The present study controls price level by researching a medium-priced restaurant chain.Situational factors, such as price and value for money, may be important considerations for customers in choosing a particular restaurant. Choice and variety may be anotherconcern. Restaurant customers seek variety, and often visit a number of restaurants tomeet different needs for different occasions and purposes (Sivas and Baker-Prewitt, 2000).Further study is warranted to explore these factors, but managers should be alert andconcerned about the existence of situational variables, and ensure that these variables areidentified and properly managed such that loyalty to their restaurant may be fostered. Thisis a great challenge, especially in view of the fact that consumers may patronize a numberof restaurants. As switching costs are quite low, it is important to try to maintain a lastingrelationship with customers, encourage return visits, build customer loyalty, and obtainreferrals through positive word of mouth. Other studies have shown that it costs five toeight times more to acquire new customers than to retain existing customers (Schneideret al., 1998), and because of the high transaction costs that are associated with newcustomers, customer retention is critical to the success of a restaurant. Restaurantoperators should go beyond quality and customer satisfaction to focus on what reallymatters—customer retention and profitability. Customer satisfaction drives customerloyalty and, in turn, leads to growth and profitability. Future studies should investigate thelink between quality, satisfaction, loyalty, and profit.