SERVICE QUALITY: AN ASSESSMENT OF GAPS IN RESTAURANTS OF BILASPUR CITY

The aim of this study is to assess the service quality gaps lies in the restaurants of Bilaspur city with respect to expectation and experience of the customers?. SERVQUAL scale is adopted and modified to suit the requirement of the study and survey in four well-known restaurants offering variety of cuisines was done. Mean score analysis was performed to identify the persists gaps with respect to expectation and experience of the customers? This study reveals that only services with respect to willingness to help customers and prompt services (Responsiveness) exceeds the expectation of customers? and gaps were identified in all other service dimensions which indicates poor service quality of the restaurants. Multiple regression analysis is performed to assess the impact of these service quality dimensions on satisfaction of customers and intention of their revisit. Significant but low impact was found on the satisfaction of customers (31%) and very low influence on intention of revisit was revealed (11%). Findings of this study helps the owners of restaurants to understand the gaps and take corrective actions for improving satisfaction of the customers?, thereby intending them for revisiting the restaurants and recommending the restaurants to others based on their positive experience.