As consumer demands become more diverse and complex, the pace of technological advancements in response to these changes is accelerating. In this evolving market environment, companies are increasingly adopting services that incorporate new technologi...
As consumer demands become more diverse and complex, the pace of technological advancements in response to these changes is accelerating. In this evolving market environment, companies are increasingly adopting services that incorporate new technologies, leading to faster transformations in a direct interaction between consumers and providers.
Particularly, due to societal circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, practices such as social distancing or distancing within daily life have been implemented for a certain period. As a result, modern individuals have become more inclined to avoid face-to-face interactions. Alongside the increase in the adoption of technology-based self-service solutions that can replace human resources in various fields, there is a rapid implementation of Contactless services based on unmanned and automated systems. One notable product among technology-based service types is the kiosk, which offers benefits such as increased productivity, cost savings in labor, and improved turnover for businesses. From the customer's perspective, kiosks provide positive effects such as convenience and reduced waiting time. Although previous studies have validated the relationship between kiosk characteristics and customer satisfaction, reuse intention, and word-of-mouth intention in the food service industry, there is limited research specifically focusing on cafe patrons.
In light of this, the primary objective of this study is to investigate the influence of kiosk usage by cafe customers on customer satisfaction, reuse intention, and word-of-mouth intention. Additionally, it seeks to identify the characteristics of kiosks that cafe customers consider important and analyze which characteristics have an impact, thereby providing insights for future service provision strategies and marketing plans.
In this study, the concepts of cafe, kiosk, customer satisfaction, reuse intention, and word-of-mouth intention were examined, and through a relationship analysis of kiosk characteristics, the measurement items for kiosk characteristics were selected as amusement, convenience, reliability, and informativeness. Furthermore, through theoretical discussions related to customer satisfaction, reuse intention, and word-of-mouth intention, the hypotheses were defined clearly, and a research model was derived to conduct a survey. The survey targeted consumers who had experience using kiosks installed in cafes, and a total of 277 valid questionnaires were used as analytical data for the study.
The results of the study indicated that the characteristics of cafe kiosks have a high correlation with customer satisfaction, reuse intention, and positive word-of-mouth intention, thereby demonstrating the need to continuously enhance satisfaction with cafe kiosks. Customer satisfaction was found to be effective in increasing the characteristics of kiosks and can be linked to reuse intention and behavioral factors such as word-of-mouth intention.
Based on this study, we presented the results of a study on the importance of management strategies and improvements through research on kiosk characteristics in terms of strategic research for growth and development of the tourism industry, including restaurant business. This is used as a management indicator that can be proposed and discussed for service improvement, and suggested that it can be used as a data to reflect the latest trends that lead to profit creation and differentiation.
In future research, it will be a more systematic and suggestive study if we distinguish cafes from other industries to identify satisfaction with kiosk characteristics and compare and analyze the differences. In addition, this research period was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2023, when the World Health Organization(WHO) lifted the international public health emergency, the Korean government also declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the future, if we develop this study and conduct research to compare the differences before and after the end, it will be more diverse and meaningful.