第一屆觀光休閒暨餐旅產業永續經營研討會，民 90 年

Service Quality in a Chain-operated Steakhouse

Allan Yen-Lun Su, Ph.D.
E-mail: allansu@cc.nkhc.edu.tw
Department of Baking Technlogy and Management, Kaohsiung Hospitality College
Abstract
This study attempts to measure customers’ perceptions of service quality in a
chain-operated steakhouse using a modified version of the DINESERV instrument
(Stevens, Knuston, and Patton, 1995). All five dimensions of service quality, being
tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, will be used. The
questionnaire survey will be conducted on a two-week period during lunch and
dinnertime at all 14 steakhouse restaurants. All customers who come to restaurants
for lunch and dinner during the two-week research period will be asked to complete
the questionnaires. The Cronboch Coefficient Alpha will be used to test the construct
reliability. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be used to determine the differences
of customers’ perceived service quality for five dimensions between two meals and
different groups of loyalty. In addition, correlation analysis will be used to determine
the relationship between customers’ perceived service quality and customers’
characteristics such as gender, marital status, age, and reasons for dining. The results
of this study will asssist restaurant management to assess the service quality provided
to its patrons. Results of this study will also help restaurant management establish a
total quality management (TQM) program to improve overall service quality to its
patrons.
Keywords: Service quality; SERVQUAL; DINESERV; chain-operated steakhouse

Introduction
High quality goods and service are favored in the marketplace and high service
quality performance does produce measurable benefits in profits, cost savings, and
market share (Anderson, Fornell, & Lehmam, 1994). Research also indicated that
service quality has been increasingly recognized as a critical factor in the success of
any business (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988). The topic of measuring service
quality has been studied extensively in the past fifteen years. In 1988, Parasuraman,
Zeithaml and Berry develpoed a multiple-attribute scale called SERVQUAL for
measuring service quality. The SERVQUAL scale operationalises and measures
service quality along five distict dimensions that can be viewed as indicators of the
construct of perceived service quality. The SERVQUAL instrument has been verified
and tested in assessing service quality in restaurant business (Bojanic & Rosen, 1994;
Fu, 1999; Fu, Cho, & Parks, 2000) as well as in the tourism industry (Riemer &
Reichel, 2000). Stevens, Knutsons, & Patton (1995) proposed an instrument called

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DINESERV to assess customers’ perceptions of a restaurant’s service quality.

DINESERV was adapted and refined from SERVQUAL and LODGSERV (a
measuring scale for service quality in lodging properties) containing 29 statements on
a 7-point response scale. It was used to undertake periodical surveys and to determine
changes in perceptions as the results of changes in normative expectations and of
service quality delivered. The DINESERV instrument have been extensively used in
measuring service quality in the restaurant buiness including the airport food service
(Heung, Wong, & Qu, 2000), fine dining restaurants (Knutson, Steven, & Patton,
1995), casual dining restaurants (Knutson, Steven, & Patton, 1995; Kim, McCahon &
Miller, 2000; Wu, Hoover, & Williams, 2000), mid-price Chinese restaurant (Wu,
Goh, Lin, & Poynter, 1999), quick service restaurants (Knutson, Steven, & Patton,
1995; Huang, 2000), and assisted living facilities (Patnaude & Graves, 2000). Many
researchers have concluded that DINESERV is a valid and reliable index for
measuring servcie quality in restaurant business. The purpose of this study is to
validate five dimensions of service quality contained in the DINESERV Instrument in
a chain-operated steakhouse and explore the differences in perceived servcie quality
for customers at different serving periods and for groups of different customer loyalty.
using the modified DINESERV instrument. The results of this study would help the
management identify the strength and weakness of service quality and implement an
effective strategy to meet the customers’ expectations.

Literature Review
Many researchers have conducted studies in measuring service quality in the past
twenty years. In 1982, McCleary and Weaver indicated that good service is defined
on the basis of identification of measurement behaviors that are important to
customers. Zemke and Albrecht (1985) suggested that service plays an important role
in defining a restaurant’s competitive strategies and identified systems and strategies
for managing service. In 1988, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry developed a
multiple-item scale for measuring service quality called SERVQUAL. SERVQUAL
is a generic instrument for measuring perceived service quality that is viewed as the
degree and direction of discrepancy between consumers’ perceptions and
expectations. Thus, service quality, as perceived by consumers, stems from a
comparison of what they feel service providers should offer with their perceptions of
the performance of service provided by service providers (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and
Berry, 1988). The researchers also identified that there are five dimensions to service
quality. The following is a list of the five dimensions and a brief description of each:
1. Tangibles: (physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel).
2. Reliability: (ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately).

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3. Responsiveness (willingness to help customers and provide prompt service).

4. Assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust
and confidence).
5. Empathy (caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers).
The SERVQUAL scale was employed to measure the service quality in an electric
and gas utility company (Babakus and Boller, 1992) as well as restaurants (Bojanic
and Rosen, 1994; Fu, 1999). In 1990, Knuston, Wullaert, Patton & Yokoyama drafted
LODGSERV to improve on what a generic instrument might do in defining and
measuring service quality, specifically for lodging properties. Among the five
dimensions, reliability was found to be the most important of the five dimensions for
lodging consumers followed, in ranking, by assurance, responsiveness, tangibles, and
empathy (Knutson, Stevens, Wullaert, Patton and Yokoyama, 1990). Subsequently,
Knutson, Yokoyama, Patton, and Thompson (1990) analyzed the statistical
methodology itself, comparing the uses of confirmatory analysis versus factor analysis
in index testing and refinement.
Then, in 1992, Knuston, Stevens, Patton, and Thompson studied consumer
expectations for service quality in economy, mid-price, and luxury hotels. Across the
three segments, they found that the five dimensions maintained their same ranking
positions and that the higher the price category, the higher the consumer expectations
of service quality. As a next step, Patton, Stevens and Knutson (1994) translated the
instrument into other languages and pilot-tested LODGSERV in five other cultures.
The instrument worked equally well, retaining its high validity level across each of
the five pilot tests.
In 1995, Stevens, Knutson, and Patton drafted DINSERV after adapting the
instrument SERVQUAL to the restaurant industry and using the lessons learned in
developing and refining LODGSERV. The instrument was used to measure consumer
expectations for service quality in three restaurant segments: quick service,
casual/theme, and fine dining (Stevens, Knutson, and Patton, 1995). Like
LODGSERV, DINESERV was found to have a high degree of reliability. The alpha
for the total index is .95, while the reliability coefficients (alpha levels) for the five
dimensions range from .89 to .92 (Stevens, Knutson, and Patton, 1995). Results show
that DINESERV is a valid and reliable index by which consumer expectations for
service quality in a restaurant experience can be measured.
In 1999, Wu, Goh, Lin and Chen conducted a study in measuring service quality
in a mid-price multi-unit Chinese restaurant using the DINESERVE instrument. The
authors evaluated the customer perceptions of service quality and identified the
differences in customer perceived service quality between lunch and dinner and
between new customers and regular customers (Wu, Goh, Lin, and Chen, 1999).

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Kim, McCahon, and Miller (1999) also conducted a study to validate five dimensions
of the DINESERV instrument in Korean casual dining restaurants and explored the
differences in perceived service quality by restaurant. It is also hypothesized that
perceived service quality differs based upon characteristics of the patrons. The
present study attempts to evaluate customers’ perceptions of service quality in a
chain-operated steakhouse using modified DINESERV instrument. Results can be
compared to the results of previous studies.

Methodology
DINESERV intrument will be modified and translated into Chinese and pilot-
tested. It would contain 29 questions divided into five service quality dimensions.
They are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Responses
would be on a 7-point likert scale from ‘strongly agree” (7) to “strongly disagree” (1).
The questionnaire survey will be conducted on a two-week period during lunch and
dinner time at 14 restaurants of a chain-operated steakhouse. All customers who
come to restaurants for lunch and dinner during the two-week research period will be
asked to complete the questionnaires. A restaurant coupon will be given to the
customers who agree to participate in the survey to prompt the response rate. The
Cronboch Coeffecient Alpha will be used to test the construct reliability. Analysis of
variances (ANOVA) will be used to determine the difference of dimension scores in
tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurances and empathy between different meals
and different groups in loyalty. In addition, correlation analysis will be used to
determine the relationship between customers’ perceived service quality and their
characteristics such as gender, marital status, age, and reasons for dining.

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