Consumer Satisfaction to Hospitality: A Case Study of Public Planning for Good Servicescapes in Taiwan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of factors of the servicescapes designed by public planners on customer satisfaction to enable servicescapes to be used more comprehensively and to gain a general understanding. A questionnaire survey and quantitative analysis were used to evaluate the satisfaction of customers. The constructed good servicescapes in the Xinyi District that are highly satisfied by consumers include the dimensions of multi-purpose space, the pleasant modern landscape, the user-friendly environment, and the high-accessibility destination. Age, education background, and occupation of the respondents had a significant effect on the specific dimension. The result also shows that Xinyi District is more visited than other shopping areas in Taipei city. In this context, multi-purpose space of Xinyi District reduces consumer visitation, however, the pleasant modern servicescapes increase consumer visitation, meaning that it really benefits the consumers. Urban design has gained importance in the public sector agenda of many cities. In this case, well-planned landscapes with pro-development regulation, flexible negotiation, strict space restriction, and convenient transportation provided by the public sector could influence the decision-making of consumer visitation. In detail, good servicescapes exemplify the globalization of the urban form and have become an advantage of hospitality about merchandise and enjoyment for consumers. This study illustrates that the deliberative planning by the public sector could strongly meet the consumers’ demand and the good servicescapes by the public sector would benefit hospitality.