Homophily, relative deprivation and customer service. Do perception of sameness and group comparative identification affect service quality?

Abstract

ÒYour colour matters when dining outÓ This was the experience of Sarita Ranchod, the Executive Director of Under the Rainbow when she wrote to City Press after dining out in Cape town (City Press, 2015). Her experience of service quality was appalling to say the least and she made a decision not to dine at certain restaurants because of the treatment she received at this particular restaurant. She was made to fill invisible and was not served while other people who happen to be Caucasian received preferential treatment, in one of Cape TownÕs restaurants. Thiru, on the other hand shared his experience of dining out in Centurion and wrote about this experience on the ÔBad ServiceÕ website, claiming that he had been subjected to Òsub-standard service with separate treatment for separate racesÓ (Bad Service. 2017). These two examples illustrate certain instances where members of the South African public have had poor service quality while visiting restaurants in the country (Bad Service, 2017; City Press, 2015).