Author(s): Amit Tariyal, Shalini Singh and Swati Bisht
Purpose: In this era of information, communication, and technology where the population of millennials has a high consumption of internet, the impact of information available on the internet plays a vital role in shaping the attitude of this segment. Millennial population loves to hang out and with this segment the most popular hangout places are cafes. Café visits are therefore on a high, especially with the urban millennial population. This paper is an attempt to understand the influence of electronically given reviews by customers on their decision making with respect to café visits in the Dehradun region of this segment. This paper tries to evaluate and assess the impact of varied factors considered by people while making a decision on which café to visit. Methodology: A structured questionnaire was emailed to 350 respondents of the Dehradun region. 300 respondents acknowledged the questionnaire and responded back. After the screening process, a total of 286 comprehensive questionnaires were admitted. An exploratory factor analysis was applied to identify the important factors considered by people while going through e-reviews on their café visits. Regression analysis was further conducted to evaluate the impact of those factors on cafe visits. Findings: Results show a significant impact of all the four identified factors that evolved through the exploratory factor analysis on the cafe visit. These four factors show the importance of 4Ps here i.e. Place (Ambience), Process (Order processing), Product (Food and Beverage), and People (Staff). Place (Ambience) is found to be the most important factor that customers consider while checking out the e-reviews about cafes followed by order, food & beverage, and staff. Limitations: This study has some limitations related to the geographical region, sample, research methodology and tools. Other factors influencing the cafe visit may also be included in the future.