Purpose

Off-premise restaurant service has a new addition – food delivery robots. This new technology and off-premise service, in general, has received little research attention, despite continued year-over-year sales growth for both carry-out and delivery. Therefore, this study aims to analyze off-premise service modes, including food delivery robots, for service quality gaps between consumer expectations and actual performance and among the various modes.

Design/methodology/approach

Performance of three off-premise restaurant service modes (robot-delivery, human-delivery and carry-out) were evaluated using a mixed-methods approach. Consumer expectations were ascertained about food- and service-related performance factors using a survey, and a field observation study was conducted to obtain actual performance data for these factors. Findings from both approaches were compared to identify gaps and differences.

Findings

For food-related performance, consumers reported lower expectations for food safety and food quality from robot- and human-delivered food; however, no differences were observed among the three modes in the field study. Consumers also expected lower service-related performance from robot-delivery for service efficiency and ease of use (than human-delivery and carry-out) and monetary value (than carry-out). Consumers deemed robots the most sustainable and human-delivery the most convenient compared to other modes – however, not all service-related expectations aligned with actual performances.

Originality/value

This study was the first to comparatively examine off-premise restaurant service. Identification of a missing link in service gap analysis was among the theoretical contributions of this study. Managerially, this study provides previously unavailable insights into opportunities for improvement for off-premise service and use of delivery robots.

中文翻译：

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机器人与人类：场外餐厅服务模式的期望、表现和差距

目的

场外餐厅服务新增了一项功能——送餐机器人。尽管外卖和外卖的销售额持续逐年增长，但总体而言，这项新技术和场外服务几乎没有受到研究的关注。因此，本研究旨在分析包括送餐机器人在内的场外服务模式，以了解消费者期望与实际绩效之间以及各种模式之间的服务质量差距。

设计/方法/方法

使用混合方法评估三种外部餐厅服务模式（机器人交付、人工交付和外卖）的性能。通过调查确定消费者对与食品和服务相关的绩效因素的期望，并进行了实地观察研究以获得这些因素的实际绩效数据。比较两种方法的结果以找出差距和差异。

发现

对于与食品相关的表现，消费者表示对机器人和人类交付的食品的食品安全和食品质量的期望较低；然而，在实地研究中，三种模式之间没有观察到差异。消费者还期望机器人送货在服务效率和易用性（比人工送货和外卖）和货币价值（比外卖）方面更低的服务相关性能。与其他模式相比，消费者认为机器人最可持续，人工交付最方便——然而，并非所有与服务相关的期望都与实际表现一致。

原创性/价值

这项研究是第一个比较检查场外餐厅服务的研究。识别服务差距分析中的缺失环节是本研究的理论贡献之一。在管理上，这项研究提供了以前无法获得的关于改进场外服务和使用送货机器人的机会的见解。