Measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry: a cross-national approach

In today's ever-increasing globalization of services and brands, service-oriented businesses need to attend to the satisfaction of their customers both domestically and abroad while transcending unique cultural differences from country to country. This study provides a cross-cultural comparison of service satisfaction of fast food establishments in four English-speaking countries. It is based on data collected from customers of five globally-franchised fast-food chains, using a previously developed service satisfaction instrument. The study reveals two empirically derived, cross-cultural fast-food customer satisfaction dimensions: satisfaction with the personal service and satisfaction with the service setting. Should future research support this study's findings, the measurement of cross-cultural service satisfaction among franchised brands and services could aid business managers' efforts to assess the quality of the services they provide across national boundaries and on a more real time, practical basis.