WORD OF MOUTH AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN MEDIATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SERVICE QUALITY AND REVISIT INTENTION

ABSTRACT : The population growth in Bali Province, especially in Denpasar City and Badung Regency has led to the increase in consumption level. The high consumption level has been followed by the increase in number of restaurants over the years, which in turn intensified the competition among culinary businesses. Improving quality is a way to survive in this competition because it increases the likelihood of customers revisiting the restaurant in the future. By maintaining customer’s revisit intention, this also means that the restaurant has attempted to maintain customer loyalty. The purpose of this study is to explain the role of word of mouth and customer satisfaction in mediating the influence of service quality on revisit intention. The research subjects are the customers who have visited the restaurant at least once over the last six months. There were 205 respondents as the research sample, who were selected using the non-probability purposive sampling method. The data analysis method utilized was the SEM (Structural Equation Modelling). The research results showed that word of mouth and customer satisfaction are able to partially mediate the relationship between service quality and the intention to revisit the Family Restaurant. The practical implication of this study is that the restaurants should improve their service quality, develop positive word of mouth, improve customer satisfaction and increase customer’s intention to revisit Family Restaurant to improve its competitiveness. KEYWORDS: service quality, word of mouth, customer satisfaction, revisit intention, loyalty