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

Malaysia is a rapidly exploitation country in Asia and economic growth is projected to moderate to 5. 2% in 2011 (Suzy, 2011). According to the field Bank Group, Malaysia GDP per capita is 14,215 USD, which is adjusted by purchasing power parity. This shows that the purchasing power and standard of reinforcement of the Malaysians is growing adequately. Consequently, Malaysians allocate largest amount of ho drug abusehold expenditures to their food budgets (Nezakati et al. , 2011). In todays fast changing social and lifestyle trends, more and more Malaysian households be eating forthside due to m constraints.More women are involving in the working force. Parents are working all day long and they are no longer willing or able to spend roughly time in preparing dinner for the family at home after a tiring working day (Nezakati et al. , 2011 Jangga et al. , 2012). This is especially true in the big cities the like Kuala Lumpur where the people spend most of their time working. Besides, the number of people eat out is increasing due to movement away from extended family hosueholds (Nezakati et al. , 2011). In addition, some families spend their weekend assemblage with other family members in eaterys (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 surrounded by 16 to 33 years old) prefers to eat outside or involve in social gathering activities at the eating houses (Kwek et al. , 2011). In the Chinese culture, eating places are a common venue for social gatherings and business entertainment. victuals consumption in restaurants provides an experience of excitement, celebration, and establishing social connections (Feng, 2003). The best option is to get a pleasant restaurant that could provide caliber run and good dining experience.All these factors contribute to the great potential of the Malaysias restaurant industry in terms of profitability and economic growth. The r estaurant industry is one of the differentiate contributors for the service sector in Malaysia. The restaurant industry is relatively competitive in nature with soaked emulation within the industry due to the arising of more local and foreign blanket(a) service restaurants as well as the increasing number of new entrants offering differentiated food products and function (Voon, 2011). On the other hand, clients are becoming more demanding and their needs are rather diverse (Stevens et al., 1995 Kueh and Voon, 2007).With increasing competition within the restaurant industry, attracting new customers can no longer guarantee profits and succeeder, but retaining living customers is more vital to the victory 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) stated that the key strategy for the success and natural selection of any business is the delivery o f quality service to customers, and this especially pregnant in the service sectors like restaurant industry.The quality of service offered to the customers will influence customer satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty, which will then take up to success of the businesses (Ravichandran et al. , 2010). 2. 0Background of Research Customer service quality is a crucial source of distinctive competency and is often considered as a key success factor in sustaining competitive advantage in service industries (Palmer, 2001). Thus, the delivery of a higher level of service quality is a very grave strategy by which service organizations can 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 fill-in (Heskett et al. , 1997). The important relationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty have thus bee n an important force field 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) emphasized that SERVQUAL is a lasting and reliable scale of service quality and it is applicable in an extensive spectrum of service domains such as financial institutions, libraries, hotels, medical 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 government services (Donnelly et al. , 1995).Past researches in the restaurant industry has identified several factors that consider the level of satisfaction see by customers when they visit full service restaurants. The factors are such as q uality of food, service and forcible 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 engrossed service (Namkung and Jung, 2010).Most restaurant quality related studies have focused mostly on the standard atmosphere 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 Statement 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 study are1. To signalize the key dimensions of service quality that affect customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Malaysias r estaurant industry. 2. To study the importance 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 improvement of service quality from the customers perspective in Malaysias restaurant industry. 5. 0Justification of ResearchThere is a lack of researches in measuring the service quality with the five generic 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 important practical implications especially in service quality for the Malaysias restaurant industry. This will provide the restaurateurs with critical 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 intensive competition in the restaurant industry, therefore, there is an urgent need to identify the key service quality dimensions influence the customer satisfaction and customer loyalty to their preferred full service restaurants which in turn increases patronage rates of their preferred restaurants. The focus of the study is mainly on the role of service quality adopted from SERVQUAL in the full service restaurants in Malaysia.