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Customer Database
The customer survey database consists of 200 interviews with customers of two restaurants in New York, USA.
One of the restaurants is Samouel’s Greek Cuisine. The other restaurant is Gino’s Italian Ristorante, a southern Italian
restaurant located about a block away. Both restaurants cater to the upscale crowd for lunch and dinner.
To help him better understand what customers think about the two restaurants, Phil Samouel hired a research
company to conduct exit interviews with his customers and Gino’s customers. A total of 230 interviews were completed,
but 30 of them had missing data. He asked the research company to complete 100 interviews with no missing data for
customers from each restaurant. Thus, the total usable sample was 200 interviews. A questionnaire consisting of 27
measures was developed, pre-tested and finalized for use. Customers first were asked their perceptions of the two
restaurants on twelve factors (Variables X1 – X12). The perceptions questions were asked in a random sequence to avoid
order bias. Respondents then were asked to rank four general restaurant selection factors in terms of their importance in
selecting a restaurant where they wanted to eat (Variables X 13 – X16). The four factors were identified from a review of
previous research and two focus groups as being the most widely used determinant attributes for selecting fine-dining
restaurants. Next, respondents were asked five relationship questions, including how satisfied they were with the
restaurant, how likely they were to recommend it to a friend, how likely they are to come back in the future, how often they
eat there, and how long they have been a customer of that particular restaurant (X 17 – X21). Interviewers asked two more
questions – age and income – and recorded the gender of the respondents without asking them.
After the questionnaires were returned to the interviewers, the respondents were asked if they would be willing to
look at and evaluate three ads. Of the 200 initial respondents a total of 172 agreed to do so. The respondents who
agreed to view the ads were randomly assigned one of three different ads. Variable X26 records which ad they viewed and
rated, and X27 is their rating of the ad. The variables, examples of questions and their coding are shown below. The
Competitor variable (X25) indicates whether interviews were conducted with either Samouel’s customers or Gino’s
customers.
Perceptions Measures
The perceptions were measured as follows: “I am going to read a list of characteristics that could be used to
describe Samouel’s Greek Cuisine (Gino’s Ristorante). Using a scale from 1 to 7, with 7 being “Strongly Agree” and 1
being “Strongly Disagree”, please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree that _______ has:”
X1 – Excellent Food Quality
X2 – Attractive Interior
X3 – Generous Portions
X4 – Excellent Food Taste
X5 – Good Value for the Money
X6 – Friendly Employees
X7 – Appears Clean and Neat
X8 – Fun Place to Go
X9 – Wide Variety of Menu Items
X10 – Reasonable Prices
X11 – Courteous Employees
X12 – Competent Employees
For example, if a respondent said a “7” on Excellent Food Quality it would indicate they strongly agree that _____ has
Excellent Food Quality. On the other hand, if they said a “1” for Good Portion Sizes it would indicate they strongly
disagree and perceive ______ to have portions that are too small.
Selection Factor Rankings
Data for the restaurant selection factors was collected as follows:
“I am going to read a list of factors (reasons) many people use when selecting a restaurant where they want to dine.
Think about your visits to fine dining restaurants in the last 30 days and please rank each reason from 1 to 4, with 4
being the most important reason for selecting the restaurant and 1 being the least important reason. There can be
no ties so make sure you rank each attribute with a different number.”
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The list of reasons was read in a random sequence to avoid order bias.
X13 – Food Quality
X14 – Atmosphere
X15 – Prices
X16 – Employees
Relationship Measures
Several measures of possible relationships with the restaurants were asked. They are listed below, along with their
coding.
X17 – Satisfaction 7 = Highly Satisfied; 1 = Definitely Not Satisfied
X18 – Likely to Return in Future 7 = Definitely Will Return;
1 = Definitely Will Not Return
X19 – Recommend to Friend 7 = Definitely Will Recommend;
1 = Definitely Will Not Recommend
X20 – Frequency of Patronage 3 = Very Frequent Patron; 2 = Somewhat Frequent Patron;
1 = Occasional Patron
X21 – Length of Time a Customer
1 = Customer < One Year
2 = Customer 1 – 3 Years
3 = Customer > 3 Years
Classification Variables
Questions for the classification variables were asked at the end of the survey. Responses were coded as shown
below:
X22– Gender – Male = 0; Female = 1
X23 – Age 1 = 18 – 25
2 = 26 – 34
3 = 35 – 49
4 = 50 – 59
5 = 60 and 0lder
X24 – Income 1 = $20 - $35,000 annually
2 = $35,001 - $50,000 annually
3 = $50,001 - $75,000 annually
4 = $75,001 - $100,000 annually
5 = > $100,000 annually
X25 – Competitor – Gino’s Customer = 1 and Samouel’s Customer = 0
X26 – Which Ad Viewed – Saw Ad #1 = 1; Saw Ad #2 = 2; Saw Ad #3 = 3.
X27 – AD Rating – 1 = poor ad; 100 = excellent ad.
