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Faculty of Organisation and Management
BSc (Honours) Hospitality Business
Management
Title A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on
Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Name Kwong Pui Yee Denise
Student No 91203355
Month Year April 2009
1
Sheffield Hallam University
Faculty of Organisation and Management
Title A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on
Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Full Name Kwong Pui Yee Denise
Student No 91203355
Supervisor Ms Dorothy Tsui
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in
Hospitality Business Management
Month Year April 2009
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my supervisor Ms Dorothy Tsui for encouraging and
supporting me throughout the dissertation progress She is willing to offer help when I
was confused on my research I would also like to say thank you to Prof Ray Pine for
helping me on concept building and making decisions on this dissertation Finally
special thanks go to my family for their great support and care in this academic year
ii
ABSTRACT
Nowadays the fast food industry is very competitive in Hong Kong There is fierce
competitive between different fast food restaurants Customer satisfaction is a goal
that every company aims to achieve for a successful business and future development
Service quality is the indicator in measuring the level of service provided for
customers This paper aims to analyze the customer satisfaction on the service quality
delivered by the fast food industry and to find out which dimensions of service quality
should be the main focus for future improvement This research investigates the
quality of service provided by a local chain fast food restaurant - Cafeacute de Coral This
research uses some concepts from Parasuraman et al (1988) and Zeithaml et al (1990)
as a main reference for this study The SERVQUAL model and five dimensions of
service quality are frequently used in this research The five service quality
dimensions are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy This
survey was conducted via face-to-face personal interview collecting customer
opinions of the importance and expectations and performance on perceptions towards
these five service quality dimensions From the results of surveys it was observed
that Tangibles is the most satisfactory followed by Responsiveness Assurance
Reliability and Empathy respectively Finally specific improvements should be given
to those less satisfactory attributes of service quality dimensions in discussion part
iii
CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
Contents iii
List of figures vi
List of Tables vii
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Introduction 1
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic 1
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral 3
13 Aims and Objectives 4
14 Chapter Outline 5
Chapter 2 - Literature Review
Introduction 6
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211Definition of Fast Food 6
212 Trend of Fast Food Industry 7
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong 7
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction 9
222 Definition of Service Quality 11
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality 13
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality) 18
iv
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality
and Fast Food Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer
Satisfaction
21
242 Benefits of Service Quality 22
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction
Service Quality and Fast Food Industry
23
Chapter 3 Methodology
Introduction 25
31 Data Collection Method 25
32 Questionnaire Design 26
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research 29
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing 29
333 Limitations 30
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS 31
342 Importance and Performance Analysis 31
Chapter 4 - Results
Introduction 35
41 Primary Findings 36
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis 38
422 Importance and Performance Analysis 41
423 Overall Analysis 44
v
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality
Dimensions
49
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions 53
Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations
Introduction 57
51 Conclusions 57
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions 58
53 Recommendations for Further Research 60
References 63
Appendices 67
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46) 18
Figure 2 Importance- Performance Analysis Grid Martilla and James
(1977 p78)
32
Figure 3
Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality
Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
42
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Aspects 36
Table 2
Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in
Dimensions of Service Quality
39
Table 3
Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis 42
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance
and Performance Analysis (IPA)
46
Table 5
Significant Value of One-way ANOVA
(Only Value of Sig lt005 are Shown)
54
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Four main parts will be covered in this chapter starting with the reason for choosing
this topic customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Next the
reason for choosing Cafeacute de Coral as a target of this case study will be mentioned
The uniqueness and success of this company in running fast food business will be
presented Afterwards aims and objectives of this research will be presented with
individual purpose on this study and research findings Chapter outlines for each
chapter will be mentioned in the last part of this chapter
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic
The rapid growth of the fast food industry shows the demand for fast-service
restaurants Due to the increase in demand local chains fast food restaurants started
their business in Hong Kong since the late 1970s (Lan and Khan 1995) Local fast
food restaurants play an important role in providing timely service to customers
Wetzel (1999) stated that the fast food industry was growing rapidly during the past
two decades There are many different fast food sectors which developed and
established their business in Hong Kong Jones (1988) mentions that due to changes
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
1
Sheffield Hallam University
Faculty of Organisation and Management
Title A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on
Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Full Name Kwong Pui Yee Denise
Student No 91203355
Supervisor Ms Dorothy Tsui
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in
Hospitality Business Management
Month Year April 2009
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my supervisor Ms Dorothy Tsui for encouraging and
supporting me throughout the dissertation progress She is willing to offer help when I
was confused on my research I would also like to say thank you to Prof Ray Pine for
helping me on concept building and making decisions on this dissertation Finally
special thanks go to my family for their great support and care in this academic year
ii
ABSTRACT
Nowadays the fast food industry is very competitive in Hong Kong There is fierce
competitive between different fast food restaurants Customer satisfaction is a goal
that every company aims to achieve for a successful business and future development
Service quality is the indicator in measuring the level of service provided for
customers This paper aims to analyze the customer satisfaction on the service quality
delivered by the fast food industry and to find out which dimensions of service quality
should be the main focus for future improvement This research investigates the
quality of service provided by a local chain fast food restaurant - Cafeacute de Coral This
research uses some concepts from Parasuraman et al (1988) and Zeithaml et al (1990)
as a main reference for this study The SERVQUAL model and five dimensions of
service quality are frequently used in this research The five service quality
dimensions are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy This
survey was conducted via face-to-face personal interview collecting customer
opinions of the importance and expectations and performance on perceptions towards
these five service quality dimensions From the results of surveys it was observed
that Tangibles is the most satisfactory followed by Responsiveness Assurance
Reliability and Empathy respectively Finally specific improvements should be given
to those less satisfactory attributes of service quality dimensions in discussion part
iii
CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
Contents iii
List of figures vi
List of Tables vii
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Introduction 1
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic 1
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral 3
13 Aims and Objectives 4
14 Chapter Outline 5
Chapter 2 - Literature Review
Introduction 6
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211Definition of Fast Food 6
212 Trend of Fast Food Industry 7
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong 7
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction 9
222 Definition of Service Quality 11
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality 13
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality) 18
iv
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality
and Fast Food Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer
Satisfaction
21
242 Benefits of Service Quality 22
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction
Service Quality and Fast Food Industry
23
Chapter 3 Methodology
Introduction 25
31 Data Collection Method 25
32 Questionnaire Design 26
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research 29
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing 29
333 Limitations 30
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS 31
342 Importance and Performance Analysis 31
Chapter 4 - Results
Introduction 35
41 Primary Findings 36
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis 38
422 Importance and Performance Analysis 41
423 Overall Analysis 44
v
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality
Dimensions
49
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions 53
Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations
Introduction 57
51 Conclusions 57
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions 58
53 Recommendations for Further Research 60
References 63
Appendices 67
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46) 18
Figure 2 Importance- Performance Analysis Grid Martilla and James
(1977 p78)
32
Figure 3
Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality
Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
42
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Aspects 36
Table 2
Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in
Dimensions of Service Quality
39
Table 3
Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis 42
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance
and Performance Analysis (IPA)
46
Table 5
Significant Value of One-way ANOVA
(Only Value of Sig lt005 are Shown)
54
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Four main parts will be covered in this chapter starting with the reason for choosing
this topic customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Next the
reason for choosing Cafeacute de Coral as a target of this case study will be mentioned
The uniqueness and success of this company in running fast food business will be
presented Afterwards aims and objectives of this research will be presented with
individual purpose on this study and research findings Chapter outlines for each
chapter will be mentioned in the last part of this chapter
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic
The rapid growth of the fast food industry shows the demand for fast-service
restaurants Due to the increase in demand local chains fast food restaurants started
their business in Hong Kong since the late 1970s (Lan and Khan 1995) Local fast
food restaurants play an important role in providing timely service to customers
Wetzel (1999) stated that the fast food industry was growing rapidly during the past
two decades There are many different fast food sectors which developed and
established their business in Hong Kong Jones (1988) mentions that due to changes
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
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httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
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httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
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IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
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JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
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KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
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LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
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NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
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PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
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PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
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Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
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QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
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-50
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SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
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66
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67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my supervisor Ms Dorothy Tsui for encouraging and
supporting me throughout the dissertation progress She is willing to offer help when I
was confused on my research I would also like to say thank you to Prof Ray Pine for
helping me on concept building and making decisions on this dissertation Finally
special thanks go to my family for their great support and care in this academic year
ii
ABSTRACT
Nowadays the fast food industry is very competitive in Hong Kong There is fierce
competitive between different fast food restaurants Customer satisfaction is a goal
that every company aims to achieve for a successful business and future development
Service quality is the indicator in measuring the level of service provided for
customers This paper aims to analyze the customer satisfaction on the service quality
delivered by the fast food industry and to find out which dimensions of service quality
should be the main focus for future improvement This research investigates the
quality of service provided by a local chain fast food restaurant - Cafeacute de Coral This
research uses some concepts from Parasuraman et al (1988) and Zeithaml et al (1990)
as a main reference for this study The SERVQUAL model and five dimensions of
service quality are frequently used in this research The five service quality
dimensions are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy This
survey was conducted via face-to-face personal interview collecting customer
opinions of the importance and expectations and performance on perceptions towards
these five service quality dimensions From the results of surveys it was observed
that Tangibles is the most satisfactory followed by Responsiveness Assurance
Reliability and Empathy respectively Finally specific improvements should be given
to those less satisfactory attributes of service quality dimensions in discussion part
iii
CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
Contents iii
List of figures vi
List of Tables vii
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Introduction 1
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic 1
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral 3
13 Aims and Objectives 4
14 Chapter Outline 5
Chapter 2 - Literature Review
Introduction 6
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211Definition of Fast Food 6
212 Trend of Fast Food Industry 7
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong 7
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction 9
222 Definition of Service Quality 11
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality 13
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality) 18
iv
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality
and Fast Food Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer
Satisfaction
21
242 Benefits of Service Quality 22
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction
Service Quality and Fast Food Industry
23
Chapter 3 Methodology
Introduction 25
31 Data Collection Method 25
32 Questionnaire Design 26
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research 29
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing 29
333 Limitations 30
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS 31
342 Importance and Performance Analysis 31
Chapter 4 - Results
Introduction 35
41 Primary Findings 36
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis 38
422 Importance and Performance Analysis 41
423 Overall Analysis 44
v
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality
Dimensions
49
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions 53
Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations
Introduction 57
51 Conclusions 57
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions 58
53 Recommendations for Further Research 60
References 63
Appendices 67
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46) 18
Figure 2 Importance- Performance Analysis Grid Martilla and James
(1977 p78)
32
Figure 3
Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality
Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
42
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Aspects 36
Table 2
Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in
Dimensions of Service Quality
39
Table 3
Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis 42
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance
and Performance Analysis (IPA)
46
Table 5
Significant Value of One-way ANOVA
(Only Value of Sig lt005 are Shown)
54
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Four main parts will be covered in this chapter starting with the reason for choosing
this topic customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Next the
reason for choosing Cafeacute de Coral as a target of this case study will be mentioned
The uniqueness and success of this company in running fast food business will be
presented Afterwards aims and objectives of this research will be presented with
individual purpose on this study and research findings Chapter outlines for each
chapter will be mentioned in the last part of this chapter
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic
The rapid growth of the fast food industry shows the demand for fast-service
restaurants Due to the increase in demand local chains fast food restaurants started
their business in Hong Kong since the late 1970s (Lan and Khan 1995) Local fast
food restaurants play an important role in providing timely service to customers
Wetzel (1999) stated that the fast food industry was growing rapidly during the past
two decades There are many different fast food sectors which developed and
established their business in Hong Kong Jones (1988) mentions that due to changes
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
ii
ABSTRACT
Nowadays the fast food industry is very competitive in Hong Kong There is fierce
competitive between different fast food restaurants Customer satisfaction is a goal
that every company aims to achieve for a successful business and future development
Service quality is the indicator in measuring the level of service provided for
customers This paper aims to analyze the customer satisfaction on the service quality
delivered by the fast food industry and to find out which dimensions of service quality
should be the main focus for future improvement This research investigates the
quality of service provided by a local chain fast food restaurant - Cafeacute de Coral This
research uses some concepts from Parasuraman et al (1988) and Zeithaml et al (1990)
as a main reference for this study The SERVQUAL model and five dimensions of
service quality are frequently used in this research The five service quality
dimensions are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy This
survey was conducted via face-to-face personal interview collecting customer
opinions of the importance and expectations and performance on perceptions towards
these five service quality dimensions From the results of surveys it was observed
that Tangibles is the most satisfactory followed by Responsiveness Assurance
Reliability and Empathy respectively Finally specific improvements should be given
to those less satisfactory attributes of service quality dimensions in discussion part
iii
CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
Contents iii
List of figures vi
List of Tables vii
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Introduction 1
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic 1
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral 3
13 Aims and Objectives 4
14 Chapter Outline 5
Chapter 2 - Literature Review
Introduction 6
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211Definition of Fast Food 6
212 Trend of Fast Food Industry 7
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong 7
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction 9
222 Definition of Service Quality 11
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality 13
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality) 18
iv
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality
and Fast Food Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer
Satisfaction
21
242 Benefits of Service Quality 22
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction
Service Quality and Fast Food Industry
23
Chapter 3 Methodology
Introduction 25
31 Data Collection Method 25
32 Questionnaire Design 26
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research 29
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing 29
333 Limitations 30
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS 31
342 Importance and Performance Analysis 31
Chapter 4 - Results
Introduction 35
41 Primary Findings 36
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis 38
422 Importance and Performance Analysis 41
423 Overall Analysis 44
v
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality
Dimensions
49
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions 53
Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations
Introduction 57
51 Conclusions 57
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions 58
53 Recommendations for Further Research 60
References 63
Appendices 67
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46) 18
Figure 2 Importance- Performance Analysis Grid Martilla and James
(1977 p78)
32
Figure 3
Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality
Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
42
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Aspects 36
Table 2
Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in
Dimensions of Service Quality
39
Table 3
Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis 42
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance
and Performance Analysis (IPA)
46
Table 5
Significant Value of One-way ANOVA
(Only Value of Sig lt005 are Shown)
54
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Four main parts will be covered in this chapter starting with the reason for choosing
this topic customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Next the
reason for choosing Cafeacute de Coral as a target of this case study will be mentioned
The uniqueness and success of this company in running fast food business will be
presented Afterwards aims and objectives of this research will be presented with
individual purpose on this study and research findings Chapter outlines for each
chapter will be mentioned in the last part of this chapter
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic
The rapid growth of the fast food industry shows the demand for fast-service
restaurants Due to the increase in demand local chains fast food restaurants started
their business in Hong Kong since the late 1970s (Lan and Khan 1995) Local fast
food restaurants play an important role in providing timely service to customers
Wetzel (1999) stated that the fast food industry was growing rapidly during the past
two decades There are many different fast food sectors which developed and
established their business in Hong Kong Jones (1988) mentions that due to changes
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
iii
CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
Contents iii
List of figures vi
List of Tables vii
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Introduction 1
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic 1
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral 3
13 Aims and Objectives 4
14 Chapter Outline 5
Chapter 2 - Literature Review
Introduction 6
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211Definition of Fast Food 6
212 Trend of Fast Food Industry 7
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong 7
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction 9
222 Definition of Service Quality 11
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality 13
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality) 18
iv
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality
and Fast Food Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer
Satisfaction
21
242 Benefits of Service Quality 22
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction
Service Quality and Fast Food Industry
23
Chapter 3 Methodology
Introduction 25
31 Data Collection Method 25
32 Questionnaire Design 26
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research 29
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing 29
333 Limitations 30
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS 31
342 Importance and Performance Analysis 31
Chapter 4 - Results
Introduction 35
41 Primary Findings 36
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis 38
422 Importance and Performance Analysis 41
423 Overall Analysis 44
v
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality
Dimensions
49
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions 53
Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations
Introduction 57
51 Conclusions 57
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions 58
53 Recommendations for Further Research 60
References 63
Appendices 67
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46) 18
Figure 2 Importance- Performance Analysis Grid Martilla and James
(1977 p78)
32
Figure 3
Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality
Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
42
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Aspects 36
Table 2
Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in
Dimensions of Service Quality
39
Table 3
Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis 42
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance
and Performance Analysis (IPA)
46
Table 5
Significant Value of One-way ANOVA
(Only Value of Sig lt005 are Shown)
54
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Four main parts will be covered in this chapter starting with the reason for choosing
this topic customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Next the
reason for choosing Cafeacute de Coral as a target of this case study will be mentioned
The uniqueness and success of this company in running fast food business will be
presented Afterwards aims and objectives of this research will be presented with
individual purpose on this study and research findings Chapter outlines for each
chapter will be mentioned in the last part of this chapter
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic
The rapid growth of the fast food industry shows the demand for fast-service
restaurants Due to the increase in demand local chains fast food restaurants started
their business in Hong Kong since the late 1970s (Lan and Khan 1995) Local fast
food restaurants play an important role in providing timely service to customers
Wetzel (1999) stated that the fast food industry was growing rapidly during the past
two decades There are many different fast food sectors which developed and
established their business in Hong Kong Jones (1988) mentions that due to changes
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
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Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
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httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
iv
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality
and Fast Food Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer
Satisfaction
21
242 Benefits of Service Quality 22
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction
Service Quality and Fast Food Industry
23
Chapter 3 Methodology
Introduction 25
31 Data Collection Method 25
32 Questionnaire Design 26
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research 29
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing 29
333 Limitations 30
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS 31
342 Importance and Performance Analysis 31
Chapter 4 - Results
Introduction 35
41 Primary Findings 36
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis 38
422 Importance and Performance Analysis 41
423 Overall Analysis 44
v
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality
Dimensions
49
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions 53
Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations
Introduction 57
51 Conclusions 57
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions 58
53 Recommendations for Further Research 60
References 63
Appendices 67
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46) 18
Figure 2 Importance- Performance Analysis Grid Martilla and James
(1977 p78)
32
Figure 3
Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality
Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
42
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Aspects 36
Table 2
Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in
Dimensions of Service Quality
39
Table 3
Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis 42
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance
and Performance Analysis (IPA)
46
Table 5
Significant Value of One-way ANOVA
(Only Value of Sig lt005 are Shown)
54
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Four main parts will be covered in this chapter starting with the reason for choosing
this topic customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Next the
reason for choosing Cafeacute de Coral as a target of this case study will be mentioned
The uniqueness and success of this company in running fast food business will be
presented Afterwards aims and objectives of this research will be presented with
individual purpose on this study and research findings Chapter outlines for each
chapter will be mentioned in the last part of this chapter
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic
The rapid growth of the fast food industry shows the demand for fast-service
restaurants Due to the increase in demand local chains fast food restaurants started
their business in Hong Kong since the late 1970s (Lan and Khan 1995) Local fast
food restaurants play an important role in providing timely service to customers
Wetzel (1999) stated that the fast food industry was growing rapidly during the past
two decades There are many different fast food sectors which developed and
established their business in Hong Kong Jones (1988) mentions that due to changes
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
v
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality
Dimensions
49
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions 53
Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations
Introduction 57
51 Conclusions 57
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions 58
53 Recommendations for Further Research 60
References 63
Appendices 67
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46) 18
Figure 2 Importance- Performance Analysis Grid Martilla and James
(1977 p78)
32
Figure 3
Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality
Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
42
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Aspects 36
Table 2
Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in
Dimensions of Service Quality
39
Table 3
Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis 42
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance
and Performance Analysis (IPA)
46
Table 5
Significant Value of One-way ANOVA
(Only Value of Sig lt005 are Shown)
54
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Four main parts will be covered in this chapter starting with the reason for choosing
this topic customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Next the
reason for choosing Cafeacute de Coral as a target of this case study will be mentioned
The uniqueness and success of this company in running fast food business will be
presented Afterwards aims and objectives of this research will be presented with
individual purpose on this study and research findings Chapter outlines for each
chapter will be mentioned in the last part of this chapter
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic
The rapid growth of the fast food industry shows the demand for fast-service
restaurants Due to the increase in demand local chains fast food restaurants started
their business in Hong Kong since the late 1970s (Lan and Khan 1995) Local fast
food restaurants play an important role in providing timely service to customers
Wetzel (1999) stated that the fast food industry was growing rapidly during the past
two decades There are many different fast food sectors which developed and
established their business in Hong Kong Jones (1988) mentions that due to changes
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46) 18
Figure 2 Importance- Performance Analysis Grid Martilla and James
(1977 p78)
32
Figure 3
Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality
Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
42
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Aspects 36
Table 2
Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in
Dimensions of Service Quality
39
Table 3
Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis 42
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance
and Performance Analysis (IPA)
46
Table 5
Significant Value of One-way ANOVA
(Only Value of Sig lt005 are Shown)
54
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Four main parts will be covered in this chapter starting with the reason for choosing
this topic customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Next the
reason for choosing Cafeacute de Coral as a target of this case study will be mentioned
The uniqueness and success of this company in running fast food business will be
presented Afterwards aims and objectives of this research will be presented with
individual purpose on this study and research findings Chapter outlines for each
chapter will be mentioned in the last part of this chapter
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic
The rapid growth of the fast food industry shows the demand for fast-service
restaurants Due to the increase in demand local chains fast food restaurants started
their business in Hong Kong since the late 1970s (Lan and Khan 1995) Local fast
food restaurants play an important role in providing timely service to customers
Wetzel (1999) stated that the fast food industry was growing rapidly during the past
two decades There are many different fast food sectors which developed and
established their business in Hong Kong Jones (1988) mentions that due to changes
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
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BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
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MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
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Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
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SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
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SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Frequencies and Percentages of Demographic Aspects 36
Table 2
Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in
Dimensions of Service Quality
39
Table 3
Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis 42
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance
and Performance Analysis (IPA)
46
Table 5
Significant Value of One-way ANOVA
(Only Value of Sig lt005 are Shown)
54
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Four main parts will be covered in this chapter starting with the reason for choosing
this topic customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Next the
reason for choosing Cafeacute de Coral as a target of this case study will be mentioned
The uniqueness and success of this company in running fast food business will be
presented Afterwards aims and objectives of this research will be presented with
individual purpose on this study and research findings Chapter outlines for each
chapter will be mentioned in the last part of this chapter
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic
The rapid growth of the fast food industry shows the demand for fast-service
restaurants Due to the increase in demand local chains fast food restaurants started
their business in Hong Kong since the late 1970s (Lan and Khan 1995) Local fast
food restaurants play an important role in providing timely service to customers
Wetzel (1999) stated that the fast food industry was growing rapidly during the past
two decades There are many different fast food sectors which developed and
established their business in Hong Kong Jones (1988) mentions that due to changes
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Four main parts will be covered in this chapter starting with the reason for choosing
this topic customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Next the
reason for choosing Cafeacute de Coral as a target of this case study will be mentioned
The uniqueness and success of this company in running fast food business will be
presented Afterwards aims and objectives of this research will be presented with
individual purpose on this study and research findings Chapter outlines for each
chapter will be mentioned in the last part of this chapter
11 Reason for Choosing This Topic
The rapid growth of the fast food industry shows the demand for fast-service
restaurants Due to the increase in demand local chains fast food restaurants started
their business in Hong Kong since the late 1970s (Lan and Khan 1995) Local fast
food restaurants play an important role in providing timely service to customers
Wetzel (1999) stated that the fast food industry was growing rapidly during the past
two decades There are many different fast food sectors which developed and
established their business in Hong Kong Jones (1988) mentions that due to changes
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
2
in working patterns short meal periods and economic change the fast service and
food products are becoming more important to consumers This is the main reason
why the fast food market is still growing in Hong Kong with heavy competition
Lan and Khan (1995) mentions that with rapid economic growth the lifestyle of Hong
Kong residents has changed It also changed their dining out habits Nowadays
customers are not only looking for food to fulfill their physiological needs but also
looking for a place with good service for their meal A restaurantrsquos service became an
important part of the dining experience In order to retain existing customers and
attract new customers fast food restaurant should focus on customer expectation of
service aspects
SERVQUAL this is a model of service quality which helps to measure the level of
service present by Zeithaml et al (1990) As different people have different needs and
expectations on service quality it is not easy to satisfy all customers There is a need
in finding the customerrsquos point of view on different dimensions on service quality in
the fast food industry After the study and investigation those important dimensions
of service quality should be improved upon for future development of fast food
restaurants
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
3
12 Reason for Choosing Cafeacute de Coral
There are many different styles of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong local chains
and international brands International brands include burgers fried chicken and pizza
sectors Cafeacute de Coral (2009) states that Cafeacute de Coral was established in 1968 This
company being one of the publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant groups in 1986
Over forty years there are more than one hundred and twenty fast food restaurants
distributed in all areas of Hong Kong This company established a high coverage of
areas in the market
Furthermore in the report of Wetzel (1999) Cafeacute de Coral has the highest percentage
of market share amongst local chain fast food restaurants Cafeacute de Coral is the
representative of the local chain fast food industry Customers are familiar with the
service provided by Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant Kwong (2007) shows the pace
of future development in this companyrsquos business They are careful to reach
customersrsquo needs and achieve customer satisfaction Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
mentions the motto of achieving ldquoA Hundred Points of Excellencerdquo in Cafeacute de Coral
This is the commitment in providing excellent service to customers It shows that
Cafeacute de Coral spend a lot of effort on achieving a high service quality dining
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
4
experience Usually Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) presents the Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral
rewards repeated customer by provides more values to them
This research focuses on the same aspects as Cafeacute de Coral- service quality In
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality provided by Cafeacute de Coral the
findings will be a representative result for whole fast food industry
13 Aims and Objectives
Aim
To analyze the customersrsquo satisfaction on the service quality delivered by the fast food
industry and find out which dimensions should be focus for future improvement
Objectives
(1) To study the importance on achieving customer satisfaction in the fast food
industry
(2) To develop a research and investigate customer point of view on different
dimensions of service quality delivered by the fast food industry
(3) To determine which dimensions of service quality should be improved to achieve
customer satisfaction
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
5
14 Chapter Outline
Chapter 2 is a Literature Review with theory concepts published by the reporter and
specialist Background trends definitions methods in measuring and relationships
related to fast food industry customer satisfaction and service quality will be
discussed
Chapter 3 is Methodology It includes the methods and tools used in conducting the
research Data collection methods limitations and the questionnaire design will be
presented in this chapter
Chapter 4 is Results This chapter presents the findings of this research followed by
an analysis using different methods Lastly possible recommendations for specific
dimensions will be suggested in discussion part
Chapter 5 is Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter the main idea of this
research will be carried out comprehensively Recommendations for future research
will also be provided
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
There are four main parts in this Literature Review They include the background and
trends of the fast food industry definitions of customerrsquos satisfaction and service
quality methods of measuring customer satisfaction on service quality and the
relationships between customer satisfaction service quality and the fast food industry
21 Background of Fast Food Industry
211 Definition of Fast Food
Fast Food is serving food and beverage in a short period of time Jones (1988 p65)
states the basic concept of fast food is ldquocheap food and products that can be cooked
quickly and a demand for takeawaysrdquo It shows that fast food has a main feature
convenience Convenience involves reducing the customersrsquo waiting time for food
This means that most of the food items are already prepared in advance Food items
are simple and can be cooked quickly Usually customers can enjoy the meal easily
anywhere they like because fast food restaurants offer takeaways services
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
7
212 Trends of the Fast Food Industry
Nowadays dining in fast food restaurants is more popular than formal dinning
experiences Jones (1988) believes the change in eating habits growth of the teenage
market and working population is linked to the growth in fast food industries around
the world Eating habits changed in that the culture is affected by fast food culture
Growth of teenage market increases the demand of simple and convenient meals
Working pattern of the population affects the need of fast service during meal periods
All of these factors lead to the increase of fast food restaurants
213 Fast Food in Hong Kong
Wetzel (1999) mentions that fast food industry in Hong Kong started in the 1970s
with Western and local operators After nearly forty years the fast food restaurants are
still playing an important role and growing in service In researches of Wetzel (1999)
Lan and Khan (1995) they presented a growth number of fast food restaurants in
Hong Kong from not more than four hundred in 1980 to nearly one thousand five
hundred in 1997 It shows a rapid growth rate in the fast food industry and it becomes
an intensive market Furthermore Lan and Khan (1995) present a figure showing
quick service restaurants in Hong Kong contributing to thirteen percent of the
restaurant market in 1993 Fast food industry is one of the fastest growing business
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
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httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
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httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
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IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
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JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
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MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
8
sectors The fast growth of the market is due to the demand of convenience products
among Hong Kong residents
Wetzel (1999) mentions the style of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong is divided into
international chains and local chains International chains included hamburger
restaurants chicken restaurants and pizza stores Local chains are run by Hong Kong
company which offer Chinese and Western cuisine They are in keen competition with
each other Different restaurants compete with each other to get the market share of
being a market leader in their segment Fast food restaurants put a lot of effort on
running a successful business to gain more revenue
In this research Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food Restaurant is chosen as the study target of
analyzing customer satisfaction on service quality Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food
Restaurant is a local chain fast food under the group of Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral
Fast Food (2009) provides information of their history This company started
operation in 1968 With a long history of over forty years there are more than one
hundred and twenty fast food restaurants distributed in all areas of Hong Kong
In local Chinese chains fast food sector Wetzel (1999) presents a figure of Cafeacute de
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
9
Coral with the highest market share when compared with other competitors Maximrsquos
and Fairwood Lo (2007) presents that the improvement of operation and enhancing
customer dining experience have been done in Cafeacute de Coral Cafeacute de Coral put their
efforts on improving the dining environment as well as the quality of food and
services Their focus is to meet customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
by their commitment to customers ldquoto achieve 100 complete servicerdquo
After the study of the background and trends of evolution in fast food industry we can
see the potential of continuous growth and development of fast service style
restaurants Fast food restaurants in catering service will become more important in
the future This research about fast food restaurant in analyzing how to maintain the
service to be more competitive and differentiated from others is worthwhile to carry
out
22 Definition of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality
221 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by the customer It is a set of feeling and beliefs
from the customer Oliver (1993 citied in Rust and Oliver 1994 p3-4) states ldquothe
word ldquosatisfactionrdquo is derived from Latin ldquosatisrdquo (enough) and ldquofacererdquo (to do or
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
10
make)hellipillustrates the point that satisfaction implies a filling or fulfillmentrdquo
Customer satisfaction is the level of customerrsquos fulfillment of response By
understanding the customersrsquo satisfaction the way of fulfilling the customer can be
determined Bitner and Hubbert (1994 p77) also states that the definition of overall
service satisfaction is ldquoIt is the consumerrsquos overall dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
organisation which based on all encounters and experiences with specific
organisationrdquo Satisfaction of service is a long term evaluation of experiences given
by a company Customer satisfaction is not a thing which happens at once when
customer uses the service or product It is a series of enjoyment provided by a
company or people It reflects the customer feelings in each interaction with the
company Finally it becomes the attitude and behavior of customer towards the
organisation
Smith (1994) has a similar view on continuous concept regarding customer
satisfaction He mentions that satisfaction is a continuous process from before service
using the service to after the service There are different expectations of customer
within the interactions of these three phases
In the hospitality industry service is to deal with people This is a reason why
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
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de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
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at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
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httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
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httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
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GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
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IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
11
customer satisfaction is not easy to be achieved Different people have different
thoughts and beliefs Level of satisfaction is dependant on the level of expectation
There are many factors which affect the expectation level Therefore it causes
difficulties in meeting customer satisfactions
The aims of customer satisfaction is meeting and exceeding customerrsquos expectations
Zeithaml et al (1990) present the model of five service gaps It clearly defines the
reasons behind the difference between customer expectations and perceived value in
service delivery The details of this model will be explained in part three of this
chapter Service Gaps on Service Quality
222 Definition of Service Quality
Johns (1996) mentions the concept of ldquoqualityrdquo is ldquoexcellencerdquo It represents good
performance and conditions which has no defects or errors In service aspect quality
is the excellence of performance in a good standard and value When customers look
for service they consider quality of service as achieving better perceived values
Service quality is the ldquoconsumerrsquos overall impression of the relative inferiority or
superiority of the organisation and its servicesrdquo (Bitner and Hubbert 1994 p77) It is
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
12
a natural value in the point of view from customers in measuring service level towards
a company On the other hand it is the values which need to be created by companies
to retain and attract customers
Rust and Oliver (1994 p5) state that ldquoservice quality is the approach to entertain
customer expectations of performance in the service dimension observe performance
and later form performance perceptionsrdquo They mention that service quality is for
measuring customer expectations on service according to the performance of
organisations Quality is an invisible aspect which cannot be felt and touched It can
be quantified through indicators and measurements only
Parasuraman et al (1988) defines the five dimensions of service quality in measuring
level of service SERVQUAL It presents the concept of some indicators in measuring
service standard Customers and companies can define the quality of service through
these aspects when considering the level of service The five dimensions are Tangibles
Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy The details of SERVQUAL will
be discussed deeply in part three of this chapter SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
13
23 Measuring Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality
231 Service Gaps on Service Quality
The service gap model of Zeithaml et al (1990) show the potential causes of service
quality shortfalls It is a model which integrates the views between service providers
and service receivers companies and customers It clearly shows all the possible
reasons in causing the difference between customerrsquos expectation and perceived
service If companies want to achieve customer total satisfaction a balanced level
between customer perceptions and expectations should be met
The model of service quality clearly defines the differences in service gaps between
each stage Following are the details explanation of each gap in service gap model
from Zeithaml et al (1990)
In figure 1 Gap 1 is ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and management perceptions gaprdquo
(Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is between the expected service of customer and
management thought of customer expectations from service provider It happens
because service providers do not really know what their customers expect The
possible reasons causing this gap are marketing failure and inadequate market
research lack of upward communication and insufficient relationship focus In the
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
14
fast food industry if the company does not understand the customerrsquos expectations it
raises the possibility in serving a wrong service or product to them Zeithaml et al
(1990) suggest that if we want to reduce gap 1 research in finding customerrsquos
expectations is a good way to reach customerrsquos mind It is the reason why they need
to conduct research to find out what their customers expected from their service
Gap 2 is ldquomanagementrsquos perceptions and service quality specifications gaprdquo (Zeithaml
et al 1990 p39) This is a distance between management perceptions on customer
expectations and service quality specifications of service provider It is the wrong
service quality standards identified by the management Sometimes the management
can predict the customerrsquos expectations correctly However due to inadequate service
leadership and the ability of the service staff it is not easy for management to commit
the service design or setup the service standard specifications of service delivery
Zeithaml et al (1990) mentions delivering quality service involvement of leadership
and commitment from management are needed If aims in reducing gap 2 it can be
achieved by committing quality and making service tasks become standardized
Management should provide service which committed with customer and set the level
and details on service to make the staff easier to follow
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
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IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
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JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
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64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
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KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
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LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
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LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
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MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
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MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
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NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
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PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
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Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
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QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
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-50
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Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
15
Gap 3 is ldquoservice quality specifications and service delivery gaprdquo (Zeithaml et al
1990 p42) It is a service performance gap where the service providers lack the
ability to deliver the service at the quality set by the management Zeithaml et al
(1990) analyzes that this gap exists because of role ambiguity role conflicts and lack
of perceived control In the fast food industry frontline service staff needs to interact
with customers often It is not an easy task As the management they can monitor the
level of service and put effort in maintaining the work force of the staff It is a way of
keeping the service staff motivated to deliver and perform the service
Zeithaml et al (1990 p43) state that Gap 4 is ldquoservice delivery and external
communications gaprdquo External communication includes all the messages delivered
by promotional channels or promises made by the service provider This gap happens
when promises made is not consistent service delivered Ineffective management of
customer expectations over-promising from service staff and inadequate
communication between companies and customer are the possible reasons causing
this gap (Zeithaml et al 1990)
Gap 5 is created because of all of these differences and gaps It is between
ldquocustomerrsquos expectations and perceived servicerdquo (Zeithaml et al 1990 p37) It is the
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
16
differences in expected service and perceived service of customers This is the
distance which management of company wants to minimize when delivering service
to customer Zeithaml et al (1990) discussed expected service is influenced by word
of mouth communication personal needs and past experience Word of mouth
communication is words spread from customer to customer They love to share their
experience with their friends Personal needs are different from people to people it
varies according to demographic socio-cultural and background Past experience is
their own feelings of the last visit and dining experience
Perception and expectation gap shows the essential of good marketing quality of
business leadership and training and decision in employing staff by human resources
group (Zeithaml et al 1990) This model is good for finding reasons and factors
which influence the level of satisfaction by expectations and perceptions It is
popularly used in many researches For example research of Nagel and Cilliers (2007)
and Bloemer et al (1999) As a service provider the company can find out possible
reasons affecting the customerrsquos satisfaction
However Seth et al (2005 p935) state the limitations and weaknesses of this service
gap model It is for ldquoexploratory study and this model does not explain the clear
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
17
measurement procedure for the measurement of gaps at different levelsrdquo There are
different limitations on different service quality model Service gap model is an
analytical tool of service for the management to use in identifying the factors related
to delivery of service quality
Difference in service satisfaction is the distance between customer expectations and
perceptions Usually if the perceptions are closer to expectations the satisfaction
level will be higher Level of customer satisfaction on service in fast food industry
will be measure by conduct a survey to Hong Kong residents It will be discuss in
chapter 3 Methodology
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
18
Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Service Quality Zeithaml et al (1990 p46)
232 SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Service quality can be measured in some aspects during the service delivery process
In the very beginning Parasuraman et al (1985) developed ten service quality
dimensions They are tangibles reliability responsiveness competence courtesy
credibility security access communication and understanding the customer After a
Expected Service
Perceived Service
Service Delivery
Management
perceptions of
consumer expectations
External
communications
to customer
Word of mouth
communications
Personal Needs Past Experience
Gap Model of Service Quality
Service Standards
Consumer
Company
Gap 1
Gap 5
Gap 3
Gap 2
Gap 4
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
19
while the five dimensions of service quality are introduced by Parasuraman et al
(1988) They are Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance and Empathy
These five dimensions of service quality are well known and used often by
researchers Johns (1996) Edvardsson (1998) and Wuest (2001) also use Parasurman
et al findings in their research
In this research five dimensions of service quality will be focused deeply In order to
find out which dimensions of service quality are more important to customers in the
fast food industry all questions in the survey are set according to these five
dimensions of service quality
Tangibles includes the ldquoappearance of physical facilities equipment personnel and
communications materialsrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It is the physical
environment of companies that can be observed easily They are hygiene and
cleanliness decoration of the dining area menu presentation and staff appearance and
uniforms of the restaurant This dimension is easier to be observed and achieved
because some of the elements can be prepared before operations and created by
company
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
20
Reliability can be shown by that service provider Parsuraman et al (1988 p23)
states it is the ldquoability to perform service dependably and accuratelyrdquo It is the
competence to perform promised service to customer in an accurate way The
agreements and conditions of service are included in this aspect Reliability is provide
service right in first time insist and error-free record provide service at the time
promised and the trustworthiness of the service in the fast food restaurant The
determination of reliability is according to the service provider It is a human issue
which difficult to control
Responsiveness refers to the ldquowillingness to help customers and provide prompt
service to customerrdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It can be reflected by interests
from service provider to help customers and assisting them in a quick way In the fast
food industry responsiveness is related to prompt service from staff willingness in
response response effectiveness and accuracy in response
Assurance refers to the ldquoknowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidencerdquo (Parsuraman et al 1988 p23) It consists of
competence ability and skill of service staff to perform and provide service The
product knowledge of staff their ability to maintain a safe dining environment their
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
21
courtesy towards customers and ability to achieve customer confidence are related to
assurance
Empathy is care and attention from the service provider to customers Parsuraman et
al (1988 p23) state that they are ldquocaring individualized attention the firm provides
its customerrdquo Service provider should provide service from the point of view of
customer It is related to the communication skills understands specific needs takes
customerrsquos best interests at heart and gives individual attention to customer from
service providers Empathy is directly related to the service provider it is also the
most difficult to achieve and control
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality in an industry
It is used in measuring service quality in fast food industry in this research The
questionnaire which set for this survey is according to these five dimensions of
service quality
24 Relationship between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast Food
Industry
241 Importance of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
22
Nowadays reaching customer satisfaction becomes the primary role of service
delivery Companies want to achieve customer satisfaction to maintain their business
If customers are satisfied with their service and products they will return and
repurchase in that company It brings revenue to company Imrie et al (2002) gives
a view that if companies want to establish their competitive advantages for a
successful business the way is to provide excellent service quality to customer It
shows that quality of service becomes more and more important in dining experience
of hospitality industry
Soutar (2001 p104) states that ldquocustomer service is a key operational variable if
service quality is improved customer satisfactionhellipprofitability will be improvedrdquo It
means that customer service is very important to a business operation especially to
the customer-oriented business service industry which deals with customers It has a
similar view with Imrie et al (2002) that if good quality of service is achieved it can
bring benefit to the company
242 Benefits of Service Quality
Roberts (2001) suggests that service quality can be viewed as a competitive advantage
to companies Those organisations which provide better and all-rounded service to
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
23
satisfy customers are in better competitive advantages Management of the company
can find out their own advantages in service to take this as opportunities for success
In the same way they can review their disadvantages and counter them for
improvement to be their advantages It shows the benefits of research in improving
service quality of a company It helps the organisation to understand their advantages
and turns their weaknesses into strengths
SERVQUAL provides reliable dimensions in measuring service quality tangibles
reliability responsiveness assurance and empathy Expectation of service quality in
customer depends on their own experience of certain service aspect In the same way
customer can determine service quality of a company by their perception on
experience
243 Close Relation between Customer Satisfaction Service Quality and Fast
Food Industry
ldquoCustomerrsquos expectations of service influence their resulting level of satisfactionrdquo
(Wuest 2001 p51) It shows that if customer has lower expectations it is easier to
fulfill their satisfaction This factor affects the level of customer satisfaction on
service quality Therefore it is needed to find out customer expectation before
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
24
delivering the service Surveys and interviews can help to understand customer needs
In analyzing customersrsquo mind on service quality the satisfaction can be achieved
easily
Qin and Prybutok (2008) present the relationship of customer perceived service
quality and customer satisfaction in fast food restaurants It directly affects the
companiesrsquo competencies and performance The relationships between customer
satisfaction service quality and fast food industry are important McDougall and
Levesque (2000) show that customer satisfaction will be directly related to the service
quality and perceived value It is important for service provider to achieve customer
satisfaction through the understanding of customer value and delivering of service
There are different sides in measuring customer satisfaction in the catering industry It
can be divided into food products and service sides In this research it will be mainly
focus on service quality Fast food restaurants in this industry are in constant
competitions with many competitors In order to be differentiated from others in
providing better service to customer Organisations should focus on creating better
service quality to customer
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
25
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this research of finding customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral is the target company in this study The target markets in Cafeacute
de Coral are teenagers adults and family The populations aged eighteen or above
were set as the target of this research Those people who had dining experience at
Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant in Hong Kong were targeted
The location of Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school campus Chai Wan of
researcher were chosen to conduct the survey in collecting different opinions of
different groups of people In Victoria Park the survey was conduct on weekends and
Sunday mornings which more families will go for family gathering In school Campus
it was conduct in afternoon of school day A structured questionnaire was used in this
survey with twenty statements asking intervieweesrsquo expectations and perceptions
31 Data Collection Method
Knutson (2001) suggests that survey can be one of the methods in measuring service
quality It states that survey is the most common tool for management to measure
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
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at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
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httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
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httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
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HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
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IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
26
service quality In the survey with consumers it was used to find out customerrsquos
perception on company performance
Hague and Jackson (1995) mention quantitative research is finding the result by data
analysis with a large sample size of questionnaire This quantitative research was
chosen to be the method of conducting this survey A formal structured questionnaire
was used as a tool in collecting customerrsquos expectations and perceptions on the fast
food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral
Hague and Jackson (1995 p65) state the definition of a questionnaire
ldquoQuestionnaire is a structured sequence of questions designed to draw out facts and
opinions form respondents and provide a vehicle for recording the datardquo In this
research questionnaires were used to collect the public opinions of level of
importance on expectations and level of performance on perceptions towards certain
aspects of service quality of Cafeacute de Coral
32 Questionnaire Design
There is a declaration of interviewee before taking a questionnaire It is to ensure the
interviewee is in aged eighteen or above and with the experience of dining in Cafeacute de
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
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MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
27
Coral Two sections are structured in this questionnaire section one is for collecting
the level of importance on expectation and the level of performance on perceptions
towards different statement in service quality dimensions It is used to identify the
differences between perception and expectation On the other hand it is prepared for
analyzing the importance and performance of service quality in intervieweersquos opinions
towards Cafeacute de Coral Section two is used to collect personal information of
interviewee It is for analyzing the demographic and social-cultural factors which
affect expectations and perceptions (Please refer to Appendix 1 and 2 Questionnaire
Design ndash English and Chinese version)
This questionnaire is structured with a sequence of closed questions Hague and
Jackson (1995) mentions that structured questionnaires are set with precise wordings
and order It is good to be used in quantitative survey because it is easier to be
anticipated and recorded the response of interviewee for further analysis Closed
questions are questions with some specific answers for interviewee to choose It is
simple and easy to use
In the main part of questionnaire there are twenty statements mentioned in section
one in asking the level of importance on expectations and level of performance on
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
28
perceptions These statements are designed according to five dimensions of service
quality which mentioned in Literature Review part three ndash SERVQUAL Statements
of each dimension are taken and modified from Zeithaml et al (1990) The concept of
measuring customer expectations and perceptions is to evaluate customer satisfaction
Please refer to Literature Review part three ndash service gap model In the scoring of
questionnaire there are five scores in choosing the level of importance on
expectations and performance of perceptions ldquoOnerdquo represents the lower level and
ldquofiverdquo represents the higher level Odd number of scoring method is used in this
research to provide a middle point for interviewee to choose It prevents a
dramatically effect on any one side
Webb (2002) mentions questionnaires can be used in different contents of a survey It
can be used in surveys through mail telephone internet or face to face interview
Face to face interview method was chosen to be used in this research Personal
interviews allow the interviewer to respond for a clear explanation of statements and
wordings There are some advantages and disadvantages of personal interviews In
face to face situation of asking standardized questions the answers can be recorded in
proper manner It can reduce the variability of answers However personal interview
is time consuming and people may refuse to take the interview (Webb 2002)
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
29
33 Research Method
331 Primary Research
Webb (2002) shows that primary research is a research which designed by researcher
to find out specific answer for questions It is used for finding some information
which cannot be found or published by other means In this research primary research
is conducted to find out customer satisfaction on service quality of the fast food
industry Cafeacute de Coral
332 Survey Instrument- Pilot Testing
To design a good structured questionnaire it is essential to ensure that it meets the
research objectives and generate valid and reliable information In order to obtain
valid and reliable information the questionnaire should be user friendly and easy to
read In designing the questionnaire pilot testing can be carried out before official
launch of survey (Webb 2002) In this research pilot testing were conducted by
researcher with the help of different groups of people Student studying hospitality
related subjects the white collar works in unrelated aspects and customer service staff
were chosen According to their comments of pilot testing target the wordings of
questionnaire and format of answering were amended and modified After the pilot
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
30
testing the survey was started to collect customerrsquos opinions
333 Limitations
In personal interview of data collection method there are some limitations in primary
research Since the survey was conducted in Victoria Park Causeway Bay and school
campus Chai Wan only the people who pass through these two locations can provide
in formations to researcher In fact only 152 sets of questionnaires were collected It
was a small sample size which cannot accurately represent the opinions of whole
population in Hong Kong
For the data collection method Webb (2002) mentions some limitations on sampling
error and non-response error In this research limitations on sampling error are some
of the interviewees were unwilling to respond Because of courtesy respondents may
give the answer that they think interviewer wants It cannot reflect the real situation of
their feelings and opinions For non-response error it was the refusal to take part of
this survey Those incomplete questionnaires were taken as a mistake and error of data
which cannot be used in this research Methods to overcome limitations of this
research will be presented in Chapter 5 ndash Recommendations
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
31
34 Method of Analysis
341 SPSS
The software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in analysis
of data Griffith (2007) mentions that SPSS is developed by Nie Hull and Bent of
Stanford University in 1960s It is used for analyzing a large volume of data Usually
this works for numbers with calculations
In analysis of this research SPSS was used in calculating the means of each statement
of expectations and perceptions The data of means in each statement were used for
plotting a graph of importance and performance analysis gird Usually SPSS was
applied for analyzing the relationship of expectations and perceptions between
different gender age educational background and professional With the help of
one-way ANOVA the relationship between them can be found out If the significance
value is equal or smaller than 005 then it shows that it is a significant figure with
relation Otherwise it is not a significant figure if the significant value is higher than
005
242 Importance and Performance Analysis
Importance and Performance Analysis (IPA) is a framework established by Martilla
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
32
and James (1977) (figure 2) It is to analyze customer satisfaction from importance on
expectation and performance of perceptions There are four sections in the model of
ldquoconcentrate hererdquo ldquokeep up the good workrdquo ldquolow priorityrdquo and ldquopossible overkillrdquo
with different level of importance and performance Prideaux et al (2006) mention
IPA is a procedure of showing relative importance of different attributes and the
performance of a company It is a good method of identifying the areas of service
quality for improvements
Figure 2 Importance-performance analysis gird Martilla and James (1977 p78)
In ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category it is with higher level of important and lower level of
performance It should be focus and changed to match with the importance as needed
A Concentrate Here B Keep Up the Good Work
C Low Priority D Possible Overkill
Importance and Performance Analysis
Lower
Level of Performance
Level of Importance
Higher
Higher
Lower
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
33
ldquoConcentrate hererdquo is the first priority to apply some strategies for improvement
In ldquokeep up the good workrdquo category it is with higher level of important and higher
level of performance It is an ideal situation which companies can provide better
performance to customer Companies can maintain their good performance to reach
the needs of customers
In category of ldquolow priorityrdquo both importance and performance are in lower levels In
order to provide excellent service to excess customer expectation those attributes in
this section are needed to be improved Therefore it is in the second priority to be
improved for achieving customer satisfaction in this study
In category of ldquopossible overkillrdquo it is in lower level of important and higher level of
performance Those attributes in this category are in better situation that customerrsquos
perception is good and lower expectation
Martilla and James (1977) mention the importance and performance analysis is easy
to be understood It is a useful tool for management to decide strategies according to
IPA Management can make decisions to improve their organisation
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
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BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
34
However IPA suggested by Martilla and James (1977) is only for a general level of all
attributes of importance and performance The different in importance of expectation
and performance of perception in one attribute is also important in considering the
strategies The greater difference of importance and performance it is in higher
priority of improvement for excellent service In this research both methods of
analysis will be used importance and performance analysis and difference of service
gap
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
35
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
Introduction
In this part of results the useful data and information found in the research will be
mentioned and analyzed in detail
For the primary findings firstly frequencies of demographic profile of the research
were presented Level of expectation and perception of customer towards Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Restaurant were shown It is the difference of perception and
expectation is the service gap Also data in findings of importance of expectation and
performance of perception were used to create an importance and performance gird
for analysis
In the analysis section specific strategies were suggested for those dimensions in high
priority of difference between perceptions and expectations Also the attributes
separated in different category of importance and performance analysis model we
suggested in later parts
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
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BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
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IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
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MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
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MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
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NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
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Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
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SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
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SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
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Learning Great Britain
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Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
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66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
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67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
36
41 Primary findings
This survey collected with 152 questionnaires Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 81 533
Female 71 467
Age
18-24 48 316
25-34 51 336
35-44 28 184
45-54 11 72
55-64 9 59
65or above 5 33
Educational
Primary or below 5 33
Secondary school 46 303
Tertiary education 40 263
University or above 61 401
Professions
Student 43 283
Customer service 27 178
White collar 33 217
Blue collar 15 99
Professional 15 99
Self-employed 6 39
Housewife 6 39
Retired 7 46
Dining Frequency in
Fast Food Restaurant
Less than once a week 39 257
Once or twice a week 49 322
3-5 times a week 60 395
6 times or more per week 4 26
Dining Frequency in
Cafeacute de Coral
Less than once a week 123 809
Once or twice a week 23 151
3-5 times a week 6 39
6 times or more per week 0 0
Table1 Frequencies and percentages of demographic aspects
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
37
In this research questionnaires were conducted through face to face survey There
were 152 sets of useful data out of 160 questionnaires The useful percentage of data
was 95 Those 5 of invalid data came from respondents who did not have a dining
experience at Cafeacute de Coral
According to table 1 in these 152 sets of information collected in the survey there
were about 53 of male and 47 of female It is good to have similar percentage of
male and female because a balanced opinion from different genders can be achieved
For the age group segment most of the respondents were in first two age groups from
18-24 and 25-35 in 32 and 34 respectively It was noticed that the large majority
of people was from 18-35 a younger generation
For educational background there were about 40 of the respondents with university
or above qualifications Other categories were secondary school and tertiary education
in 30 and 26 respectively It clearly shows that more people were with higher
educational background
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
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IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
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JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
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64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
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KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
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httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
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MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
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MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
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MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
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NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
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Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
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QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
38
For professions of respondents students white collar and customer service related
were the majority in 28 22 and 18 correspondently In this research students
contributed a large majority of respondents It is related to the location of conducting
the survey in a school campus
There were about 40 of respondents who dine in fast food restaurants three to five
times a week it was considered a high percentage showing that fast food dining is
popular among this group of people However 81 of people dine in Cafeacute de Coral
less than once a week There was only 15 of respondents dine in CDC once or twice
a week There are many choices of fast food restaurants in spending for meals cause
the lower percentage of dining in Cafeacute de Coral in every week
42 Analysis
421 Service Gap Analysis
The data was analyzed by SPSS The function [descriptive statistics- descriptive] in
SPSS was used in calculating the mean of expectation and perception in each
statement of service quality The figure in service gap was come from ldquoperceptions
minus expectationrdquo The higher degree of service gap requires a higher priority for
improvement
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
39
ldquoPair samples testrdquo is a result from generated from paired-samples t-test [Analyze
compare means paired-samples t-test] It was an analysis between perception and
expectation of same statement And p-value is for finding the significant in P lt= 005
Statement
no
Dimension Expectations Perceptions Mean
Difference
Level of
difference
Pair samples test
(Per-Exp)
Mean SD Mean SD (Per-Exp) t-value P-value
1
Tangibles
41776 74900 34079 72880 (077) 7th -10270 000
2 40132 78521 33618 74573 (065) 13th -8043 000
3 41447 73214 37697 72247 (037) 20th -10392 000
4 38289 78276 33487 82008 (048) 19th -6151 000
5
Reliability
41118 83990 33487 73286 (076) 8th -9652 000
6 40592 71629 32632 70225 (080) 5th -10715 000
7 41250 74442 34539 73071 (067) 12th -8258 000
8 40855 76431 33421 73641 (074) 9th -9485 000
9
Responsiven
ess
40461 76974 34408 70325 (061) 17th -8576 000
10 39737 75833 32829 70895 (069) 11th -8707 000
11 39539 74069 33158 69376 (064) 14th -8934 000
12 40461 77177 32697 69376 (078) 6th -10221 000
13
Assurance
40461 82093 34605 83260 (059) 18th -7695 000
14 40066 72823 33026 71407 (070) 10th -9831 000
15 41447 74585 35000 75825 (064) 14th -8173 000
16 41908 80407 33750 76974 (082) 4th -10063 000
17
Empathy
38750 77832 32368 77470 (064) 14th -8139 000
18 41447 85164 31513 80073 (099) 1st -11443 000
19 41776 81761 32303 81462 (095) 2nd -10770 000
20 40921 80342 31908 85626 (090) 3rd -10614 000
Table 2 Comparisons between Expectations and Perceptions in Dimensions of Service Quality
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
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JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
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64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
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KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
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NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
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PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
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PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
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Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
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QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
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-50
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66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
40
From the result in table 2 the mean score of expectations in different statements were
from 383 to 419 Most of the mean were higher than 4 there were only 4 statements
with a mean lower than 4 It shown that people were in high expectations on service
quality For the perceptions the mean scores were from 315 to 377 all of them were
lower than 4 It is relatively low when compare with the values of expectations A
value of lower perceptions and higher expectations were presented
The t-values were negative because perceptions are lower than expectations It
showed a negative service gap of all dimensions Usually all p-values were smaller
than 005 (P lt= 005) suggesting that they are significant
In service gap analysis Responsiveness and Tangibles had smaller service gap in
reaching customer expectation They were the most satisfactory dimensions in service
quality They only had one statement in the top ten which are in sixth and seventh
priority in statement 12 and 1 respectively In comparison with other three dimensions
Responsiveness and Tangibles were in better performance in achieving customer
satisfaction
Assurance included two higher gap services in fourth and tenth priority It was in third
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
41
priority in giving certain suggestion for improvement It was in the lower satisfaction
than Responsiveness and Tangibles
There are three statements in the dimensions of ldquoEmpathyrdquo and ldquoReliabilityrdquo which
are in ten top of service gap priority And Empathy had larger service gap than other
this dimension is in highest needs for improvement are shown It is needed to meet the
customer expectation for achieving their satisfaction Some possible suggestions for
improvement were given in Discussion sections of this chapter
422 Importance and Performance Analysis
From the result gathered by SPSS mean values of importance on expectation and
performance on perception were used in plotting a graph of importance and
performance analysis The cross of vertical and horizontal axis was come from the
mean of twenty performances on perception and importance on expectation
respectively The value of the cross is (335 406) Four categories were divided by
the cross Category A is ldquoconcentrate hererdquo category B is ldquokeep up the good workrdquo
category C is ldquolow priorityrdquo and category D is ldquopossible overkillrdquo
The result of Importance and Performance Analysis is shown below
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
42
Importance and performance analysis
9 132
685
12
14
3157
116
20
18
19
1011
17
4
380
390
400
410
420
310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390
Performance on preception
Impo
rtan
ce o
n ex
pect
atio
nB Keep Up The Good
Work
D Possible Overkill
A Concentrate Here
C Low Priority
Figure 3 Importance and Performance Analysis Grid for Service Quality Dimensions of Cafeacute de Coral
Category No Statement Dimension
A Concentrate
Here
5 Provide service right in first time Reliability
6 Company insists an error-free record Reliability
8 Trustworthiness of service Reliability
18 Understand specific needs of customers Empathy
19 Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart Empathy
20 Gives individual attention to customer Empathy
B Keep Up The
Good Work
1 Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness Tangibles
3 Customer friendly menu presentation Tangibles
7 Provide service at the time company promised Reliability
15 Provide and maintain safe environment Assurance
16 Consistently courteous with customers Assurance
C Low Priority 4 Staffsrsquo appearance Tangibles
10 Staffrsquos willingness in response Responsiveness
11 Response effectiveness Responsiveness
12 Staffrsquos accuracy in response Responsiveness
14 Service achieves customerrsquos confidence Assurance
17 Communication skills Empathy
D Possible
Overkill
2 Comfort dining environment Tangibles
9 Staff provides prompt service Responsiveness
13 Staffrsquos product knowledge Assurance
Table 3 Distribution of Attributes in Importance and Performance Analysis
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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64
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satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
43
Those statements in category A are the most concerned people were in higher
expectation on these aspects of importance However performance was relatively
lower than general There are six statements place in this category They are statement
5 6 8 of Reliability and 18 19 20 of Empathy dimensions
Category B of higher performance and higher expectation is an ideal situation The
company should put their effort in keeping good standard of performance to match
with customer expectation on importance of different dimensions There are five
statements place in category B They are statement 1 and 3 of Tangibles statement 7
of Reliability and statement 15 16 of Assurance
Category C is in second priority of improvement These statements are in lower
importance and it performs also relatively lower than the general performance There
are six statements within this category They are statement 4 of Tangibles statement
10 11 12 of same dimension of Responsiveness statement 14 of Assurance and
statement 17 of Empathy dimension of service quality
Category D is with lower importance and higher performance than the general
standard It seems that performance is higher than importance The remaining 3
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
44
statement are in the category D They are statement 2 of Tangibles statement 9 of
Responsiveness and 13 of Assurance
423 Overall Analysis
Prideaux et al (2006) presents a comparable result of different method of analysis In
studying the same aspect different methods generate different result In these findings
from method of service gap and importance and performance analysis were not totally
match Sometimes one of the methods in analysis cannot reflect the truth of result in
all directions Sometimes there was huge difference in findings of two methods
For example statement 16 in assurance it is in 4th priority of larger difference between
perception and expectation in service gap analysis However it is in the category B of
ldquokeep up the good workrdquo in analysis of IPA which is in good situation In order to
have a more meaningful and all-round result for analysis an overall analysis was
introduced to combine the results of these two methods
It was a weighting method Both methods of service gap and IPA were rate 20 points
in maximum In service gap analysis the 1st level of difference gets 1 point 20th level
of difference gets 20 points correspondently The first level of difference is highest
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
45
service gap with highest need for improvement In importance an performance
analysis the attribute which placed in category A get 5 points C get 10 points
category B get 15 points and lastly category D get 20 points Category A and C are in
lower performance these two categories are in higher needs for improvement to get
customer satisfaction Category B and D are in higher performance in general they
are in lower priority for improvement
Certain points were given to attributes according to the conditions Total points of
statement are achieved by adding the points together After that an overall analysis
was conducted Statement with lower points presented the higher priority in changing
and improvement
In combining the service gap analysis and importance and performance analysis it
provided a clear direction for management in deciding strategies for improvement
Combining the result of service gap and importance and performance analysis
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
46
Dimensions
Service gap IPA
Overall
Statement Level of
difference Category Point Priority
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 7th B 22
(2) Comfort dining environment 13th D 33
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 20th B 35
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 19th C 29
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 8th A 13 5th
(6) Company insist an error-free record 5th A 10 4th
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 12th B 27
(8) Trustworthiness of service 9th A 14 6th
Responsiveness
(9) Staff provides prompt service 17th D 37
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 11th C 21 10th
(11) Response effectiveness 14th C 24
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 6th C 16 7th
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 18th D 38
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 10th C 20 9th
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 14th B 29
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 4th B 19 8th
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 14th C 24
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1st A 6 1st
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 2nd A 7 2nd
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 3rd A 8 3rd
Table 4 Combination of Service Quality (SERVQUAL) and Importance and Performance analysis
(IPA)
Key of point Service Gap level of difference- 1 point for 1st level of priority and 20 point for 20th level of
priority
IPA- 5 point for category A 10 point for C 15 point for B and 20
points for D
Key of priority Lower level of points is in higher priority for improvement
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
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NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
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PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
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PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
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Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
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International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
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Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
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SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
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SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
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66
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Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
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67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
47
Empathy is in the highest priority for improvement (Statement 18-1st 19-2nd 20-3rd)
It is the least satisfied service quality dimension Empathy is care and attention from
the service provider to customers In the results customers felt that they couldnrsquot get
enough care when service is provided by company This part of empathy is the feeling
from customer towards the care from frontline staff of organisations As mentioned in
literature review SERVQUAL elements in Empathy are directly related to service
provider It is highly depends on the self motivation of service staff
The lower satisfactory variable is followed by dimension of Reliability It is in second
priority of improvement (Statement 6-4th 5-5th 8-6th) Reliability is also directly
related to the performance of service provider as provide correct and promised service
It is not easy for frontline staff to perform consistent performance in error-free service
It is clearly reflected on the second priority of this research
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in third priority for improvement
(Statement 12-7th) Another statement of this dimension also placed in the position of
ten top priorities for improvement (Statement 10-10th) Discussed in literature review
SERVQUAL Responsiveness is the elements of willing to response and provides
prompt service In fast food industry it is a demand of fast service and staffs are well
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
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httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
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Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
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Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
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GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
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Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
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SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
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66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
48
trained for prompt service mentions by Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) However
due to the large demand during specific periods of time there are peak business hours
during breakfast and lunch periods During these periods frontline staff may not have
enough time to respond for service immediately This is the reason of causing the third
priority of service quality dimensions
Assurance is in lower priority for deciding strategies two statements are within ten
top of priority (Statement 16-8th 14-9th) According to the Literature Review
SERVQUAL Assurance is related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff
In showing competence and skill Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral provides
customer-centered trainings for service staffs with updated skills for day-to-day
operations The lower priority for improvement of this dimension can reflect their
complement in enhancing the Assurance
Tangibles is in the lowest priority for improvement There is no statement place
within ten top of priority it is the most satisfied service quality dimension As
mentioned in the part of SERVQUAL in literature review Intangibles is relatively
easy to be observed and achieved Usually Lo (2007) mentions Cafeacute de Coral put
their efforts on upgrading the dining environment and providing a comfort
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
49
environment for customers The result is reflected in this survey of lowest priority of
tangibles
43 Discussion for Certain Attribute of Service Quality Dimensions
The first priority is the attribute 18 under Empathy dimension - Understand specific
need of customers It is understanding the customerrsquos personal desires when dining in
Cafe de Coral It should be improved with the lowest scores in performance when
compare with high customer expectation Specific needs are different from customer
to customer By observation in fast food business customer may need extra tableware
for sharing the food or a cup of hot water for drinking It will be highly appreciated if
service staffs notice their needs rather than having to ask In the point of view of
customer frontline staffs can try to ask the specific need of different customer to
enhance the convenience and satisfaction
The second priority is an attribute 19 - Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart
This is the desire of customer towards Cafeacute de Coral in thinking from their point of
view However this attribute was unable to meet customer expectation In order to
achieve customer satisfaction this organisation can provide more value to a customer
which means that they are not only concerned about making money from the
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
50
customers They also need to satisfy customer interests as well as company interests
Third priority is also in Empathy dimension It is attribute 20 - Gives individual
attention to customer It is the personal concern to different customers Cafeacute de Coral
covers a large market share in serving different age group of people This result shows
a desire in providing attention for customers By observation children and elderly
also dine in this fast food restaurants It is danger for them to carry hot dishes and
drinks in a service tray As the frontline staff they should pay more attention and offer
help to them Service staff is required to notice the needs of different customer
Fourth priority is in attribute 6 under Reliability - Company insists an error-free
record This is the commitment and effort from organisation in keeping accurate in
service It is related to the image of company in providing correct service for getting
trust from customer In order to enhance the performance in this aspect Cafeacute de Coral
can continue the strategy in promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo in
improving service to get the best as mentions in Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b)
Attribute 5 - Provide service right in first time is the fifth priority Providing the
correct services to customer at every service contact point Accurate and correct
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
51
service is important in fast food industry As mentioned in the Literature review trend
of fast food industry people do not have much time during meal period and they aim
for fast service It raises the need of customer in receiving an accurate service in first
time when they arrive Providing the correct service the first time round can be
achieved with careful mind and step For example in order taking counter service
staff should listens carefully and repeat order to reduce any discrepancy for a smooth
service flow
Attribute 8 - Trustworthiness of service is in sixth priority It is related to credible and
dependable of service Promotions of marketing always give concept of their service
to customers They are external communications to customer which mentioned in
Literature Review gap 4 of service gap model It affects customer expectations before
receiving the service If certain service is promised to customer company should
perform the same service Otherwise it is not a trustful service and it reduces
confidence when considering their service
Seventh priority for improvement is the attribute 12 of Responsiveness dimension -
Staffrsquos accuracy in response It is related to specific and correct reply for customer
request or questions appropriate action towards immediate situations Experience of
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
52
customers with service staff is closely related Staffrsquos accuracy in response is not easy
to be achieved In fact companies can provide certain training to service staff For
example offering proper feedback and response to customers according to different
scenarios It is essential for chain restaurant to achieve satisfy level of response
Eighth priority is the attribute 14 under Assurance - Consistent courtesy with
customers Courtesy is politeness and considerate from service staff This statement is
in the highest level of expectation It is clearly shows that customer look for a gentle
service in Cafeacute de Coral However there is a distance in achieving customer
satisfaction Simply courtesy includes greeting saying thank you and speak gently
with appropriate tone of voice To achieving courtesy management can encourage
their service staff in greeting and speak in proper tone of voice However sometimes
the staff are not energetic Organisation can motivate them by awarding good
performance staff
Attribute 14 - Service achieves customerrsquos confidence is in ninth priority it is also a
dimension of Assurance Customerrsquos confidence is faith and trust towards service of
organisation Customer will use service when they have confidence to it Confident is
not easy to be created in first time of dining experience it is an accumulated aspects
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
53
Service staff should perform well and provide correct service in gaining customerrsquos
confident
At last attribute 10 of responsiveness - Staffrsquos willingness in response It is the
incentive in replying and answering customerrsquos questions It is needed for frontline
staff in answering customer requests However it is rely on attitude and behavior of
service staff Cafeacute de Coral can encourage and motivate service staffs in respond to
customers
44 Factors Affecting the Expectations and Perceptions
Every people have their own beliefs and experiences it causes the difference in their
response towards importance on expectations and performance on perceptions With
the help of SPSS significant value affected by a factor to certain distribution of
scoring of expectations and perceptions can be found out
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
54
Table 5 Significant Value of One-way ANOVA (Only the Value of P lt= 005 are Shown Significant
Value)
Method [SPSS- Compare means One-way ANOVA (dependent list and factor
find out Sig]
P lt=
005
Gender Age Educational Professions Frequency
fast food
Frequency
Cafeacute de Coral
Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per Exp Per
1 0002 0004
2 0018 0001
3 0017 0028
4 0042 0020 0006 0001
5 0010
6 0007 0002
7 0030 0025 0000
8 0021 0014 0041
9 0019 0001
10 0028
11
12
13 0005
14 0017 0004
15 0019 0029 0009 0012
16 0050 0031
17 0049 0046
18 0000 0017 0001 0005
19 0008 0005 0015 0007 0028
20 0001 0013 0007 0001
Total
no of
sig
1 9 7 7 18 4
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
55
From the findings in table 5 these six factors have different level of affection on
perceptions and expectations According to the result of data conducted by SPSS
expectations and perceptions towards the factor of demographic the frequency of
dining fast food effect the most with 18 significant values (P lt=005) out of total 40 of
expectations and perceptions It is an important factor affecting customer point of
view The second more significant value is a factor of age group there are 9
significant values It also plays an important role in affecting customer opinion
Frequency of dining in fast food restaurant is number of times to have meal in there
The frequency of dining in fast food restaurant affects expectation in expectation 6 7
8 9 15 17 18 and 19 which P lt= 005 category in frequency of 6 times or more per
week has the highest expectations than other category of frequencies(expect exp 20)
It shows that this category of people expect more than the people not always having
fast food Because of their frequent come and visit they are more familiar with the
attributes and raise their expectations (Please refer to appendix 4)
In the same time attribute 5 6 7 8 9 13 16 17 and 19 of perceptions all of these
with significant value are 6 times or more per week it has the highest level of scoring
in perceptions than other categories of frequency (except perception 15) This is
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
56
because of their more experiences in dining in fast food restaurant They love to dine
in Cafeacute de Coral and they have a higher level of perceptions and perceived more value
There is another interesting finding attribute 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 and 19 of
perceptions with P lt= 005 (except perception 13) in category of 3 to 5 times a week
it shows the lowest score when compare with other category (Please refer to appendix
4) In order to increase the perceived value of customer a reward program for
repeated customer is recommended Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) shows the benefit for
members of Club 100 of Cafeacute de Coral can enhance the perceived value
For another factor it is age group Attribute of expectation 3 4 15 are in P lt= 005
age group of 45 -54 has the highest expectations than other age group It shows that in
this age group customer expected more in this attributes Usually in these three
attribute of expectation age group of 18-24 has the lowest expectations It is easier to
achieve the satisfaction (Please refer to appendix 3)
Usually attribute of perceptions 1 4 18 19 and 20 with P lt= 005 age group of 65 or
above has the highest level of perceptions than other It is clearly shows that people
form 45-54 is expected more and age of 65 or more is easier to get their satisfaction
(Please refer to appendix 3)
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
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Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
57
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The main ideas generated through this research are presented comprehensively in this
chapter Usually possible recommendation for future research is recommended to
overcome the limitations of study
51 Conclusions
Hong Kong is an international city with many global companies running their
business here Especially in fast food industry they are in keen competition It is
difficult be differentiated Level of service becomes an indicator in distinguish the
quality of a company Customer satisfaction on service quality plays an important role
in affecting successfulness of a company business in fast food industry As a chains
local fast food restaurant Cafeacute de Coral put their effort in achieving customer
satisfaction on service quality It is essential for this company to provide better quality
of service to be more competitive
This research identified five service quality dimensions towards Cafeacute de Coral of fast
food industry After the research conducted by a questionnaires survey with Hong
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
58
Kong citizen customer satisfaction on service quality is measured Different
dimensions of service quality are affecting the level of customer satisfaction
In review the findings of importance on expectation and performance on perception
the level of perception is lower than expectation It shows that the performance of
service quality in Cafeacute de Coral cannot reach customer expectation This result
indicates a difference of SERVQUAL gap and cause the distance in achieving the
customer satisfaction Together with the result of importance and performance
analysis it becomes a more meaningful research on combine with different methods
In overall result among five dimensions of service quality Empathy is the least
satisfied Reliability is the lower satisfied and follow by Responsiveness and
Assurance Tangibles is the most satisfied service quality dimension
52 Recommendations for Service Quality Dimensions
Empathy is in the lowest satisfaction in service quality because this dimension is
directly related to human factor of service staff Empathy is caring and attention it
depends on the motivation of frontline service staff Cafeacute de Coral should pay more
attention in this dimension To improve Empathy in order to increase the satisfaction
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
59
service staff should consider the customer by caring and paying attention to customer
Reliability is relatively low satisfaction in these five dimensions Same as Empathy it
is also related to performance of service staff Reliability is provides correct and
promised service Management of Cafeacute de Coral should continue external marketing
of promoting their motto of ldquohundred points of excellentrdquo In the same time perform
and provide same level of good service to customer
Besides Empathy and Reliability Responsiveness is in the middle level of satisfaction
on service quality It is the willingness to response and provides prompt service to
customers It is important in fast food industry of fast service Certain training on
speed of providing service and motivate the staff in response to customer can improve
customer satisfaction
Assurance is in higher level of satisfaction when compare with other dimensions It is
related to knowledge ability and courtesy of service staff Training is essential to
enhance the skills of service staff Cafeacute de Coral can put more efforts on enhancing
customer-centered trainings
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
60
Tangibles get the highest level of customer satisfaction This dimension is relatively
easier to be observed Cafeacute de Coral put there efforts in modify this dimension by
upgrading and providing a comfort dining environment to customer
Demographic of respondents play an important role in determining some expectations
and perceptions it is indicated by significant figure of different factor of demographic
towards service quality dimensions In the result of significant value factor of
frequency in dining in fast food restaurant and age group are more important towards
the service quality dimensions
Customers who dine six times or more per week in fast food restaurants have the
highest expectations It was suggested to enhance the service for repeated and
frequent customers Cafeacute de Coral can keep their effort on promoting their Club 100
program for rewarding repeated customer In the age group of 45-54 it has the highest
level of expectation and lower satisfaction In order to satisfy different age group of
people Cafeacute de Coral is suggested to put more effort on this age group market
53 Recommendations for Further Research
The data of this research was conducted by personal interview with questionnaire
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
61
There are some limitations in collecting different opinions from respondents
mentioned in Methodology In order to eliminate the location limitation future
research is recommended to include more locations for data collection It is also
suggested to monitor demographic characteristics of respondents to achieve a balance
in different opinion of people in different demographic factor Furthermore the
sample size was small which cannot represent a whole picture of opinion It is
suggested to increase sample size in future study to achieve a more meaningful figure
of a research
Besides the method of conducting the research management of the organisation is
recommended to collect the opinions and feedback from customer periodically It is
suggested to keep checking and know customer expectations and perceptions on
different dimensions of service quality
In the competitive business environment of service related industry - fast food
industry customer satisfaction is very important for a sustainable business in the
future Customer satisfaction becomes a factor in deciding the success of a business
Companies concentrate their work on providing better service to customers Service
quality dimensions are popular in measuring customer expectation and perception
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
62
For an organisation they need to understand their positioning on service quality It is
good for management to decide strategy to perform better and better To provide
better service quality for customer it brings opportunities for companies to achieve a
successful business
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
63
References
BITNER Mary Jo and HUBBERT Amy R (1994) Encounter Satisfaction Versus
Overal Satisfaction Versus Quality Service Quality New Directions in Theory and
Practice Sage Publications London 72-94
BLOEMER Josee RUYTER Ko de and WETZELS Martin (1999) Linking
perceived service quality and service loyalty a multi-dimensional perspective
European Journal of Marketing Bradford 33 (1112) 1082
Cafeacute de Coral (2009) Corporate Overview [online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute
de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate1html
Cafeacute de Coral (2009b) Club 100 [online] Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009
at httpwwwclub100hkClub100Defaultaspxlang=EN
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009) Company information [online] Cafeacute de Coral Fast
Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompanyjsp
Cafeacute de Coral Fast Food (2009b) Company Information ndash Services [online] Cafeacute de
Coral Fast Food Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralfastfoodcomengcompanycompany02jsp
EDVARDSSON Bo (1998) Research and Concepts Service quality improvement
Managing Service Quality 8 (2) 142-149
GRIFFITH Arthur (2007) SPSS For Dummies Wiley Publishing Inc Americia
HAGUE Paul and JACKSON Peter (1995)Do Your Own Market Research Kogan
Page London
IMRIE Brian C CADOGAN John W and MCNAUGHTON Rod (2002) The
service quality construct on a global stage Managing Service Quality 12 (1) 10-18
JOHNS Nick (1996) The development role of quality in the hospitality industry
Service Quality in Hospitality Organisations Cassell London 9-26
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
64
JONES Peter (1988) Food Service Operations 2nd ed Cassell Educational Ltd
KNUTSON Bonnie J (2001) Service Quality Monitoring and Feedback Systems
Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth
Hospitality Press 143-158
KWONG Lo Hoi Sunny (2007) Latest management Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporate Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
LAN Li and KHAN Mahmood A (1995) Hong Kongrsquos Fast-food Industry An
Overview Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 36 (3) 34-41
LO Hoi Kwong Sunny (2007) Latest Managing Directorrsquos Operational Review
[online] Corporation Information of Cafeacute de Coral Last Accessed 4 April 2009 at
httpwwwcafedecoralcomwebcicoporate8htm
MARTILLA John A and JAMES John C (1977) Importance- Performance
Analysis Journal of Marketing 77-79
MARTIN William B (2003) Providing Quality Service what every hospitality
service provider needs to know Prentice Hall Inc
MCDOUGALL Gordon HG and LEVESQUE Terrence (2000) Customer
satisfaction with services putting perceived value into the equation Journal of
Services Marketing 14 (5) 392-410
NAGEL Pieter JA and CILLIERS Willem W (2007) Customer Satisfaction A
Comprehensive Approach 1-46
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1985) A
Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its Implications for Future Research
Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985) 41-50
PARASURAMAN A ZEITHAML Valarie A amp BERRY Leonard L (1988)
SERVQUAL A Multiple-item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service
Quality Journal of Retailing 64 (1) 12-40
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
65
PRIDEAUX Bruce MOSCARDO Gianna and LAWS Eric (2006) Managing
Tourism and Hospitality Services Theory and International Applications CAB
International London
QIN Hong and PRYBUTOK Victor R (2008) Determinants of Customer-Perceived
Service Quality in Fast-Food Restaurants and Their Relationship to Customer
Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions The Quality Management Journal 15 (2) 35
-50
ROBERTS Chris (2001) Competitive Advantages of service Quality in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in Hospitality Tourism
and Leisure Services The Haworth Hospitality Press New York 111-122
RUST Roland T and OLIVER Richard L (1994) Service Quality Insights and
Managerial Implications from the Frontier Service Quality New Directions in Theory
and Practice Sage Publications London 1-19
SETH Nitin DESHMUKH SG and VART Term (2005) Service Quality Models a
review International Journal of Quality amp Reliability Management 22 (9) 913-949
SMITH Ian (1994) Meeting Customer Needs Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Oxford
SOUTAR Geoffret N (2001) Service Quality Customer Satisfaction and Value An
Examination of Their Relationships Service Quality Management in Hospitality
Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 97-110
WEBB John R (2002) Understanding and Designing Marketing Research Thomson
Learning Great Britain
WETZEL Howard R (1999) Hong Kong Market Development Reports Hong Kong
Fast Food Market Brief 1999 Foreign Agricultural Service GAIN Report HK9086
WUEST Beth Schlagel (2001) Service Quality Concepts and Dimensions Pertinent
to Tourism Hospitality and Leisure Services Service Quality Management in
Hospitality Tourism and Leisure The Haworth Hospitality Press 51-66
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
66
ZEITHAML Valarie A PARASURAMAN A and BERRY Leonard L (1990)
Delivering Quality Service Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations The
Free Press New York
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
67
Appendix 1 Questionnaire Design (English Version)
A Case Study of Cafeacute de Coral Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality in Fast Food Industry
Declaration
I am a student who studying BSc (Hons) Hospitality Business Management of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) I am conducting a research
about the customer satisfaction on service quality in fast food industry Your opinion is very useful and valuable to this research All the
information will be kept confidential and used in research only Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
Declaration of interviewee
Interviewee aged 18 or above Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Interviewee has the experience to dine in Cafeacute de Coral Yes No (thank you for you help and survey completed)
Questionnaire - Section I This survey is collects your opinion on Cafeacute de Coral fast food restaurant (CDC) expectations and perceptions
Please show the extent to which your expectation on CDC that should posses in
the following features on left-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of importance in each statement 1
represents lower level of importance and 5 represents high level of importance
Please circle the number on left-hand side to show your level of importance on
expectations
Please show the extent to which your perceptions on CDCrsquos performance that
mentions in the following statement on right-hand side
There are five scores presents the level of performance in each statement 1
represents low level of performance and 5 represents high level of performance
Please circle the number on right-hand side to show your perceptions on level of
performance
Level of importance on expectations
Low High
Level of performance on perceptions
Low High
Tangibles
(1) Restaurantrsquos hygiene and cleanliness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) Comfort dining environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) Customer friendly menu presentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) Staffsrsquo appearance 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Reliability
(5) Provide service right in first time 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) Company insist an error-free record 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
68
(7) Provide service at the time company promised 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) Trustworthiness of service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Responsiveness Low High Low High
(9) Staff provides prompt service 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) Staffrsquos willingness in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) Response effectiveness 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) Staffrsquos accuracy in response 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Assurance
(13) Staffrsquos product knowledge 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) Service achieves customerrsquos confidence 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) Provide and maintain safe environment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) Consistently courteous with customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Empathy
(17) Communication skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) Understand specific needs of customers 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) Staff takes customerrsquos best interests at heart 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) Gives individual attention to customer 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
69
Section II Personal Information
(1) Gender Male Female
(2) Age 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) Educational Background Primary school or below Secondary school Tertiary education University or above
(4) Profession Student Customer service White-collar Blue-collar
Professional Self-employed Housewife Retired
Other
(5) How often do you eat fast food Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
(6) How often do you dine in Cafeacute de Coral Less than once a week Once or twice a week 3 to 5 times a week 6 times or more per week
Survey completed Thank you so much for your valuable opinion
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
70
Appendix 2 Questionnaire Design (Chinese Version)
大家樂快餐店個案研究顧客在快餐業中服務品質之滿意程度
聲明
本人是英國雪菲爾哈倫大學款接業商業管理( 榮譽 )理學士學生現正進行有關顧客在快餐業中服務品質滿意程度的研究報告很需
要閣下寶貴的意見所有收集之資料將會保密並只作是次研究所用感謝閣下的寶貴時間和幫忙
受訪者之聲明
受訪者為十八歲或以上 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
受訪者曾到大家樂快餐店用餐 是 否(謝謝你的幫忙已完成問卷)
問卷調查
第一節這研究是為了收集閣下對大家樂快餐店(大家樂)的意見期望和感覺
請在左面表達閣下認為大家樂應該擁有之不同項目範圍的期望
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之重要程度1 代表
重要程度低5 代表重要程度高
請把左面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目期望的重要程度
請在右面表達閣下覺得大家樂在不同項目範圍的感覺
以下五個不同數目(1 至 5)是代表每項目之表現1 代表表現較差5 代
表表現較好
請把右面的數字圈上以表示閣下對該項目表現的感覺和看法
期望的重要程度
低 高
對表現的感覺和看法
低
高
有形的可觸可見的
(2) 餐館的衛生和潔淨 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(2) 用餐環境的舒適感 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(3) 清晰的餐牌內容 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(4) 員工的整體外觀 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
可靠程度可信賴性
(5) 即時服務準確無誤 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(6) 公司努力維繫服務的準確性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
71
(7) 在承諾的時間內完成服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(8) 服務的可信性 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
回應和應答 低 高 低 高
(9) 員工提供迅速的服務 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(10) 員工樂意回應顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(11) 回應效率 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(12) 回應提問的準確程度 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
保證
(13) 員工具備產品知識 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(14) 服務達到顧客信心 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(15) 提供並維持安全的環境 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(16) 待客殷勤有禮 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
明白和了解
(17) 溝通技巧 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(18) 明白顧客的需要 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(19) 以客為先 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
(20) 關心不同的顧客 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
72
第二節個人資料
(1) 性別 男 女
(2) 年齡 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54
56 - 64 65 or above
(3) 教育程度 小學或以下程度 中學程度 高等教育程度 大學或以上學歷
(4) 專業工作範圍 學生 顧客服務 白領人仕 藍領人仕
專業人仕 自僱人仕 家庭主婦 退休人仕
其他
(5) 閣下到快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
(6) 閣下到大家樂快餐店用餐的次數 每星期少於一次 每星期一至兩次 每星期三至五次 每星期六次或以上
問卷完結 謝謝閣下寶貴的意見
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
73
Appendix 3 Distribution of Age Group towards Mean of Attributes of Expectations and Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 3 18-24 48 38542 Per 1 18-24 48 33333 Per 18 18-24 48 32083
25-34 51 42157 25-34 51 32941 25-34 51 29412
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32500 35-44 28 28929
45-54 11 45455 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 35455
55-64 9 43333 55-64 9 36667 55-64 9 35556
65 or above 5 44000 65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 46000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 34079 Total 152 31513
Exp 4 18-24 48 35833 Per 2 18-24 48 33542 Per 19 18-24 48 32708
25-34 51 37647 25-34 51 31961 25-34 51 30196
35-44 28 40357 35-44 28 33214 35-44 28 31429
45-54 11 43636 45-54 11 40909 45-54 11 33636
55-64 9 42222 55-64 9 33333 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 38000 65 or above 5 42000
Total 152 38289 Total 152 33618 Total 152 32303
Exp 15 18-24 48 39583 Per 4 18-24 48 33333 Per 20 18-24 48 31875
25-34 51 40588 25-34 51 31373 25-34 51 30392
35-44 28 42500 35-44 28 32857 35-44 28 30357
45-54 11 47273 45-54 11 39091 45-54 11 32727
55-64 9 45556 55-64 9 37778 55-64 9 37778
65 or above 5 42000 65 or above 5 40000 65 or above 5 44000
Total 152 41447 Total 152 33487 Total 152 31908
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
74
Appendix 4 Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Expectations
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Exp 6 lt1 time 39 38462 Exp 15 lt1 time 39 42564
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 39592
3-5 times 60 42667 3-5 times 60 41667
gt= 6 times 4 45000 gt= 6 times 4 50000
Total 152 40592 Total 152 41447
Exp 7 lt1 time 39 41795 Exp 18 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 38980 1-2 times 49 40204
3-5 times 60 42333 3-5 times 60 44000
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 41250 Total 152 41447
Exp 8 lt1 time 39 39487 Exp 19 lt1 time 39 38718
1-2 times 49 39388 1-2 times 49 41020
3-5 times 60 42500 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 47500 gt= 6 times 4 45000
Total 152 40855 Total 152 41776
Exp 9 lt1 time 39 41026 Exp 20 lt1 time 39 37949
1-2 times 49 40816 1-2 times 49 39184
3-5 times 60 39167 3-5 times 60 44167
gt= 6 times 4 50000 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 40461 Total 152 40921
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
75
Distribution of Frequency of Dining in Fast Food Restaurant towards Mean of Attribute of Perceptions
Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean Attribute Category Frequency Mean
Per 5 lt1 time 39 35897 Per 9 lt1 time 39 36923 Per 17 lt1 time 39 34872
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 35102 1-2 times 49 31429
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 31667 3-5 times 60 31167
gt= 6 times 4 40000 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 33487 Total 152 34408 Total 152 32368
Per 6 lt1 time 39 34359 Per 13 lt1 time 39 37692 Per 19 lt1 time 39 34103
1-2 times 49 34082 1-2 times 49 33061 1-2 times 49 33265
3-5 times 60 30000 3-5 times 60 33333 3-5 times 60 30000
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500 gt= 6 times 4 37500
Total 152 32632 Total 152 34605 Total 152 32303
Per 7 lt1 time 39 37179 Per 15 lt1 time 39 36667
1-2 times 49 36327 1-2 times 49 36735
3-5 times 60 31167 3-5 times 60 32500
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 35000
Total 152 34539 Total 152 35000
Per 8 lt1 time 39 35128 Per 16 lt1 time 39 34615
1-2 times 49 34694 1-2 times 49 34286
3-5 times 60 31000 3-5 times 60 32167
gt= 6 times 4 37500 gt= 6 times 4 42500
Total 152 33421 Total 152 33750
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