Abstract
The rapid growth of local cafes in medium-sized cities has shifted competition from product-based offerings to experience-based value creation. This study examines how service quality and store atmosphere influence customer loyalty through customer satisfaction at See You Cafe in Pinrang City. The study employed a quantitative associative-causal design involving 160 customers selected through purposive sampling, with criteria including customers aged at least 17 years and having visited See You Cafe at least twice. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire measured on a four-point Likert scale and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4. The results show that service quality has a positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Store atmosphere also has a positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction, indicating that physical and sensory elements of the cafe contribute to customers’ positive evaluations. However, store atmosphere does not significantly affect customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction also does not significantly affect loyalty and does not mediate the relationship between service quality and loyalty or between store atmosphere and loyalty. These findings suggest that customer loyalty at See You Cafe is shaped more directly by service quality than by satisfaction or store atmosphere. The study implies that cafe management should prioritize improving service reliability, particularly order-serving timeliness, while maintaining a comfortable atmosphere. In addition, loyalty-building strategies should go beyond customer satisfaction by strengthening service consistency, personalization, and long-term customer engagement
