Assessing a restaurant service quality using the DINESERV model : A quantitative study on Pizza Hut

Abstract: Abstract Customers are the main reason behind every companies’ survival in the market. And winning their interest has now become the concern for company owners and managers as well. However, many factors can affect the customer's satisfaction in the marketing environment. Among the determinants, service quality takes the most substantial part. Many Scholars have also identified the underlying relationships between these two constructs. Notably, the perception-expectation gap is a useful cue to determine their link. Thus, this research mainly relies on uncovering the customer's perception of service quality. As a result, the study is conducted in one of the biggest chain restaurant named Pizza Hut. And the author chooses the research location to be in Uppsala. Purpose This study has a two-fold research purpose in that it aims at measuring the perception of customers in the restaurant industry and examining the validity of DINESERV in Sweden's cultural context. Design/Methodology/approach The author has employed a convenience sampling technique to conduct the research and pre-developed questionnaires from the so-called DINESERV instrument. Additionally, factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha were used to check the validity and reliability of the model, respectively. The gap score was also computed using the means. Then finally, a spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated to test the strength of the relationship between the customer's satisfaction and service quality dimensions. Finding The analysis carried out proved that DINESERV is a valid instrument to measure customer's perception of service quality in Sweden's cultural context. Besides, the correlation between service quality dimension and customer satisfaction were validated using a spearman's rho. Lastly, the result from the gap score indicates that the two dimensions (i.e., responsiveness & reliability) were perceived as inferior by the customers. Research implications The theoretical finding suggests that DINESERV is the right instrument to measure the service quality of restaurants in Sweden's context. And the practical implication approves that pizza hut in Uppsala has two inferior dimensions that need continuous improvement. Lastly, the demographic characteristics of the respondents show that most of the customers are categorized under the younger age group (i.e., 18-36), and this information can be used for marketing purposes by the company. Key Words – DINESERV, Service quality, Customer satisfaction, Restaurant