CHINHOYI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

FOOD AND BEVERAGE SERVICE ASSIGNMENT

NAME: MUGAIRI KUDAKWASHE .L.
REG NUMBER: C18132463N
DUE DATE: 28 MARCH 2019
COURSE CODE: CUHT 209

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QUESTION: “The meal experience may be defined as a series of events both tangible
and intangible that a customer experiences when eating out.” Discuss. [25]

Introduction:

As a guest visits a certain place to eat out, he or she has certain expectations or
experiences that he or she would like have. These experiences come in two aspects: the
tangible aspects and intangible aspects. The tangible aspects of a service quality include
the exterior and interior design of hotels, the equipment found at hotels and the
ambient: conditions in the environment of hotels. On the other hand, the intangible
aspects of service quality are those factors that are not touched; they include reliability,
responsiveness, assurance and empathy. Therefore, this write up is going to talk about
how the meal experience may be defined as a series of events both tangible and
intangible that a customer experiences when eating out.

Tangible Aspects:
Bitner (1992) used the term services-cape to refer to the interior layout and design of a
service and have been labeled as a method for services to create a particular customer
environment. Research in environmental psychology has shown that properly designed
physical environments may produce feelings of excitement, pleasure or relaxation
(Rusell and Ward 1982).
Design of the hotel:
One of the tangible aspects of the meal experience that a customers experiences when
eating out is the design of the hotel. The amount of time spent in the facility also
influence the extent to which the services provision. The longer one stays in a facility,
the greater the opportunity one has to evaluate and be affected by the environment
(Baker, 1986). This means that, if the facility is well decorated, the guest can sit for a
longer period despite the services which are provided there. For example, customers of
Disney World may sometimes experience problems with the quality of the services
provided at park restaurants; however, the affective response to the physical
environment may compensate to the degree that customers will still return and
recommend the place to others.

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Ambient conditions:
Another aspect of the tangible factors in the hotel industry is the ambient conditions
that include colour, music, lighting, seating comfortable and overall cleanliness of the
places inside the hotels. The customer’s perception of seating comfortable is an
important component of ambient conditions. It is especially relevant in services where
customers sit for long time periods. All these have been confirmed that all of these
items have their effect on customers’ perceptions and responses to the environment
(Baker and Collier, 2005; Parasuraman, 1988). To add on, a customer maybe
psychologically uncomfortable if seated too close to other patrons. Therefore, the
interior and exterior conditions of the service at hotels including decor and special
designs, overall attractiveness, temperature, lighting and background music should all
provide the experience that the guest wants despite the mood of the guest.
Spatial layout and Functionality:
Spatial layout and functionality of the physical surrounding are particularly important to
services and guest’s perceptions. Spatial layout in services generally refers to the way in
which machinery, equipment and furnishings are arranged and the size and shape of
these items. Functionality refers to the product accessibility, flow of pathways and
appeal of service displays. An effective layout can be a good source for providing ease
entry/exit and accessibility to the guests. By providing more space and easy accessibility
of equipment in a facility for the guests to use, this suggests that some level of comfort
is perceived by the customer and it may shape further service purchases.
Menu and food quality:
A menu is one of the most important internal advertising tools that can be used to
educate a guest about the experience they are about to have. Customers are becoming
more sophisticated and expectations have risen concomitantly. Service providers are
routinely expected to go beyond the commonplace and provide an exemplary dining
experience (Bojanic and Rosen, 1994; Grindy, 1999). For many customers food quality is
almost indistinguishable from service quality, and most agree that both must be present
for a restaurant to qualify for a repeat visit (Koo et al., 1999; Soriano, 2002). This means
that maintaining a high level of food quality is absolutely necessary to satisfy the needs
and expectations of the restaurant customers (Peri, 2006) thus leading to a tangible
aspect that a customer experiences when eating out.

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Intangible aspects:
Gronroos (2004) points to the significant fact that consumers do not seek and services
per se, but rather seek and expect the solution to their problems, which, for them
represents a value they are willing to pay for. The intangible aspects are by nature
heterogeneity or consistency. These are items which are not touched and they include
reliability, responsiveness, empathy and assurance.
Reliability:
The dimension of reliability is defined as “delivering the promised performance
dependably and accurately” (Schneider and White, 2004). Furthermore, reliability
includes doing it right for the first time and it is one of the most important service
components of customers (Parasuraman, 1991a). As guests go and eat out, they have
certain expectations about the food and the services provided at the place. Therefore,
reliability extends to providing services as and when promised thus leading to the
intangible aspect that a customer experiences when eating out if the food and services
provided are what he/she expected.
Responsiveness:
Responsiveness represents the “willingness to help customers and provide prompt
service.” Customers will bring complaints about the food or services provided and the
service providers should accept the ownership of the customer complains and assist in
any way possible. After receiving complains form customers, the service providers
should respond as quickly as possible especially when a customer is requesting or
complaining something that is time sensitive. Service providers should also know their
customers and what they like. They should also be able to fix their mistakes and go an
extra mile. As a result of this, the ability of service providers to provide services in a
timely manner is a critical component of service quality for many guests (Kandampully,
Mok and Spark, 2011); thus making a customer’s experience when eating out.
Assurance:
The third dimension is assurance that reflects the “knowledge and courtesy of
employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence.” Service providers should be
able to know how to treat different customers. They should also be aware not only of
the perspective of others but their feelings. This will make them be able to know how to

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handle any situation that may come along if they come along customers with different
feelings. Focusing on assurance, guests will expect to feel safe in their transactions with
the employees.
Empathy:
Empathy involves the “caring individualized attention the firm provides its customers.”
Since the hospitality industry is regarded as a service industry, this means that more
services are provided and offered to the guests. If a customer goes to eat out, he/she
has to be served accordingly and the service providers have to meet or exceed the
customer’s expectations. By doing so, each customer will have to be attended to
individually so that their orders are taken care of. For example, in a hotel, a guest is
given a menu with the food being offered and the price list. The guest then orders the
food and it is delivered by the waiter or waitress. This individualized attention will make
the guest have a sense of well being in the hotel thus providing a customer experience.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, a meal experience may be defined as a series of events of both tangible
and intangible that a customer experiences when eating out due to the above
mentioned aspects of customer perceptions the environment and the services
provided.

References:

Bitner, M. J. (1992). Servicescapes: the impact of physical surroundings on customers

and employees. Journal of Marketing, 56(2), 57-71.

Baker, T., & Collier, D. A. (2005). The economic payout model for service guarantees.
Decision Sciences, 36(2), 197-220.

Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. L., & Zeithamal, V. A. (1988). SERVQUAL: a multiitem scale for
measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12-40.

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Gronroos, Ch. (2004). Service Management and Marketing: a Customer Relationship
Management Approach, John Wiley and Sons Limited.

Locke, E. (2001). Motivation by goal setting. In R. T. Golembiewski (Ed.), Handbook of

organizational behaviour (2nd ed., pp. 43-56). New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.

Russell, J., & Ward, L. (1982). Environmental psychology. Annual Review of Psychology,
33(1), 651-688.

Baker, J. (1986). The role of environment in marketing services: The consumer

perspective.

Schneider, B., & White, S. (2004). Service quality: research perspective. Thousand Oaks,
California: Sage Publications.

Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. L., & Zeithaml, V. A. (1991a). Perceived service quality as a
customer-based performance measure: An empirical examination of organizational
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335-343.
Kandampully, J., Mok, C., & Sparks, B. (2001). Service quality management in hospitality,
tourism, and leisure. London: Routledge.

Bojanic, D.C. & Rosen, L.D. (1994). Measuring service quality in restaurants: An
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