Research Project on Customer Satisfaction Surveys 1

Research Project on Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Emily Sinn

ND 566

Marywood University
Research Project on Customer Satisfaction Surveys 2

Background

From the start of my time working at Delaware Valley University I was made aware how
important the students feedback is to the employees and management working in the
kitchen. The students continuous feedback drives the staff to make changes to the menu
on a daily basis and look for new ways to create different meals to serve on campus.
Even after my first 2 weeks working at Del Val I noticed how the students interacted
positively with the staff, comment and compliment the foods being presented and even
make jokes or share new ideas of items they hope to see in the dining hall in the future. I
knew I would not be short on information by choosing to look more into the students
satisfaction with food on campus. Furthermore, I had yet to complete or analyze a
Customer Satisfaction Survey and wanted to take this opportunity to try something new
during the final weeks of my Food Systems Management rotation.

Methods

Parkhurst Dinings corporate office has created a standard Customer/Patient Satisfaction

Survey that is distributed to all locations for them to use freely, in a way the management
sees fits each unique facility best. For Delaware Valley University, it works best to
present these surveys to the students throughout each semester, collect the data as a
whole after each term and then report back to corporate with the results. Being a smaller
university is a benefit in this case as the students really learn who the staff members are
and become aware pretty early in their collegiate career at Del Val. Students are very
aware, and take advantage of the opportunity, to write in a comment card or complete a
survey and can be pretty confident that their requests, within reason, will be made. I was
unable to complete an official report for the Fall 2017 semester as I have only been
working with the company since October 1st, 2017 and am finishing my rotation on
December 1st, 2017 however I did collect data from the surveys on a much smaller scale
from only 10 students during lunch service of my theme meal, Halloween. I have been
able to get to know some students during my time at Del Val and asked 10 familiar faces
to complete the survey for me for the purpose of this project. (See results section for
information on responses from the 10 students I gathered from on Halloween and
reference the semester wide data presented by the documents uploaded to Moodle under
this Module). In addition, I reviewed several completed surveys from the fall semester as
a whole and analyze the data presented in chart form from previous semesters.
On average, half of the students (~800-1,000) who eat at the Main Levin Dining Hall
complete at least one survey each semester.

Results

I conducted customer satisfaction surveys in person during lunch service on Halloween in

addition to reviewing information from the ongoing open customer surveys that students
are free to submit any day or time throughout the semester. Below are the results I found
from overall acceptance and thoughts on the food and service during Halloween:
Research Project on Customer Satisfaction Surveys 3
Research Project on Customer Satisfaction Surveys 4

Furthermore, data collected throughout previous semesters can be found in the documents
below in this module.

Discussion

The results of both my simplified Customer Satisfaction Survey, an analysis of trends

from past surveys and a look into the surveys submitted thus far this semester were
discussed with the General Food Service Manager, Joe Fryday and Executive Chef,
Gerald Hunter. Neither of my preceptors were at all concerned or surprised by the data
collected. As previously mentioned in my introduction, it was made very clear to me
from the start of my internship that the students and staff have a good relationship and
changes are often made to the menu or specific food items based on feedback from the
students.

One improvement that was noted since last semester is that participation with surveys has
improved as the students have continued to noticed changes being made after providing
their input through surveys. In addition, as evidenced by the charts provided that display
data from previous semester, overall quality of food and service scores have continued to
improve. I feel that is directly related to the quality of staff being hired by Parkhurst at
Del Val. Also, I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of vegetarian, vegan and
gluten free options provided on a daily basis in the dining hall. These options for
students who may have dietary restrictions could also contribute to the higher scores on
the customer surveys as it shows that Parkhurst is willing to accommodate to any diet
needs or preferences.