The Effects of Restaurant Customers’ Contactless Service Preference and Perceived Service Safety Value on the Safety Practice Adoption and Revisit Intention during the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea

초록

COVID-19 significantly changed the restaurant service landscape toward strict safety protocols and service separability, which could undermine the level of service quality perceived by customers and in turn their revisit intention. Therefore, it would be compelling to determine the factors that positively influence customers’ adoption of the safety protocols and ultimately their revisit intension during the pandemic. This study examined the effects of restaurant customers’ perceived level of service safety value and their contactless service preference on revisit intention through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM) applied on online consumer survey data, which were collected from respondents in South Korea who have dined at a restaurant within one month from the time of the survey. This study found that 1) customers’ perceived level of service safety value had a direct impact on their safety protocol adoption as well as their revisit intention during the pandemic; 2) the level of preference for contactless service had a direct impact customers’ adoption of safety protocols & subsequently on their revisit intention. This suggests that the service safety value plays a similar role as the traditional form of service quality during the pandemic as the direct antecedent on customers’ revisit intention.

키워드