| dc.description.abstract | Satisfying customers needs with good quality services have become the key ingredient in organizational strategy in today's business world. To achieve maximum advantage, an organization must provide high-quality services that satisfy customers. "Service quality has been described as a form of attitude related but not equivalent to satisfaction, which sets for a comparison between customers' expectations with providers' performance”. (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1988).
The SERVQUAL tool developed by Parasuraman, et.al (1988) with its five dimensions (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) was used to find out the gap between customers' expectation and their perceptions regarding service quality. One hundred fourteen questionnaires were distributed, of which 65 were completed and used. This paper determines the gap between customers' expectations and perceptions among three Indian restaurants in Stavanger, Norway. The three restaurants were selected as their target segment, menu prices are similar, and the expectation would be identical. Three of the restaurants chosen for this research are affordable ethnic restaurants. The satisfaction was calculated as E-P (expectation – perception). Spearman correlation coefficient was used to find if there was any correlation between customer satisfaction and five dimensions of service quality. The paper concludes that there is a significant relationship between the five dimensions of service quality and satisfaction. Finally, this paper provides beneficial recommendations that restaurants can use to achieve maximum customer satisfaction by providing quality services. | |
