Consumers' Perceptions and Expectations of Service Quality in Selected Fast Food Restaurants
In Malaysia, fast food restaurants have experienced high growth rates and have introduced more new products and services. As a result, the level of competition has increased. Now, the issue is how each individual restaurant will maintain its competitiveness in terms of service quality. The study...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2001
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/10571/1/FP_2001_27.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/10571/ |
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| Summary: | In Malaysia, fast food restaurants have experienced high growth rates and
have introduced more new products and services. As a result, the level of
competition has increased. Now, the issue is how each individual restaurant
will maintain its competitiveness in terms of service quality. The study
examines consumers' perceptions and expectations of service quality in
selected fast food restaurants.
The service quality scale called SERVQUAL measured consumers'
perceptions and expectations. SERVQUAL consists of five dimensions of
service quality, which are tangible, reliability, assurance, empathy and
responsiveness. The SERVQUAL technique provides an overall measure of quality across all the five dimensions of service quality. In this study, 20 pairs
of questions were used. One question from each pair asked consumers' to
describe their expectation while the other question asked for their
perceptions.
A total of 456 consumers were selected as respondents. Frequency counts
and percentages were used to analyze the demographic characteristics of
the respon dents. Gap analysis was used to identify the differences between
the consumers' perceptions and expectations. Factor analysis was used to
examine the underlying pattern of the statements in the 20 items of the
SERVQUAL scale.
The study shows that the reliability dimension constituted the lowest score
on the SERVQUAL scale. This was followed by the empathy, tangible and
assurance dimensions. The factor analysis results identified six factors that
affect consumers' perceptions and expectations of service quality. These six
factors are reliability, customer care, customer service, company-oriented
item, visionary and caring. |
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