Service Knowledge Information Process Trust Commitment Customer Satisfaction Customer Retention Perceived Value SQ-SKIP Attitude Employees Performance Effort A New Service-Quality Model to Enhance Customer Retention in the Hong Kong Fast-Food Restaurant Industry Kenneth Lui-ming Ngie, Philip J. Rosenberger III & Allen George Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle, Australia Contact: philip.rosenbergeriii@newcastle.edu.au Introduction • The Hong Kong, fast-food-restaurant (HK FFR) sector is very competitive • Customer acquisition is costly • HK FFRs could use a new service-quality (SQ) model to enhance customer retention (Law et al, 2004) Objective: Explore A New FFR SQ Model • To explore the potential effectiveness of a new SQ model for HK FFRs • Aim: improve the FFR satisfaction-retention linkage (Patterson, 2004) • Focus is on personalised service • Involves employees focused on Service, Knowledge, Information, Process (SKIP; Buttle et al, 2002) Methodology • A qualitative, phenomenological approach was used featuring semi-structured interviews (Schembri & Sandberg, 2002) • A purposeful sample of 30 HK taxi drivers was selected due to their frequency of eating at FFRs (three times per week) • The drivers' FFR experiences assisted in understanding the phenomenological nature of the HK FFR context (Limberg, 2000) Findings: An Emergent Model • An Employee-Centric SKIP-based SQ model emerged from the data (see figure) • The model offers an alternative and pragmatic way of examining HK FFR SQ relationships compared to other SQ models (Grönroos, 1984; Parasuraman et al, 1985) Propositions to Guide Future Research Based on the study's findings, seven research propositions are presented to guide future research: P1 The SQ elements (dimensions) of Service, Knowledge, Information, Process underpin the SKIP-based SQ model for HK FFRs P2 The SKIP-based SQ model will have a positive influence on FFR (a) customer trust, (b) commitment, (c) satisfaction and perceived value P3 FFR employees-through their positive soft attitudes and behaviours, performance and efforts -will have a moderation effect on the relationships of SKIP that resulting in a positive influence on (a) customer trust, (b) commitment, (c) satisfaction and perceived value P4 Trust will have a positive influence on commitment P5 Commitment will have a positive influence on satisfaction P6 Perceived value will have a positive influence on customer satisfaction P7 Customer satisfaction will have a positive influence on customer retention Images: http://hk-magazine.com/sites/default/files/u5828/keung-kee.jpg http://hk-magazine.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/item_image/taxi-tales-cover.jpg