“Elementos que inciden en la satisfacción del cliente dentro de las Mipymes dedicadas a la venta de comidas típicas en la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador.”

Abstract

This research examines how factors such as price, location, product quality, waiting time, and customer service affect consumer satisfaction in micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) offering traditional meals in Cuenca, Ecuador. A non-experimental descriptive study was conducted, collecting quantitative data through surveys administered to 115 owners and managers of various gastronomic establishments in the city, selected from a population of 2,982 MSMEs registered with the Internal Revenue Service (SRI, by its Spanish acronym) in 2024. The results, obtained through multiple linear regression, indicate that the analyzed factors explain 77.8% of the variability in customer satisfaction (adjusted R² = 0.778, Table 1). Product quality is the most influential factor (β = 0.313, p = 0.002), followed by customer service (β = 0.293, p = 0.001) and waiting time (β = 0.268, p = 0.002), according to the coefficients in Table 3. Location (β = 0.176, p = 0.073) and price (β = -1.01, p = 0.248) are not statistically significant (p > 0.05), suggesting a limited impact on customer satisfaction. These findings, supported by the model’s overall significance (F= 80.762, p < 0.001, Table 2), highlight the importance of prioritizing product quality and customer service to enhance the customer experience in MSMEs in Cuenca.