Polish Nightclubs and Bars: Management Insights into what Customers Really Want

This research aims to analyse the needs of nightclub and bar customers from emerging and developing Polish market by examining customer preferences towards the servicescape and service offerings provided by such venues. Purposive sampling was used to establish two focus groups within the industry’s main target market age group. This qualitative data was analysed from a grounded theory approach in order to identify the emerging themes that were then tested by quantitative data gathered by means of a questionnaire in Phase 2 of the research. This data was then subjected to a frequency analysis in SPSS in order to identify those elements that were most preferred by the majority of respondents in Poland. Our findings point to the significant preferences of Polish club-goers, indicating importance of various elements of the servicescape (e.g. gender of clientele, security, seating, location of dance floor and service offering) in influencing customer decisions to enter a venue. In such a highly competitive marketplace our findings can assist managers of mainstream venues within the late night economy in Poland improve their competitive position by understanding and then providing Polish customers with service offerings that match their preferences. Although there is much services marketing literature on the relevance of the servicescape and the importance of service quality, this paper attempts to ascertain which factors are truly key in customer decision making.