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Analyzing Restaurant Customers’ Evolution of Dining Patterns and Satisfaction during COVID-19 for Sustainable Business Insights

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  • Susan (Sixue) Jia

    (School of Finance and Business, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China)

Abstract

Observing and interpreting restaurant customers’ evolution of dining patterns and satisfaction during COVID-19 is of critical importance in terms of developing sustainable business insights. This study describes and analyzes customers’ dining behavior before and after the pandemic outbreak by means of statistically aggregating and empirically correlating 651,703 restaurant-user-generated contents posted by diners during 2019–2020. Twenty review topics, mostly food, were identified by latent Dirichlet allocation, whereas analysis of variation and rating-review regression were performed to explore whether and why customers became less satisfied. Results suggest that customers have been paying fewer visits to restaurants since the outbreak, assigning lower ratings, and showing limited evidence of spending more. Interestingly, queuing, the most annoying factor for restaurant customers during normal periods, turns out to receive much less complaint during COVID-19. This study contributes by discovering business knowledge in the context of COVID-19 based on big data that features accessibility, relevance, volume, and information richness, which is transferable to future studies and can benefit additional population and business. Meanwhile, this study also provides practical suggestions to managers regarding the framework of self-evaluation, business mode, and operational optimization.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan (Sixue) Jia, 2021. "Analyzing Restaurant Customers’ Evolution of Dining Patterns and Satisfaction during COVID-19 for Sustainable Business Insights," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:4981-:d:545869
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mian Yang & Wenjie Fan & Jian Qiu & Sining Zhang & Jinting Li, 2022. "The Evaluation of Rural Outdoor Dining Environment from Consumer Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Zibarzani, Masoumeh & Abumalloh, Rabab Ali & Nilashi, Mehrbakhsh & Samad, Sarminah & Alghamdi, O.A. & Nayer, Fatima Khan & Ismail, Muhammed Yousoof & Mohd, Saidatulakmal & Mohammed Akib, Noor Adelyna, 2022. "Customer satisfaction with Restaurants Service Quality during COVID-19 outbreak: A two-stage methodology," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    3. Hyo-Sun Jung & Hye-Hyun Yoon & Min-Kyung Song, 2021. "A Study on Dining-Out Trends Using Big Data: Focusing on Changes since COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-23, October.

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