An Empirical Study of Service Performance, Customer Satisfaction, and Purchase Intention in the Food Services Sector

Service quality has been identified as a major determinant of market share, return on investment and ultimately, customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to enhanced brand image, and profits. This study examines the applicability of the service quality measurement scale SERVPERF in the Food service industry. Perception of Service quality in terms of the service performance (SERVPERF) dimensions, namely tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, reliability, and assurance, and its relationship with customer satisfaction, and purchase intention have been examined, in this service domain. This study can be considered unique in that it proceeds to examine customer's perception of SERVPERF dimensions as antecedent to both customer satisfaction and customer purchase intention in the food service industry. The regression function obtained confirm the Service Performance variable to cause relatively higher variations in the Purchase Intention than Customer Satisfaction (53% and 32% respectively) indicating the significance of the Service Performance dimensions in the Food services. The Regression model will also enable authentic prediction and dovetail targets-based resource allocations.