Influences of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty in Restaurant Industry in Malaysia Essay

Malaysia is a rapidly evolution country in Asia and economic let outgrowth is projected to moderate to 5. 2% in 2011 (Suzy, 2011). According to the World Bank Group, Malaysia gross domestic product per capita is 14,215 USD, which is adjusted by purchasing authority parity. This shows that the purchasing power and standard of backing of the Malaysians is growing adequately. Consequently, Malaysians allocate largest amount of dwelling house expenditures to their food budgets (Nezakati et al. , 2011). In to daylights fast changing kindly and life style trends, much and more Malaysian households ar rusting outside collectible to cadence constraints.More women argon involving in the workings force. Parents are working all day long and they are no drawn-out leave behinding or able to give some meter in preparing dinner for the family at home after a tiring working day (Nezakati et al. , 2011 Jangga et al. , 2012). This is curiously true in the big cities homogeneous Kua la Lumpur where the people throw away nigh of their time working. Besides, the number of people dine out is increasing due to movement out from extended family hosueholds (Nezakati et al. , 2011). In addition, some families spend their weekend gathering with other family members in eating houses (Jangga et al., 2012).On the other hand, Generation Y (Refers to those who were born from 1979 to 1994 and under the age groups mingled with 16 to 33 years old) prefers to eat outside or involve in social gathering activities at the eaterys (Kwek et al. , 2011). In the Chinese culture, restaurants are a parking lot venue for social gatherings and phone line entertainment. fare consumption in restaurants depicts an experience of excitement, celebration, and establishing social connections (Feng, 2003). The best option is to get a pleasant restaurant that could provide whole tone work and good dining experience. altogether these factors contribute to the great potential of the Ma laysias restaurant effort in wrong of profitability and economic growth. The restaurant sedulousness is one of the cardinal contributors for the re swordplay firmament in Malaysia. The restaurant industry is relatively competitory in nature with austere competition within the industry due to the arising of more local and foreign salutary dish out restaurants as well as the increasing number of new entrants whirl unlikeiated food products and portions (Voon, 2011). On the other hand, clients are becoming more demanding and their needs are rather various(a) (Stevens et al., 1995 Kueh and Voon, 2007).With increasing competition within the restaurant industry, attracting new nodes send packing no hourlong guarantee profits and success, but retaining alert customers is more vital to the success of the restaurant businesses (Shoemaker et al. , 1999 Anderson and Narus, 2004 Gee et al. , 2008 Haghighi et al. , 2012). Parasuraman et al. (1985) and Zeithaml et al. (1990) st ated that the line dodging for the success and survival of any business is the rescue of woodland service to customers, and this in particular all-important(prenominal) in the service sectors alike restaurant industry.The feeling of service offered to the customers testament influence customer mirth and attitudinal commitment, which will then lead to success of the businesses (Ravichandran et al. , 2010). 2. 0Background of research Customer service spirit is a crucial source of distinctive competence and is often considered as a let on success factor in sustaining competitive advantage in service industries (Palmer, 2001). Thus, the delivery of a higher level of service reference is a very important strategy by which service organizations bay window position themselves more effectively in the market place.The success of restaurant businesses relies on providing superior service quality, value, and customer satisfaction, which in turn enhances customer repeat champ ionship (Heskett et al. , 1997). The important relationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer fealty necessitate hence been an important area of research (Zeithaml et al. , 1996 Pettijohn et al. , 1997 Dabholker et al. , 2000 Sivas and Baker-Prewitt, 2000 Kueh and Voon, 2007 Qin and Prybutok, 2008). Parasuraman et al.(1994) emphasize that SERVQUAL is a lasting and reliable collection plate of service quality and it is applicable in an extensive spectrum of service domains such as financial institutions, libraries, hotels, aesculapian centers and restaurants. Many researchers have tried to use SERVQUAL in different service domains such as medical services (Swartz & Brown, 1989 Lam, 1997), tourism (Tribe and Snaith, 1998 Atilgan et al. , 2003), libraries (Nitecki, 1996 Coleman et al. , 1997), banks (Angur et al. , 1993), restaurants and hotels (Hokey et al., 2002), and political science services (Donnelly et al. , 1995).Past researches in the resta urant industry has identified several factors that trammel the level of satisfaction experienced by customers when they visit full service restaurants. The factors are such as quality of food, service and physical environment (Han and Ryu, 2009), atmosphere of the restaurant (Ladhari et al. , 2008), service and delivery (Goyal and Singh, 2007), cleanliness and service quality (Lockyear, 2005), and appropriate cost and attentive service (Namkung and Jung, 2010).Most restaurant quality associate studies have counselinged mostly on the ambience and service delivery as a core competency of a restaurant (Namkung and Jang, 2007). Ladhari et al. (2008) mentioned that service quality has the most significant effect on dining satisfaction, followed by product quality, hygiene, menu diversity, price-value and convenience. 3. 0Problem line of reasoning What are the key service quality dimensions influencing the customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Malaysias restaurant industry? 4. 0Research Objectives The main objectives of the exact are1. To signalize the key dimensions of service quality that motivate customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Malaysias restaurant industry. 2. To charter the grandness and impact of service quality on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Malaysias restaurant industry. 3. To determine the current customer satisfaction and customer loyalty levels in Malaysias restaurant industry. 4. To recommend some guidelines for service of service quality from the customers perspective in Malaysias restaurant industry. 5. 0Justification of Research in that respect is a lack of researches in beat the service quality with the five generic wine dimensions of SERVQUAL in Malaysias restaurant industry. This has spurred on the interest of the study in identifying the importance of service quality from the customers perspective in Malaysias restaurant industry especially on the full service restaurants. This study will offer im portant hard-nosed implications especially in service quality for the Malaysias restaurant industry. This will provide the restaurateurs with detailed information in service quality to help them to identify the key service quality dimensions for success and competitiveness.This can help the restaurant managers and staffs to focus their efforts on improving customer perceptions of service quality and enhancing the dining experience of their customers. Due to the intensifier competition in the restaurant industry, in that locationfore, there is an urgent need to identify the key service quality dimensions influence the customer satisfaction and customer loyalty to their preferable full service restaurants which in turn increases patronage rates of their preferred restaurants. The focus of the study is mainly on the character of service quality adopted from SERVQUAL in the full service restaurants in Malaysia.