Evaluation of Restaurant Consumers’ Reviews in Social Media: The case of Foursquare

Abstract

Social media is being actively used for food and beverage sector as in other areas. With the emergence of the Internet, consumers have initiated a consumeroriented communication apart from moving beyond the process of delivering their comments to businesses. For this reason, the consumer considers social media as a platform of sharing their experiences. Therefore, this study aims to reveal consumer comments on restaurants in Eskisehir province by using a qualitative approach which employs content analysis to understand consumer comments. The data obtained were analyzed on the basis of the DINESERV service quality dimensions adapted for restaurants. The results of the study suggest that most of the consumer comments on the service quality dimensions of the restaurants in Eskisehir were under the theme of "food quality" (210) and directed towards the "food flavor" (121). This is followed by "relevance" dimension (55) under the “staff” (128) theme, "ambience" dimension (64) under the “service environment” (110), "service speed" (74) and “price” (39) all of which shows the consumers’ concerns in evaluating the quality of service.