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org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

CUSTOMERS’ SATISFACTION TOWARDS

RESTAURANT SERVICES IN ERODE CITY
1
Mrs. T. KANCHANAMALA,
1
Assistant Professor,
1
Department of Business Administration with CA
Vellalar College for Women,
Thindal, Erode-12, Tamilnadu.

Abstract: One of the biggest contemporary challenges of management in restaurant service industries is providing and maintaining
customer satisfaction. Overwhelming customer demand for quality products and service has in recent years become increasingly evident to
professionals in the restaurant services. Customer satisfaction measures, offer a meaningful and objective feedback about customers’
preferences and expectations. The main objectives of the study were to determine the customers’ level of satisfaction, expectations and
preferences towards restaurant services. Both primary and secondary data were collected for this study. The primary data collected through
the questionnaire and were analyzed using simple percentage analysis, two-way table, chi-square test and weighted average ranking method.
It was found that there is no significant relationship between age, gender, marital status, monthly income and residential area of the
respondents and level of satisfaction towards the restaurant services. Finally concluded that the restaurant should offer the facilities and the
services expected by the consumers and their problems should be taken into consideration to make them satisfied and delighted which in turn
will increase the reputation and profitability of the restaurants.

Index Terms: Restaurant services, customer satisfaction, customer preferences and expectations.

I. INTRODUCTION
The restaurant is a service sector, and stresses the need to provide best сustоmer service and improve the quality. Service experience
has emerged as one of most important factor for companies to start focusing. As the lifestyle changes and restaurants are becoming more and
more common, customers are the aspirations of the new tastes, pleasant and happy memories. Moreover, they prefer great food. Restaurants
have tested the enlarged competition and growing expectations of clients concerning full quality of service. There was a demand to
recommend local consumption, and to recognize desires of clients and to satisfy their requirements. A restaurant or an eatery, is a business
which prepares and serves food and drinks to customers in exchange for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but
many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services, and some offer only take-out and delivery. Restaurants vary greatly in
appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of cuisines and service models ranging from inexpensive fast food restaurants and
cafeterias to mid-priced family restaurants, to high-priced luxury establishments. Some restaurants serve all the major meals, such as
breakfast, lunch, and dinner (e.g., major fast food chains, diners, hotel restaurants, and airport restaurants). Other restaurants may only serve
a single meal (for example, a pancake house may only serve breakfast) or they may serve two meals (e.g., lunch and dinner).

II. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY

Restaurant for long was not considered as a service business but rather related more closely to a manufacturing industry. In a
restaurant industry we are provided a product but with intangible "product" of cooking procedures, table service, and a nice table to eat at.
Since the primary source of their income comes from the ability to cook and serve delicious food, they offered an intangible product, hence it
is considered as a service business. Service experience in restaurant industry has not been explored yet. This study explores this industry and
tries to fill up this gap.

III. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In our day to day life, the restaurants plays a vital role. The Customer Satisfaction is an important aspect of every successful
restaurants. In that regard, every restaurants should strive to have a good relationship with its customers and thus increase its reputation.
However, many restaurants face problems trying to satisfy their customers and end up experiencing high levels of customer dissatisfaction.
Thus, this study helps to understand the reaction of the customers, solve the problem by learning customer needs and helps to increase the
level of satisfaction. So, knowing the level of satisfaction of the customers will help the restaurants to improve these services.

IV. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The following are the specific objectives of the study,

 To determine the customers’ level of satisfaction towards restaurant services.
 To study the customers’ expectations and preferences towards the restaurant services.
 To study various features that restaurant should possess to satisfy the customers.

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V. HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY

 There is no significant relationship between age of the respondents and level of satisfaction towards the restaurant services.
 There is no significant relationship between monthly income of the respondents and level of satisfaction towards the restaurant
services.
 There is no significant relationship between residential area of the respondents and level of satisfaction towards the restaurant
services.

VI. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

a) Research Design: A research design is an arrangement of the conditions for the collection and analysis of data in a manner that
aims to combine the relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure. The present study is one such descriptive
research design as it describes the customers’ level of satisfaction towards the restaurant services.
b) Sampling Technique: Convenient sampling method is used to collect the pertinent data from the sample respondents.
c) Tools used for data analysis: Simple statistical tools such as Percentage analysis and Chi-square test are used.
d) Sample Size: 150 customers from various restaurants are taken as sample respondents for this study.
e) Data used: The study is based on both primary and secondary data.

VII. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

In this chapter, the level of satisfaction of customer towards restaurant services in Erode city has been studied, analyzed and
interpretations are made. For this purpose, the respondents’ level of satisfaction is considered as dependent variables and independent
variables are age, gender, educational qualification, marital status, monthly income, residential area.

AGE OF THE RESPONDENTS

For the purpose of the study, the age of the respondents has been classified into four categories viz.., Below 15years, 15 – 30 years,
30 – 45 years, Above 45 years. The percentage analysis of the above factor is depicted below.
TABLE No.: 1
AGE OF THE RESPONDENTS
S. No. Age
No. of Respondents Percentage (%)
(in years)

1 Below 15 14 9.33

2 15-30 115 76.67

3 30-45 17 11.33

4 Above 45 4 2.67

TOTAL 150 100

Inference
From the above table, it is inferred that 76.67% of the respondents fall under the age group of 15-30 years, 9.33% of the respondents
fall under the age group of below 15 years, 11.33% of the respondents fall under the age group of 30 – 45 years, and 2.67% of the
respondents fall under the age group of Above 45 years.
Thus, the table shows that the majority (76.67%) of the respondents fall under the age group of 15- 30 years.

AGE OF THE RESPONDENTS Vs LEVEL OF SATISFACTION TOWARDS THE RESTAURANT SERVICES

Hypothesis
There is no significant relationship between the age of the respondents and their level of satisfaction towards the restaurant services.
With a view to find the degree of association between the age of the respondents and their level of satisfaction towards restaurant
services, two-way table is prepared.

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TABLE No.: 2
AGE OF THE RESPONDENTS Vs LEVEL OF SATISFACTION TOWARDS
THE RESTAURANT SERVICES
(TWO-WAY TABLE)
Satisfaction
level

Highly Highly
Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied Total
Satisfied dissatisfied

Age
(in years)
6 4 2 0 2
14
Below 15 (7.093) (3.173) (2.52) (0.653) (0.56)
57 26 24 5 3
115
15 - 30 (58.267) (26.067) (20.7) (5.367) (4.6)

11 2 1 2 1
30 - 45 17
(8.613) (3.853) (3.06) (0.793) (0.68)

2 2 0 0 0
Above 45 4
(2.0267) (0.9067) (0.75) (0.1867) (0.16)

TOTAL
76 34 27 7 6 150

Inference

From the above table, it is inferred that the value of ‘Highly satisfied’ category is highest (57) among the respondents who fall
under the age group of 15-30 years and least (2) among the respondents who fall under the age group of above 45 years. The value of
satisfied category is highest (26) among the respondents who fall under the age group of 15-30 years and least (2) among the respondents
who fall under the age group of 30-45 and above 45. The value of ‘Neutral’ category is highest (24) among the respondents who fall under
the age group of 15-30 years and least (0) among the respondents who fall under the age group of above 45 years. The value of
‘Dissatisfaction’ category is highest (5) among the respondents who fall under the age group of 15-30 years and least (0) among the
respondents who fall under the age group of below 15 years and above 45 years. The value of ‘Highly dissatisfied’ category is highest (3)
among the respondents who fall under the age group of 15-30 years and least (0) among the respondents who fall under the age group of
above 45 years.
In order to find out the degree of association between the age of the respondents and their level of satisfaction towards the restaurant
services, chi-square test is used and result is given below.
TABLE No.: 3
RESULT OF CHI –SQUARE TEST
Calculated
Variable Table value Degree of freedom Result
Value

Age 16.82 21.026 12 Accepted

From the above table, it is observed that the calculated value (16.82) is lesser than the table value (21.026) at 5% level of
significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted.
Hence, there is no significant relationship between the age of the respondents and their level of satisfaction towards the restaurant
services.

RESPONDENTS’ EXPECTATION OF SERVICES

For the purpose of the study, the respondents’ expectation of services has been classified into five categories viz.., online shopping,
Hosting events, Extension of parking area, Children play area and Above Others. The percentage analysis of the above factor is depicted
below.

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TABLE No.: 4
RESPONDENTS’ EXPECTATION OF SERVICES
S. No. Respondents expectation of services No. of Respondents Percentage (%)

1 Online purchase 44 29.34

2 Hosting events 33 22
3 Extension of parking area 26 17.33
4 Children play area 36 24
5 Others 11 7.33
TOTAL 150 100

Inference
From the above table, it is inferred that 29.34% of the respondents expect online shopping from the restaurant, 24% of the
respondents expect children play area, 22% of the respondents expect to host events, 17.33% of the respondents expect to extend parking
area, and the 7.33% of the respondents expect some other services.
Thus, the table shows that the majority (29.34%) of the respondents expect online shopping from the restaurant.

PROBLEMS FACED BY THE RESPONDENTS IN THE RESTAURANT

For the purpose of the study, the problems faced by the respondents are has been classified into eight categories viz.., Environment,
Parking facilities, Waiting time, High rate, Non availability of varieties at times, Insufficient utensils, Distance and Poor service. The
percentage analysis of the above factor is depicted below.
TABLE NO.: 5
PROBLEMS FACED BY THE RESPONDENTS IN THE RESTAURANT
S.NO PROBLEMS SCORE RANK
1 Environment 703 III
2 Parking facilities 692 V
3 Waiting time 784 I
4 High rate 719 II
5 Non availability of varieties at times 677 VI
6 Insufficient utensils 632 VII
7 Distance 702 IV
8 Poor service 560 VIII

Inference
From the above table, it is inferred that the problem ‘waiting time’ ranks first with the highest total of 784, High rate is ranked as
second problem with the total of 719, Environment is ranked as third problem with the total of 703, Distance is ranked as fourth problem
with the total of 702, Parking facilities ranked as fifth problem with the total of 692, Non availability of varieties ranked as sixth problem
with the total of 677, Insufficient utensils ranked as seventh problem with the total of 632, Poor service ranked as eighth problem with the
total of 560.
Thus, the above table clearly shows that, the majority of respondents ranked ‘waiting time’ as the first problem in the restaurant.

VIII. FINDINGS
From the above study, the following observations are made.
 Majority (76.67%) of the respondents fall under the age group of 15- 30 years and results that there is no significant relationship
between age and respondents’ level of satisfaction towards the restaurant service
 Majority (49.33%) of the respondents’ monthly income is between Rs.20,000-Rs.40,000 and results that there is no significant
relationship between monthly family income and respondents’ level of satisfaction towards the restaurant service.
 Majority (36%) of the respondents are residing at rural area and results that there is no significant relationship between the
residential area and respondents’ level of satisfaction towards the restaurant services.
 Majority (56.67%) of the respondents are sometimes satisfied with the special offers provided by the restaurants.
 Majority (784) of the respondents ranked waiting time as the first problem in the restaurant.

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IX. SUGGESTIONS
 From the study, it is inferred that, the restaurant should offer some varieties of food & combo meals which appeals to the younger
crowd and need to improve food quality, restaurant atmosphere & waiter services.
 From the study, it is found that the restaurant should follow the cleanliness and hygiene standards to ensure that the customer has an
overall positive impression of the restaurant and should carefully manage the social media & online reputation to maximize
satisfaction of the customers.
 From the study, it is found that the customers are waiting for the table. So, increasing the number of seating facilities would solve
the problem of the customers and the time taken to deliver the ordered meals to the customers shall be minimized by the restaurants.
 From the study, it is examined that the restaurant should provide food quality and services at reasonable rate. It is one of the way to
attract the customers among the competitors.

X. CONCLUSION
Customer satisfaction is an overall customer attitude towards a service provider, or an emotional reaction to the difference between
what customers anticipate and what they receive, regarding the fulfillment of some need, goal or desire. It captures the provisions of goods
and services that fulfill the consumers’ expectations in terms of quality and service in relation to the price paid. To satisfy the consumer,
their needs must be fulfilled. In this study, findings and recommendations highlights the expectations of the respondents and the problems
faced by them. The customers mainly expect healthy food, service & employee friendliness, availabilities of varieties, affordable price, good
environment etc., from the restaurants. The problems faced by the respondents are parking facilities, waiting time, high rate, non availability
of varieties at time, good environment. Hence, the restaurant should offer the facilities and the services expected by the consumers and their
problems should be taken into consideration to make them satisfied and delighted which in turn will increase the reputation and profitability
of the restaurants.

REFERENCE
Books
 Cook Sarah, Customer Care Excellence, 6th Edition, London: Kogan page, 2011.
 C.R. Kothari, “Research Methodology”, New Age International Publisher,
New Delhi,Second Revised Edition, 2006.
 John. M. Ivancevich, “Human Resource Management”, Tata MeGraw Hill
Education Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi,Tenth Edition.
Websites
 www.ask.com
 www.google.com
 www.linkedin.com
 www.researchgate.com
 www.wikipedia.com

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