service quality. In response to this
measurement gap, this study has been designed to
identify a tool to assess customer satisfaction in a
given industry and across international boundaries.
Yuksel and Rimmington (1998) concluded that a
performance-only approach is a more satisfactory
method for measuring customer satisfaction than
the other conrmation-disconrmation
approaches. Performance-only approaches
measure service features related to
transitional-specic service satisfaction (both
technical and functional).
One such performance approach method
reported in the literature is the Customer
Satisfaction Survey (Gilbert et al., 1997; Nicholls
et al., 1998). The instrument measures customers
satisfaction immediately following a service
episode. It includes technical and functional
transition-specic and service quality and service
satisfaction measures. It consists of two measures
that were empirically derived through factor
analysis applications: Satisfaction with personal
service (SatPers), and Satisfaction with the service
setting (SatSett). Each was validated from a cross
section of industries within the USA. The two are
generic to most industries rather than specic to
any one industry, implying that they could be
applied to assess service quality in most service
settings. Essentially, these two measures were
focused on personal reaction to the service
delivery and to the environment in which it is
delivered. The measures are based on the
perceived quality of service and product features
experienced in the service encounter much like the
SERVPERF model (Cronin and Taylor, 1992).
This performance approach method is preferred in
this study because of its greater reliability and
validity compared to the disconrmation approach
where the difference between the customers
expectations and quality perceptions are estimated
(Bou-llusar et al., 2000; Parasuraman et al., 1996).
The two measures fromthis instrument appear to
be well suited as a starting point for the development
of measures of customer satisfaction specically
tailored for the franchised fast food industry. Given
that factor analysis is partly founded on the principle
of parsimony, variation in the constructs identied
by it are to be expected (Nunnally, 1967).
Furthermore, the relationship between
attribute-level evaluations and overall satisfaction
changes over time (Mittal et al., 1999). In other
words, attributes identied at one time can be
expected to change as a result of mediating factors
such as change of standards, expectation and
cultural dynamics. This would seem to be especially
true in cross-cultural research where differences in
consumer behavior clearly exist (Lowe and
Corkindale, 1998; Luna and Gupta, 2001;
Steenkamp et al., 1999). Thus, there was cause to
retest the customer satisfaction survey instrument
specically in one industry especially with regard
to its applicability across international boundaries.
Of particular focus in this effort is the franchised
fast food industry, because customer satisfaction
assessments are relatively easy to obtain on site,
immediately following a service episode. The
organizations that are included in this industry are
readily identiable, and they cross international
boundaries. The fast food industry is especially
attractive for such research on customer
satisfaction, because it is a worldwide
phenomenon and growing rapidly (Ball, 1992).
Based on the above concerns and motives deriving
both from practitioners and academic researchers,
this research study examines the suitability of the
Customer Satisfaction Survey to measure service
satisfaction in the international fast food industry.
It seeks to test whether the two original factors
previously identied via the Customer Satisfaction
Survey are also applicable to the unique contexts
of the franchised fast food industry in English-
speaking countries, or to nd other factors or
measures that might exist using this same
measurement tool. More specically, it attempts to
address two areas of concern:
(1) Can these common measures be used to
identify the relative service satisfaction
effectiveness of franchised fast food
establishments across international
boundaries in English-speaking countries on a
real time, practical basis?
(2) Do the results of this customer satisfaction
survey of internationally franchised fast food
establishments approximate the ndings of
the more sophisticated ACSI ndings of the
same fast food establishments within the
USA?
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
374
Quite possibly, the value of this investigation might
further the identication of methods and measures
of customer satisfaction that are suitable for
cross-cultural applications in consumer behavior;
provide a means to measure service satisfaction
among multiple business enterprises competing in
specic niche industries; and provide business
managers a more real time, practical means to
measure the relative service effectiveness of their
organizations particularly as they apply to the
franchised fast food industry.
Methodology
Data collection instrument
In this study, the authors applied the Customer
Satisfaction Survey within a larger, more global
fast food industry context and they elected to test
the applicability of the original two factors in the
franchised fast food industry, per se. The Customer
Satisfaction Survey employs a ve point Likert-
type rating scale (1 strongly disagree;
5 strongly agree) and consists of 18 statements.
Seventeen of these statements address service and
product features, and the 18th statement is a
criterion statement pertaining to overall service
quality. (Tests for convergent validity are
accomplished by the measurement of the
association between variables 1 through 17, and
the factors derived from them, and the criterion
statement, variable 18.)
A multiple option, polar adjective type tool was
used for purposes of increasing the power of
measurement. Binary (agree/disagree) scales that
are sometimes used in customer satisfaction tools
may impede measurement precision, validity, and
predictive power of the ndings, and are likely to
be poor (Anderson and Fornell, 2000).
Thus far, the Customer Satisfaction Survey has
been administered to over 22,000 consumers
representing nancial, hospitality, competitive
sports, book, health care, movie theatre,
automotive, restaurant, cafeteria, computer lab,
library, physical tness centers, university student
support services, other retail, and government
industries. In each of these studies, the original
factors were applied based on an underlying
assumption that they were well suited and
applicable in each of the industries from which
data were gathered.
Data gathering procedure
The true test for replicability of factors from one
study to the next requires rigorous planning,
discipline, and execution. Gorsuch (1974)
suggests factors can only become recognizable
upon replication and integration into a theoretical
network. In Gorsuchs terms, a pure form of factor
replicability requires the use of the same variables
and true random sampling from the same
population. From a practical standpoint, these
rigid standards could not be met in this study,
because we could not randomly sample from the
same population. Thus, it was necessary to retest
the 17 variables in the Customer Satisfaction
Survey with a sample consisting of only franchised
fast food restaurants.
Originally, the two generic factors (Gilbert et al.,
1997), Satisfaction with personal service (SatPers)
and Satisfaction with the service setting (SatSett)
were derived from a convenience sample of
organizations in the USA (States of Florida and
Colorado). Although the populations in this
current study are different than those from which
customers were selected in the original study, the
sampling techniques in this study were similar
willingness of the establishments management to
participate in the study and the geographic
locations of the establishments. To test for
suitability, the researchers of this study have
attempted to follow the same methods originally
employed to derive the SatPers and SatSett
measures using the same variables and methods of
selecting customer respondents.
An international team of business school
academicians collaborated to assess the
satisfaction of consumers of six fast food franchises
in four countries in which they taught in business
schools representing Jamaica (Kingston and
Montego Bay), Scotland (Glasgow), the USA
(Miami and Ft. Lauderdale), and Wales (Cardiff).
These academicians trained graduate and
undergraduate students to administer the
Customer Satisfaction Survey to patrons of the
following international fast food franchises in their
areas: Burger King, Checkers, Kentucky Fried
Chicken, McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Wendys.
Not all of these franchises were accessible in the
four national cultures included in the study. Thus,
as revealed in Table I, the sampling mix drawn
from each of the four national locations varied
based on the availability and access as authorized
by the management of the fast food establishments
in each area that was included in the study. That is,
Taco Bell was available to the USA analysts, but
not to the other three study areas, while Kentucky
Fried Chicken was available in the UK, but not
made available to the surveyors in the USA.
Under each of the four professors supervision,
the student teams personally went to the fast food
establishments in their areas and administered the
survey to randomly selected patrons immediately
after they had received their fast food orders.
Responses were considered invalid cases if the
respondents ratings did not vary, having answered
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
375
every statement the same (i.e. answered with all
5s or all 1s or the like). In such cases, they
were deemed invalid and were removed from the
sample. Likewise, if a respondent failed to respond
to more than 10 percent of the 18 statements in the
survey, the survey was not included in the analysis.
This was an important criterion used in the
selection of the pairwise method to analyze missing
variables, which is subsequently reported in the
data analysis methods section of this paper.
The sampling method employed in this study
was based on the selection of fast food
establishments that were in the immediate areas of
the urban-centered universities involved. The
sampling procedure was based on a systematic
probability sampling approach one of the most
prevalently employed types of sampling techniques.
The sampling objective of the researchers was to
secure a degree of economic efciency within a
short time period while attempting to attain
representativeness through systematic sampling of
available fast food establishments. Once the
sampling was initiated at each fast food site, the
surveyors employed a skip interval approach when
selecting the customers to be included in the
sample. This procedure ensured sufcient
randomness in the sample to approximate a known
and equal probability of any person in the
population being selected into the sample.
A total of 5,136 customers were sampled in this
cross-national English-speaking study: Jamaica
(n 1,581), Scotland (n 585), USA (n 2,399)
and Wales (n 571). Table I reveals the type of
international fast food establishments and the
number of customers sampled within each country
(Jamaica, Scotland, the USA, and Wales) in this
study. As the table illustrates, different franchises
were sampled in each of the four countries. Burger
King, Wendys, and Taco Bell were not included in
the Scotland sample. Wendys was not included in
the Wales sample. Kentucky Fried Chicken was not
included in the USA sample. The sample included
14 Burger Kings, seven Kentucky Fried Chickens,
11 McDonalds, four Taco Bells, four Wendys, and
one Checkers. Taco Bell and Checkers were only
sampled within the USA.
Data analysis methods
Factor analysis was employed in this study to
identify which variables within the Customer
Satisfaction Survey can be combined to form
common constructs and which can be dropped
from further analysis. This analytic technique is
very common and found to be used in about one in
six journal articles over a three-decade review
(Aron and Aron, 1994). Although no one method
of factor analysis is universally endorsed as the
preferred one, different approaches are used based
on particular situations.
Principal components and varimax rotational
procedures were used throughout this study to
identify measures for each sample taken within the
four nations where the Customer Satisfaction
Surveys were administered. These procedures are
highly accepted and most universally used. The
same factor analytic procedures were also used to
conduct the initial study that generated the two
generic factors.
All factors with eigenvalues of 1.0 (or greater)
are reported. This criterion is generally accepted as
the basis for including or excluding factors (Kaiser,
1960; Rummell, 1970). The method used to
exclude missing values in this analysis is the
pairwise method, because it was deemed best
suited for our objective to use more of the data
records attained (SPSS, 1998). In this study the
decisional rules that were applied to select
variables to be identied with a particular factor
required that it had to have a factor loading of at
least 0.50, and that it not be split loaded on
another factor above 0.35. This meets minimum
standards for factor loadings as dened in the
literature. Gorsuch (1974) and Leary (1995)
indicate the popularity of an absolute factor
loading of 0.3 to be the minimum loading for
interpretation. Aron and Aron (1994) indicate
some researchers use 0.35 or 0.40 or even higher as
cutoff levels. The higher the cutoff level, the more
conservative the approach. In this research effort,
Table I Sample sizes of fast food restaurants by nation
Jamaica Scotland USA Wales
Burger King 176 172 55
188 158 55
176 105
93
84
112
69
92
91
Checkers 115
Kentucky Fried Chicken 126 247 70
194 52 54
191
McDonalds 190 98 79 167
64 83 170
45 110
79 194
Taco Bell 204
112
184
81
Wendys 155 236
185 25
Total 1,581 585 2,399 571
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
376
we have opted for a conservative approach (i.e.
0.50) to identify variables that are associated with
one factor or another.
The naming of a factor (construct) is a highly
arbitrary decision of the researcher (Aron and
Aron, 1994). It is usually determined by the
variables that are most highly loaded on each
factor, but may be guided more by the researchers
theory than what follows from the actual variable
descriptions. Scale reliabilities were determined by
the non-standardized Cronbach alpha which is
reported to be the preferred method (Morgan and
Greigo, 1998) and is the most widely used measure
of scale reliability (Aron and Aron, 1994). In
general, the alpha should range between 0.70 and
0.90; however, it is common for some alphas to be
reported in journal articles in the 0.60-0.69 range
(Morgan and Griego, 1998), while Nunnally
(1978) suggests a threshold level of equal to or
greater than 0.50 for exploratory research work.
Factorial ndings
Comparing factors by each of the samples
taken by nation:
Table II reveals the factor loadings identied by
each of the samples from English-speaking nations
involved in this study of service satisfaction. In all
four national samples the two factors identied in
the original study (Gilbert et al., 1997) were
likewise empirically captured, suggesting
measurement equivalence across cultural
boundaries (Malhotra and McCort, 2001; Smith
and Reynolds, 2001, Weinfurt and Mohgaddam,
2001). The italicized variable loadings, shown in
Table II, were deemed appropriate to be included
in each factor. The table also reveals the factors
derived from the application of the same statistical
procedures from the combined data of all four
countries. In all cases, two factors were empirically
identied. The initial factor analysis of the Jamaica
sample derived three factors. However, a second,
higher-order factor analysis revealed the two
factors identied in Table II. The use of higher
order factors is an accepted practice. As stated by
Gorsuch (1974), factoring the correlations among
the factors may give rise to the application of higher
order factors. The two rst order factors identied
in the Scotland, USA and Wales analyses were also
identied in the Jamaica sample as second-order
factors. In this study, only in Jamaica was the
application of a second order factor analysis
possible. This methodology is consistent with
standard practices recommended by experts in the
eld. A satisfactory proportion of the variance was
accounted for by these factors, rating from 47.48
percent in Jamaica to 59.89 percent for Wales.
Most of the items reect a relative consistent
consumer behavior for all countries. Three main
groupings of items are revealed. In the rst
grouping is the rst factor, where items related to
the customers interaction with the employees and
the service quality are loaded. In nearly all of the
countries, the item with the highest loading in this
factor is the provision of courtesy, while other
very highly loading items are the ease to get help
and the treatment received. This factor appears
to be very important, since it explains more than
40 percent of the overall variance for all countries.
The second grouping is the second factor
uncovered, where mostly items related to the
physical aspects of the service provision are loaded.
The two items loading highly in this factor are the
security inside and the security outside the fast
food establishment. Finally, in the third grouping
are items that do not clearly load on either of the
two other factors, such as statement 8, ease to
access the service.
Table III reveals the factor loadings identied by
each of the samples from English-speaking nations
involved in this study of service satisfaction. It
reects the relative likeness between the
cross-national fast food industry factors derived in
this study and the original factors identied in the
exploratory analysis previously reported that was
based on a smaller sample derived from a wide
variety of industries. Based on the application of
the Customer Satisfaction Survey in the fast food
industry, two factors remain and tend to represent
the same identical service components:
Satisfaction with Personal Service (FSatPers) and
Satisfaction with the Service Setting (FSatSett).
However, the cross-national fast food sample is
comprised of more variables that load on to factor
1, FSatPers, and has a slightly higher scale
reliability (a 0.91) than originally reported. In
the case of the second factor, the cross-national
fast food sample is comprised of three variables
rather than the four from the original study that
was conducted using a broader, cross-industry
data base. In FSatSett, variable 6, Convenient
operating hours is dropped from the original
factor, SatSett. The scale reliability (a 0.64) of
the second factor in the fast food sample is weaker
than that identied in the original generic second
factor (a 0.74). Convergent validity scores for
the two factors remain about the same in both the
previous generic and fast food studies.
Based on the above factorial analyses, in answer
to the rst research question, Can these common
measures be used to identify the relative service
satisfaction effectiveness of franchised fast food
establishments across international boundaries in
English-speaking countries? the answer appears
to be yes, with some slight modication
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
377
Table II Factors identied by national and combined samples
Jamaica Scotland USA Wales All
Variables F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2
1. Provider courtesy 0.73 0.23 0.81 0.21 0.81 0.20 0.76 0.38 0.78 0.24
2. Timely service 0.70 0.11 0.67 0.25 0.74 0.19 0.62 0.43 0.72 0.20
3. Competent employees 0.64 0.25 0.81 0.18 0.77 0.27 0.74 0.24 0.75 0.25
4. Easy to get help 0.68 0.25 0.77 0.14 0.75 0.29 0.77 0.24 0.74 0.26
5. Convenient operating hours 0.06 0.64 0.37 0.27 0.31 0.45 0.46 0.51 0.28 0.51
6. Neat and clean place 0.26 0.55 0.62 0.21 0.48 0.42 0.41 0.57 0.43 0.46
7. Treatment received 0.73 0.24 0.71 0.25 0.70 0.40 0.77 0.11 0.72 0.31
8. Easy access to service 0.31 0.46 0.48 0.42 0.41 0.56 0.62 0.37 0.45 0.49
9. Employees listen 0.62 0.33 0.61 0.47 0.54 0.52 0.62 0.26 0.60 0.43
10. Security within the organization 0.24 0.69 0.22 0.76 0.21 0.82 0.22 0.79 0.22 0.81
11. Security outside the organization 0.20 0.67 0.09 0.86 0.14 0.80 0.12 0.84 0.16 0.80
12. Prompt help 0.72 0.21 0.65 0.27 0.62 0.45 0.61 0.36 0.68 0.34
13. Service costs reasonable 0.21 0.39 0.27 0.46 0.33 0.55 0.62 0.45 0.36 0.46
14. Fair treatment 0.66 0.30 0.64 0.39 0.57 0.54 0.74 0.36 0.66 0.39
15. Organization delivers what it promises 0.60 0.30 0.71 0.30 0.60 0.47 0.76 0.23 0.66 0.35
16. Helpful personnel 0.75 0.21 0.82 0.21 0.76 0.37 0.79 0.23 0.79 0.29
17. Organization backs up its promises 0.62 0.29 0.72 0.37 0.56 0.48 0.49 0.24 0.65 0.37
Eigenvalues 6.90 1.18 8.19 1.18 8.71 1.05 9.02 1.17 8.39 1.06
% of Var. 40.50 6.98 48.19 6.95 51.25 6.20 53.05 6.86 49.36 6.23
Alphas: 0.91 0.64 0.92 0.69 0.86 0.71 0.92 0.77 0.91 0.64
Pearson r 0.56 0.47 0.77 0.42 0.71 0.53 0.66 0.56 0.72 0.67
Sample size 1,581 585 2,399 571 5,136
Fast food establishments 9 6 20 6 41
Note: Only factor loadings of 0.50 or higher with split loadings of 0.35 or less are used to estimate a factor
Table III Comparison of combined fast food factors and original generic factors
a
in response to this studys research questions
Cross-national fast food
factors
Original generic
factors
Variables (no.) FsatPers FsatSett SatPers SatSett
1. Provider courtesy 0.78 0.24 0.762 0.267
2. Timely service 0.72 0.20 0.682 0.262
3. Competent employees 0.75 0.25 0.781 0.232
4. Easy to get help 0.74 0.26 0.737 0.336
5. Convenient operating hours 0.28 0.51 0.318 0.547
6. Neat and clean place 0.43 0.46 0.347 0.605
7. Treatment received 0.72 0.31 0.770 0.282
8. Easy access to service 0.45 0.49 0.478 0.535
9. Employees listen 0.60 0.43 0.740 0.376
10. Security within the organization 0.22 0.81 0.307 0.751
11. Security outside the organization 0.16 0.80 0.132 0.819
12. Prompt help 0.68 0.34 0.700 0.436
13. Service costs reasonable 0.36 0.46 0.621
b
175
14. Fair treatment 0.66 0.39 0.721 0.392
15. Organization delivers what it promises 0.66 0.35 0.664 0.466
16. Helpful personnel 0.79 0.29 0.769 0.361
17. Organization backs up its promises 0.65 0.37 0.655 0.486
18. Overall, product and service quality
Eigenvalue 8.39 1.06 9.40 1.03
% of variance 49.36 6.23 55.26 6.07
Alphas 0.91 0.64 0.89
b
0.74
Pearson correlation F1 and F2 with variable 18 0.72 0.67 0.77 0.65
Sample size 5,014
a
5,046
a
2,992 2,992
Notes:
a
Data reduction from sample reported in Tables I and II is because Checkers was dropped from this comparative analysis
because only one establishment was sampled in the USA;
b
Cronbach Alpha estimate is higher with variable #13 deleted from scale
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
378
(dropping variable 6 from the SatSett factor and
adding variables 12 and 16 to the SatPers factor).
The second research question posed in this
study was: Do the results of this customer
satisfaction survey of internationally franchised
fast food establishments approximate the ndings
of the more sophisticated ACSI ndings? Table IV
provides data pertaining to the differences in
customer satisfaction ratings among the ve fast
food franchises from the combined samples of the
four countries.
The data entered in Table IV reveal signicant
variation in customer satisfaction ratings among
the ve fast food establishments in this
cross-national study for both the FSatPers and the
FSatSett measures (p ,0.001 and p ,0.001
respectively). Of note are the ndings reported by
the ACSI and published by the National Quality
Control Center at the University of Michigan
which identied the relative satisfaction ratings of
fast food establishments in the USA. The sample
consisted of 16,000 respondents surveyed by
telephone. Hilsenrath (2002) reports that out of
100 points, the following ratings were assigned:
Wendys (72), Taco Bell (66), Burger King (65),
KFC (63), and McDonalds (62). The customer
satisfaction rankings identied in this
internationally-based survey were identical to the
ACSIs with Wendys rated highest, then Taco Bell,
Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and
McDonalds on both the FSatPers and the
FSatSett measures that were identied and applied
in this study. It conrms the relationship raised in
the second research question the ndings from
this study reveal the same rankings as that
identied by the ACSI study of 2002.
Tukey post hoc analysis revealed McDonalds
ratings to be signicantly lower than all others on
both FSatPers (p ,0.001) and FSatSett
(p ,0.001). Wendys was rated higher than each
of the four other fast food franchises for both
FSatPers (p ,0.001) and FSatSett
(p ,0.001). No difference was found between
Burger King and Taco Bell on FSatPers. No
difference was found between Burger King and
Kentucky Fried Chicken on FSatSett. Signicant
differences were found (p ,0.004) between the
ratings of each franchise in all other post hoc
comparisons of ratings pertaining to the FSatPers
and the FSatSett measures.
More detailed analyses of the ratings for each
variable within the two factors, by franchise, were
conducted. For the interested reader, summaries
of the differences found, item by item within each
of the two factors are included in the Appendix,
Tables AI and AII. An item by item analysis within
the measure, FsatPers, revealed Wendys to be
rated consistently higher than the others on most
features except for variable 12, Prompt Help,
where no difference was found among the four
other franchises. McDonalds was rated lower than
the others on all seven items that comprise this
factor. Analyses of the service setting features that
comprise FSatSett, (Table AII, Appendix)
revealed Wendys to be rated higher than others on
all three items within this factor, while
McDonalds was rated lower. Wendys was rated
signicantly higher than each of the other four
franchises on the measure, Security inside (V10).
Empirical inferences of this study
In response to this studys rst research question:
Can these common measures be used to identify
the relative service satisfaction effectiveness of
franchised fast food establishments across
international boundaries? the data reveal
considerable promise. It appears that among the
four English-speaking countries sampled, the two
factors, FSatPers and FSatSett tend to be suitable
for such measurement. However, much more
systematic random sampling with larger sample
populations is needed in order to afrm that these
factors do, indeed, measure service satisfaction in
Table IV Comparison of customer satisfaction by type of fast food establishment among four countries
Satisfaction with the personal service Satisfaction with the service setting
Sample n Mean SD Sample n Mean SD
Burger King 1,547 3.73 0.736 1,571 3.69 0.772
Kentucky Fried Chicken 924 3.45 0.812 929 3.63 0.730
McDonalds 1,271 3.32 0.822 1,266 3.50 0.768
Taco Bell 575 3.83 0.887 571 3.84 0.809
Wendys 585 4.07 0.691 594 4.05 0.742
All fast food 4,902 3.63 0.825 4,931 3.69 0.782
df 4 4
MS 75.90 34.41
F 122.46 58.93
Sig ,0.001 ,0.001
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
379
the broader international fast food industry. In
response to the second research question, Do the
results of this customer satisfaction survey of
internationally franchised fast food establishments
approximate the ndings of the more sophisticated
ACSI ndings? the ndings from this study give
support to the prospect that the Customer
Satisfaction Survey may well be a viable,
abbreviated tool to assess the relative satisfaction of
fast food establishments among English-speaking
countries. However, due to the fact that this study
was based on convenience samples of a very limited
number of fast food establishments in four
countries, the ndings need to be interpreted with
caution, as the conditions of the study do not satisfy
the rigors required for such generalizability to the
broader universe of fast food establishments. In
order to infer broader generalizability, larger, more
systematic and randomized samples need to be
obtained and analyzed.
The parsimonious nature of factor analysis does
not yield rm statistical conclusions. At best, the
two factors identied in the Customer Satisfaction
Survey seem to be conrmed in this study, but
have sufcient variation from sample to sample to
suggest that they are not stable.
When comparing the ve fast food companies,
no controls were initiated for respondent
characteristics such as age, gender, education,
ethnicity/race or the like. Such potential
moderating factors need to be examined in future
research to rule out other moderating or mediating
effects. Also, there were no means established to
control for the time of day or day of the week that
the surveys were administered. Future research
should control for such differences. Finally, the
application of the Customer Satisfaction Survey
should be expanded to non-English-speaking
countries with like fast food establishments.
Practical implications
Managers use of customer satisfaction measures to
improve organizational performance has become
an imperative in todays business environment.
Satisfaction with service quality is related to
bottom line results. Sophisticated indices are being
developed to assess the quality of service of large,
multi-product companies, industries and economic
markets. Indices such as the ACSI and ECSI are
engaged in broad-based assessments of customer
satisfaction. However, they are not likely to provide
the type of information on a timely or useful basis
as is needed by managers of business enterprises
functioning in highly charged, rapidly changing
niche markets like the international fast food
industry. Thus, there remains a need to provide
individual store managers scientically based
means to gauge the service quality of their own
operations on a real-time basis, and in highly
practical ways. The use of such measurement tools
could help store managers nd new ways to gain
and retain customers through their own continuous
improvement practices.
Quicker, just-in-time assessments for store
managers
The application of the FSatPers and the FSatSett
measures in the fast food industry can aid
managers of fast food restaurants to assess the
service quality of their own establishments in a
timely and useful manner. Periodic and repetitive
sampling of customers assessments of the service
quality of their stores can enable managers to apply
statistical process control and Motorolas six sigma
techniques (Messina, 1987; Reicheld and Sasser,
1990) to improve the quality of their products and
services and facilitate the attainment of continuous
improvement within their organizations.
Multiple stores comparisons within the same
organization
Owners of fast food establishments may have
several stores within their corporate enterprise.
Applications of measures such as FSatPers and
FSatSett at each store location can enable
managers to gain insight about the relative service
and product quality of each specic restaurant they
might manage. This would enable them to gauge
the reliability of their service quality at each store,
and pinpoint where the greatest opportunities for
improvement may exist, store by store. Such
measures would also make it possible for
restaurant managers of multiple stores to identify
best practices that can be replicated elsewhere
among their internal business units.
Summary and conclusions
As business is becoming more global and
growth-oriented, domestic companies will extend
their businesses abroad through the franchising of
their products to working partners in other
countries. In this case, these businesses will need
to examine the suitability of their business
approaches so they can continue to satisfy new
customers with different cultural expectations
pertaining to product and service quality. Indeed,
the need to continue to nd ways to measure
service effectiveness, accurately and in a cost
effective, non-intrusive manner, is an imperative
that remains in the start up stage of global
businesses.
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
380
Future research is recommended to extend the
application of the Customer Satisfaction Survey to
other industries such as banking, entertainment,
health care, hotels, and the like. The survey tool
might also be translated into other languages, and its
relative applicability tested in non-English-speaking
countries. By expanding the application of the
Customer Satisfaction Survey to other industries
and cultures, added knowledge might be gained
about consumer behavior and service features that
can be used in academe, as well as business, to
improve service quality and enhance economic
growth through increased consumerism.
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Appendix
Table AI reveals the mean ratings for each variable
within the FSatPers measures. Table AII reveals the
ratings of the four fast food franchises on each of the
three variables that comprise the FSatSett measure.
More detailed information about the variance
identied among the franchises in each of the
preceding tables can be obtained by contacting the
rst author of this study.
Table AI Ratings of fast food franchises by each item that comprises satisfaction with personal service (FSatPers)
V1
Provider
courtesy
V2
Timely service
V3
Competent
employees
V4
Easy to get
help
V7
Treatment
received
V12
Prompt help
V16
Helpful
personnel
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
BK 3.87 0.97 3.79 0.96 3.72 0.94 3.73 0.96 3.68 0.98 3.68 0.95 3.70 .93
KFC 3.62 1.07 3.22 1.12 3.54 0.98 3.49 1.09 3.46 1.02 3.30 1.04 3.52 1.00
McDonalds 3.41 1.06 3.37 1.07 3.32 1.03 3.39 1.01 3.25 1.05 3.30 1.07 3.26 1.03
TB 3.90 0.96 3.90 1.03 3.81 1.04 3.83 1.03 3.70 1.09 3.91 1.05 3.74 1.10
Wendys 4.20 0.82 4.09 0.88 4.05 0.83 4.05 0.86 4.07 0.92 4.01 0.90 4.05 0.85
Total 3.75 1.03 3.63 1.06 3.64 1.00 3.65 1.02 3.58 1.04 3.58 1.04 3.60 1.01
Convergent r 0.59 0.52 0.55 0.55 0.59 0.57 0.67
Df 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
MS 80.45 112.02 67.34 58.10 79.56 90.30 74.24
F 80.95 107.69 71.42 58.81 78.05 89.58 77.00
Sig. ,0.001 ,0.001 ,0.001 ,0.001 ,0.001 ,0.001 ,0.001
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
382
Executive summary and implications for
managers and executives
This summary has been provided to allow managers and
executives a rapid appreciation of the content of this
article. Those with a particular interest in the topic covered
may then read the article in toto to take advantage of the
more comprehensive description of the research undertaken
and its results to get the full benet of the material present.
Fast-food establishments need fast-reaction
solutions
Knowing what you like to drink and eat is a fairly
basic human instinct. Similarly, people are seldom
lacking in an opinion about what they like, or
dislike, about the places they go to satisfy their
hunger and thirst that is, the service they get
when they are there. Increasing numbers of us,
worldwide, are customers of the fast-food industry,
which makes it all the more important for those
who run such businesses to get to know our
opinions and to adopt workable practices of
measuring and improving the service they are
offering. It is also in their interests to do it quickly.
Fast-food businesses need fast-reaction solutions
to consumer requirements if they are to ourish.
If not, there are plenty of other similar outlets to
go to and word spreads; if you do not like the
service at one chain the chances are that you will
not only take your custom elsewhere but also tell
your friends and colleagues.
Embracing cross-border cultures
The expansion of fast-food outlets globally presents
managements with the dual challenge of how to
provide high standards of service to the satisfaction of
both customers at home, and those in other countries
with their own cultural differences. Such cross-border
expansion demands the application of customer-
satisfaction measuring which is relevant not just to
the culture and communities of the home nation,
but to huge numbers of people abroad.
Gilbert et al., while recognizing the value of the
American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
and the European Customer Service Index
(ECSI), feel they can be excessively complex and
not user-friendly for the average management
team attempting to gauge its own level of customer
satisfaction in its own business.
Customers views immediately after service
Consequently, the authors present a simpler study
based on data collected from just over 5,000
customers in ve countries using the Customer
Satisfaction Survey, which measures customers
satisfaction immediately following service. This
method which considers satisfaction with the
personal service and satisfaction with the service
setting suits this particular industry well, as
customer satisfaction assessments are relatively
easy to obtain, on site.
Viable, abbreviated measuring tool
Conclusions were that these common measures
could be used to identify relative service
satisfaction effectiveness in cross-border
establishments. There was also support for the
idea that the Customer Satisfaction Survey may be
a viable, abbreviated tool to assess the relative
service satisfaction effectiveness in fast-food
establishments in English-speaking countries.
However, Gilbert et al. urge that larger, more
systematic and randomised samples need to be
obtained and analysed before attempting to apply
such ndings to the fast-food industry in general.
Their investigation could possibly further the
identication of methods and measures of
customer satisfaction that are suitable for cross-
cultural applications in consumer behaviour and
provide the means to measure service satisfaction
among multiple enterprises competing in specic
niche industries.
Implications for managers
The application of the satisfaction with personal
service and satisfaction with the service setting
measures can help managers to assess the service
quality of their own establishments in a timely and
useful manner. Following periodic and repetitive
sampling of customers assessments of service
quality, managers can apply statistical process
control and six sigma techniques to improve
quality. In addition, application of such measures
at each outlet can help managers to gain insight
about the relative service and product quality of
each specic restaurant they manage. This
discovery of potential strengths and weaknesses at
particular locations would present an opportunity
to replicate identied best practice elsewhere.
(Aprecis of the article Measuring customer satisfaction
in the fast food industry: a cross-national approach.
Supplied by Marketing Consultants for Emerald.)
Table AII Ratings of fast food franchises by each item that comprises satisfaction
with the service setting (FSatSett)
V5,
Convenient
hrs
V10, Security
inside
V11, Security
outside
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
Burger King 4.14 0.94 3.62 1.01 3.32 1.07
Kentucky Fried Chicken 4.11 0.95 3.50 1.06 3.27 1.12
McDonalds 3.86 0.95 3.44 1.01 3.22 1.04
Taco Bell 4.29 0.92 3.74 1.07 3.49 1.16
Wendys 4.31 0.93 4.05 .90 3.78 0.98
Total 4.16 0.95 3.62 1.03 3.36 1.08
Convergent r 0.35 0.46 0.41
Df 4 4 4
MS 31.12 35.90 37.45
F 35.90 44.19 34.20
Sig. ,0.001 ,0.001 ,0.001
Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry
G. Ronald Gilbert et al.
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 18 Number 5 2004 371-383
383