The Relationship Between Complaints Mechanisms and Customer Loyalty in Fast Food Restaurants

Customers are a fundamental pillar in the hospitality industry because they are the foundation on which the success of the restaurant is built by meeting their needs and expectations about the service and the way to deal with service failure and methods of recovery after a complaint. Fair methods of dealing with complaints create a state of satisfaction, as it is of great importance in enhancing the restaurant's reputation and motivating customers to visit it in the future, thus achieving sustainability in the business and increasing profits. This research aims to study the relationship between the complaint mechanism and customer loyalty in fast-food restaurants. It focuses on understanding the stages of complaints: process, behaviors, and outcome guidelines. And their relationship with procedural, interactional, and distributive justice and their impact on customer loyalty. Data were collected through questionnaires designed for customers and employees, where the employee questionnaire included an evaluation of the quality of processes, behaviors, and outcome guidelines. Customers were asked to evaluate procedural, interactional, and distributive justice and their loyalty. Out of 271 questionnaires, 250 were valid. Smart PLS v3 was used to analyze the collected data. The results showed the quality of process, behaviors, and outcome guidelines has a positive relationship with procedural, interactional, and distributive justice, as well as a positive impact of procedural, interactional, and distributive justice on customer loyalty. The results also confirmed the positive mediating role of procedural, interactional, and distributive justice between the stages of complaint handling and customer loyalty.