Abstract
The issue of restaurant loyalty is of increasing importance as competition becomes more intense and as consumers become more demanding. Although many authors have written on the factors that influence restaurant choice and repeat purchase behaviour there has been comparatively little research in the restaurant industry that identifies the factors that motivate consumers to not only become regular customers but to move beyond this and become loyal customers. The research that has been undertaken on customer loyalty in restaurants has, almost exclusively, focused on quantitative data and has tended to focus on the aspects that customers identify as the motivators for repeat purchase behaviour. The research reported in this paper adopted an ethnographic approach and thus provides some insights into customer behaviour in the restaurant context. The motivations that influence customers to become regular purchasers and to move beyond this into loyal customers is reported.

The loyal customers were found to exhibit distinct behaviour characteristics that are beneficial to the restaurant business with them being more tolerant of mistakes, of providing word of mouth advertising and of bringing new customers to experience the restaurant.

Keywords: Restaurants, consumer behaviour, customer loyalty

By Hugh Wilkins and Jum-Hee Hwang ,Griffith University, Queensland, Australia