Measuring Customer Satisfaction of a

Measuring Adherence to the FSC Standards of a
Fast Food Chain Using Service Quality Model
Marie Redina M. Victoria* and Joy C. Paragua**
No business enterprise can exist without its customers. It is a common
cliché that “it takes five times more effort and cost to gain one new
customer as it takes to maintain one current customer”. It is therefore
imperative that a continuous appraisal of a company’s quality of service
be part of its system to ensure that it maintains a good number of loyal
customers and thus sustain its market position. This paper evaluated
adherence to the FSC (Food-Service-Cleanliness) Standards of a
sample franchisee of the largest fast food chains in the Philippines using
the Service Quality (SERVQUAL) Model.
A questionnaire developed by the researcher was distributed to
customers of the fast food outlet and the results showed that the outlet
complies with the FSC Standards of its mother company. However,
when the findings were presented to the outlet managers, they pointed
out a different problem which was the long queues of customers. This
just shows that customers and company employees perceived setbacks
in different points of view.
Field of Research: Business Administration
1. Introduction
A phenomenal business success story is a fast-food restaurant chain based in
the Philippines. It is an American-style fast-food restaurant that captured the
taste of the Filipino people so that 30 years after its humble beginnings as an ice
cream parlor, it is now listed as one of The Top 100 Corporations in the country.
As a matter of fact, this year looked good for the company having recorded a net
income of over Php700 million (Philippine peso) for the third quarter ending 30
September 2010, or representing a 32% increase in profit for the same date last
year. Globally, it has been widely recognized as one of the leading companies in
Asia by the Far Eastern Economic Review. The Asian Business Magazine
ranked it to be 3 rd in Asia, outdone only by two strong multinationals engaged in
electronics and in computer technology.
______________________
* Dr. Marie Redina M. Victoria, AMA University, Villa Arca Subd, Project 8, Quezon City,
Philippines. Email: marieredina@yahoo.com; mrmvictoria@amaes.edu.ph
** Joy C. Paragua, AMA University, Villa Arca Subd, Project 8, Quezon City, Philippines. Email:
jcparagua@amaes.edu.ph

At present it has operations overseas in countries like the United States of
America, Dubai, Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, People’s Republic of China,
Hong Kong, Brunei, Vietnam and others.
Reaching the top is difficult to achieve, but maintaining to be at the top is an even
harder hurdle. A company in this stature must always be on guard not to down
grade any of its products, services and standards which it abided with while it
was working its way to reach the highest position.
The company in this study attributes its success to its FSC (Food-Service-
Cleanliness) Standards. This study evaluated adherence to the FSC Standards
set by its mother company of one of the franchisees using the ServQual Model
with dimensions: Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and
Empathy.
Nonetheless, it should be noted that service quality is not synonymous to
satisfaction but they are evidently related.
2. Literature Review
Service Quality (ServQual) is defined as the difference between the customer’s
expectations for the service being offered and his perceptions of the service
actually received.
Measuring service quality is not easy. In 1985 a group of authors, Parasuraman,
Zeithaml and Berry developed the ServQual Model that brought about the Gaps
Model of Service Quality which proposed that service quality is a function of the
differences in expected service and perceived service.
The gaps are given as follows:
Customer gap: The difference between customer expectations and perceptions –
the service quality gap.
Gap 1: The difference between customers’ expectation and
management’s perception.
Gap 2: The difference between management’s perceptions and service
quality specifications and designs.
Gap 3: The difference between specifications or standards of service quality and
the actual service delivered.
Gap 4: The difference between the services delivered to customers and the
promise of the firm about its service quality.
Symbolically, we have:
Customer Gap = f (Gap 1, Gap 2, Gap 3, Gap 4)
In above gap model, Parasuraman et al identified that customers use ten (10)
dimensions to form their expectations and perceptions of service quality, namely:
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tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, communication, credibility, security,
competence, courtesy, understanding/knowing the customer and access.
Subsequent works of Parasuraman et al (1988, 1991) developed an instrument
to measure service quality categorized in five dimensions, namely:
• Tangibles – the facilities/equipment/tools and appearance of personnel
• Reliability – ability to perform promised service dependably and accurately
• Responsiveness – willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
• Assurance – knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire
trust and confidence
• Empathy – caring, individualized attention provided to customers
3. Methodology
A fast food outlet in the City of Manila, Philippines near a hospital and a
university was chosen to be the subject of this study. It operates 24-hours a day,
7-days a week.
Fifty (50) customers were chosen at random to answer a 16-item questionnaire
developed by the researcher. The instrument was pilot tested at AMA University
cafeteria and was submitted to the fast food outlet management for their review
in order to ensure that it captured the factors which they would like be evaluated.
The finalized instrument was personally administered by the researcher for
accuracy and completeness of data collected.
A 5-point Likert scale was used to measure the responses corresponding to (5)
Excellent, (4) Very Satisfactory, (3) Satisfactory, (2) Moderately Satisfactory and
(1) Needs Improvement. The data were tallied to determine the scale of the
median response and the percentage of the responses in each scale.
Three (3) outlet managers were gathered in a meeting for submission and
validation of the results, and to get their views on both the positive and negative
findings of this study.
Based on the FSC Standards, service was the main focus of this study because
food offered by this fast food chain had proven to capture the Filipino taste for all
the years that it is operational and cleanliness is being regularly monitored by the
city government.
4. The Findings
The respondents of this study can be described as: 70% below 30 years old and
30% aging 30 and above; 70% female and 30% male; 70% single and 30%
married; 22% Basic Education graduate; 60% Bachelor’s degree holders and 8%
Post graduate degree holders.
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Among them, 16% visits the food outlet daily, 32% twice a week, 16% once a
week, 28% once a month and 8% less than once a month. When asked what
time of the day they go to the outlet, 28% responded during breakfast, 16% at
lunch, 32% at dinner and 12% at other times of the day.
With regards the five (5) dimensions of service quality, the responses showed
very impressive performance of the fast food outlet having a 64% to 92% rating
on the very satisfactory to excellent mark.
Looking at the very satisfactory to excellent percentage rating of each of the five
(5) dimensions, Reliability garnered 82%, Tangibles – 79%, Responsiveness –
73% and both Assurance and Empathy with 66%. Whereas, for the Moderately
Satisfactory to Needs Improvement scale, no more than 8% of the respondents
considered any of the five (5) dimensions falling in these ratings. In fact, 100% of
the respondents rated all features related to Tangibles between Satisfactory to
Excellent.
The factor that obtained the highest score at 90% on the excellent rating was on
the dimension Reliability when customers were asked whether the staff is able to
use available technology accurately and skillfully. The second factor worth
noting, which got a 92% rating on the very satisfactory to excellent mark was also
on the Reliability dimension which specified that exact service requirement or
instructions of customers are followed. The third highest percentage mark of
84% on the very satisfactory to excellent scale was attained in the
Responsiveness dimension demonstrating that the staff immediately responds to
customer needs.
With the very remarkable indicators of service quality based on the responses of
the customers, the managers confirmed that customer service, communication
skills of staff and technology availability and usage were not considered
problems in their outlet. Yet they admit that there is still a very serious problem
being experienced in the fast food outlet which is the long and slow moving
queues at certain times of the day which they attribute to lack of manpower. It
was then the consensus of the manager interviewees to do intensive recruitment
to increase the number of qualified and highly skilled manpower so that long
queues of customers will be avoided.
5. Summary and Conclusions
The positive ratings obtained in all of the dimensions of service quality indicated
that the fast food outlet in this study is successful in providing and maintaining
the quality of service its customers require and expect. The long queue of
customers shows that the food choices the outlet offer are well liked by the
Filipino people and has indeed captured their taste. Cleanliness was obviously
observable as dedicated crews were assigned round the clock for the upkeep of
the outlet.
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Therefore, the fast food outlet in this study adhered to the FSC Standards of its
mother company.
Thus, the problem perceived by the outlet managers which was long queues of
customers may be considered as success problem. This is an indicator of
customers’ patronage of their products. Once the solutions put forward by the
managers are in place and this problem will still be present, then an outlet
extension may be the next option.
Realizing above situation in the fast food outlet, the managers are still resolved to
be on their toes when it comes to service quality. It has been instilled in them
that one loyal customer is more valuable than several prospective ones.
So that watchfulness of every aspect of service quality is a way of life in the fast
food outlet.
End Notes
The instrument used in this study may be implemented in other outlets of this fast
food company to compare the strengths and weaknesses of each of their
franchisees.
Regular quality service survey will also be advantageous to every outlet so that
any indicator of poor service quality can be remedied before it worsens or may
be avoided before it even occurs.
Survey results may also be used to improve the questionnaire and hopefully
institutionalize an instrument that can be implemented country-wide.
References
(a) Articles
Carson, P., Carson, K., Knouse, S. and Roe, C. Winter 1997. “Balance Theory
Applied to Service Quality: A Focus on the Organization, Provider and Consumer
Triad”, Journal of Business and Psychology, Volume 12, Number 2, pp. 99 – 120
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. and Berry, L. Spring 1988. "SERVQUAL: A
Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Service Quality", Journal of Retailing, Volume
64, Number 1, pp. 12-40.
(b) Unpublished Material
Paragua, J. 2010. “The Customer Service Quality System of a Fast Food Outlet”,
MBA Thesis – unpublished, AMA University, Philippines
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(c) Websites
http://www.allbusiness.com/sales/customer-service/3985-1.html
Top 10 Customer Service Mistakes
http://www.fsc.yorku.ca/york/istheory/wiki/index.php/SERVQUAL
SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
http://www.pinnaclestrategies.com/articles/Improving%20Service%20Quality%20with%20ToC%20sh
ort.pdf
Hollye, M. 2007. “Improving Service Quality with the Theory of Constraints”,
Journal of Academy of Business and Economics, pp. 1–15.
https://editorialexpress.com/cgibin/conference/download.cgidb_name=IIPF63&paper_id=203
Jochimsen, B. 2007. “Determinants of service quality in bureaucracy: Parkinson’s
theory at work”, pp. 1 – 23
http://www.marketing.org.au/i=mhOLQLXYtU8=&t=jZS6ngCVPug=
Theory of The Gaps Model In Service Marketing
http://www.pse.com.ph/html/disclosure/pdf/2010/pdf/dc2010-7388_JFC.pdf
http://www3.udg.edu/fcee/professors/gcoenders/pap17.pdf
Saurina, C. and Coenders, G. 2002. “Predicting Overall Service Quality. A
Structural Equation Modelling Approach”, pp. 217 – 238.
http://www.systemdynamics.org/conferences/1993/proceed/senge476.pdf
Senge, P. and Oliva, R. 1993. “Developing a Theory of Service Quality/Service
Capacity Interaction” Proceedings – Systems Dynamics Conference, USA, pp.
476 – 485.
Appendix
The questionnaire
Reliability
1. The exact service request or instructions of customers are followed.
2. The level of service is the same at all times of the day.
3. The staff members are able to use available technology accurately and
skillfully.
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Responsiveness
4. The staff immediately responds to customer needs.
5. The staff is willing to answer questions and requests of customers.
6. The staff is never too busy to attend to customers’ complaints.
Assurance
7. The staff provides adequate information and feedback during service failures.
8. The staff gives the impression that they are always in control of the situation
in providing service.
9. A knowledgeable staff is available to attend to customers’ needs.
10. The staff answers and responds to telephone inquiries courteously and
professionally.
Tangibles
11. Facilities are in their right places and order and are visible to customers.
12. The staff members are in appropriate uniform with IDs properly worn.
13. Signages are visible to facilitate efficient movement inside the outlet.
Empathy
14. The staff is willing to listen to customers’ problems and demonstrate
understanding of their needs.
15. The staff explains clearly various options available to customers.
16. The staff uses simple and understandable language in dealing with individual
customers.
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