Unraveling customer experiences in chain coffee shops through online reviews

Purpose Current research aims to explore the dominant themes shared in online reviews by customers visiting chain coffee shops as well as which of these themes were linked with satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Design/methodology/approach The data for the current research was gathered from TripAdvisor using a Python-based web crawler. In total, 20,499 online reviews were scrapped and analyzed using Leximancer software. Findings The analyses revealed six themes describing chain coffee shop experiences. These are “product quality,” “ambiance and atmosphere,” “customer service,” “menu variety,” “location and convenience” and “price and value.” Dissatisfaction factors are sourced from issues such as “price and value,” “ambiance and atmosphere as well as “menu variety.” Originality/value This study fills a research lacuna by using a large dataset of online reviews to comprehensively analyze customer experiences in chain coffee shops, identifying critical themes and sentiment trends. This novel approach offers valuable insights for improving service strategies within the competitive coffee chain industry.