본 연구는 커피전문점의 서비스스케이프와 인적서비스가 고객만족, 점포이미지, 재방문의도와 어떤 영향관계에 있는지 파악하고자 하였다. 커피전문점을 이용하는 고객들을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였고, 구조방정식 모형분석 결과 서비스스케이프와 인적서비스는 점포이미지, 고객만족도, 재방문의도에 정(+) 의 영향을 미치고 있었고, 점포이미지는 고객만족도와 재방문의도에 정(+)의 영향을 미치고 있었으며, 또한고객만족은 재방문의도에 정(+)의 영향을 미치고 있는 것으로 나타났다.
The coffee market in South Korea rapidly has been growing since the 1980s and competition among cafe is intensifying as well. Cafes that do not have distinguished management strategy or fail to satisfy customers’ demands are pushed out of the market. In this environment, improvement of servicescape and human service at cafes became a very important element for enhancing competitiveness. Customers of cafes explore and perceive various types of environment and services while staying in the store, and evaluate quality of service. Therefore, customers’ experience of servicescape and human service influence the store image, satisfaction, and, thereby, revisit intention.
This study attempted to understand relationship of servicescape and human service of cafes with customer satisfaction, store image, and revisit intention. Based on the result, it aims to help owners, managers, and prospective managers of cafes in South Korea find distinguished marketing strategies based on the importance of servicescape and human service.
First, in this study, theoretical ground was provided based on review of previous research on servicescape, human service, store image, and revisit intention. Also, a research model was established based on literature review and hypotheses were set to prove them with empirical analysis. Hypotheses were composed of relationship of service scape with store image, customer satisfaction, revisit intention; that of human service with store image, customer satisfaction, revisit intention; that of store image with customer satisfaction and revisit intention; and that of customer satisfaction with revisit intention, in the order.
Before hypothesis test, exploratory factor analysis and reliability test was performed, and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to verify validity and reliability of the model. Later, descriptive and correlation analysis was performed, before finally analyzing the research model by using path coefficient.
The result suggests that servicescape and human service has positive effect on store image, customer satisfaction, and revisit intention; and store image has positive effect on customer satisfaction and revisit intention. Also, customer satisfaction has positive effect on revisit intention. Based on the result, the following implications were drawn from this study: First, servicescape of cafes is divided into give subordinate concepts, i.e., seat comfort, waiting environment, aesthetics, cleanliness, and accessibility, and human service into three subordinate concepts, i.e., expertise, reliability, and interactivity. These sub-factors can be used as measurement tools for future research related to servicescape and human service. Second, there is positive correlation between service scape and human service and store image, customer satisfaction, and revisit intention, which support previous research. Third, in this study, it was found that there are twice as many female customers as male customers, and, therefore, marketing strategies need to increase revisit intention of female customers and additional facilities need to be added to attract male customers. Fourth, servicescape must be reinforced as it influences store image, customer satisfaction, and reivisit intention. Fifth, human service at cafes was also found to influence store image, customer satisfaction, and revisit intention, and, therefore, human service provided by staff must be improved by training.
This study had the following limitations: First, representativeness of the sample was limited because the research was not conducted in all regions of the country. Therefore, if sufficient funding is available, using online survey, etc., can help improve the limited sample. Second, in the survey, older subjects were more likely to refuse responding. The survey environment must be improved in terms of the respondents’ age. Third, although exogenous variables were controlled to increase internal validity in order to accurately estimate servicescape and human service of cafes, real situations may not be the same as test environment. Recently, many studies are being conducted relating to cafes.
However, theoretical concepts need to be established by comprehensive and diverse studies, and, also, qualitative research including AHP (analytic hierarchy process) that reflects opinions of experts will also need to be conducted.