A Qualitative Study on Process Aspects of Complaining in Restaurants

Abstract

This study aims at identifying the aspects of failure, recovery, and complaint processes in restaurant consumptions with a qualitative research approach. Texts in questionnaires collected from 95 Turkish consumers who both had negative experiences in restaurants and voiced their complaints to management were content-analyzed and the primary findings showed that respondents initially evaluate failures sourcing from food, service, and atmosphere based on two factors (failure severity and attribution); then they voice their complaints hierarchically, and may receive no response or a kind of response to their complaints, and finally they form their perceptions of justice which results in behavioral outcomes.