vatel group3 revised

De La Salle University-Manila

Industrial Engineering Department

HUBEHOR - EB1

Term Paper

Service Quality Survey among

Vatel Restaurant Manila Guests

Presented to the Owners and Management of Vatel Restaurant

Prepared by:

Group 3

Michael Ang

Wira Madria

Angelimarie Miguel

Malvin Mijares

Kimberly Tee

Judy Wu

Submitted On:

November 15, 2015

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

1. Background of the Survey

2. General findings

2.1 Importance of each of the five dimensions of a fine dining restaurant service quality

2.2 Satisfaction on each dimension and on overall service quality

2.3 Percentage rating compared to other fine dining restaurants

2.4 Strengths and aspects for improvement

References

Appendix

Executive Summary

This paper aims to help and improve the management of Vatel Restaurant Manila, a French fine

dining restaurant. It aims to improve the service quality that Vatel brings to its customer in terms of the

importance of each of the five dimensions of service quality, satisfaction of guests on each dimension and

on overall service, and strengths and aspects for improvement of the restaurant. The survey was

conducted on October 30-31, 2015 and November 3-6, 2015. There were 30 respondents for the survey

having 8 foreigners and 22 Filipino customers. The results gathered from the survey are based on their

information and opinions.

Of the five dimensions, Tangibles has the highest rated importance, followed by Responsiveness.

The least important dimensions were rated as Assurance and Empathy. Unfortunately, most of the factors

with the lowest satisfaction ratings from the respondents were from the most important dimensions. The

least important dimensions garnered the highest satisfaction ratings in the survey. The overall weighted

service quality rating of Vatel Restaurant Manila is 5.6. In a 7 point scale, that translates to 80%

satisfaction. The dimensions were divided into 22 factors. The highest ratings were obtained by factors 19

(Vatel restaurant has employees who give you personal attention) and 15 (You feel safe in your

transactions with Vatel restaurant); while the lowest were by 1 (Vatel restaurant has modern-looking

equipment.) and 10 (Employees in Vatel restaurant tell you exactly when services will be performed.).

The specific strengths mentioned by the respondents were mainly on the Tangibles dimension.

The areas that the restaurant can improve, as cited by the customers, were mainly focused on the

Tangibles and Empathy dimensions. Additional findings and analysis of the survey may be done for Vatel

Restaurant Manila management upon request.

1. Background of the Survey

SERVQUAL is a framework for total quality management that was developed by Valarie

Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman and Leonard Berry in the mid-1980s. Businesses, particularly those in the

service sector, use the SERVQUAL framework in order to assess the service quality level of their

enterprise according to the ratings of the customers. The questionnaire measures the expectations

customers have for the level of quality service and their perceptions of the service they experienced. As

such, the survey is able to assess whether the enterprise is able to meet the customer expectation in terms

of the quality of service implemented.

Vatel Restaurant Manila is an authentic French fine dining restaurant located in the roof deck of

Hotel Benilde, Estrada St., Malate, Metro Manila, Philippines. Vatel caters to its customers from lunch to

dinner time. On Mondays to Fridays, it is open at 11:30am to 9:00pm and 11:30am-7:00pm during

Saturdays. Aside from their famous French cuisines, Vatel also serves Pizza, Greek, and Mediterranean

food. As a renowned French fine dining restaurant, Vatel ensures that all the dishes are carefully prepared

and served to their customers for their best dining experience.

In order to assess the overall satisfaction of the customers in Vatel Restaurant Manila, the

SERVQUAL framework was implemented. A total of thirty four respondents participated through

answering the SERVQUAL survey. The survey questionnaire was divided into three parts, the importance

of each of the five dimensions of service quality, satisfaction of guests on each dimension and on overall

service, and strengths and aspects for improvement of the restaurant. The thirty four respondents can be

classified into different categories. In the age category, 6 out of the 34 were 30 years old or above while

the remaining 28 were below 30 years of age. Categorizing by gender, 12 of the respondents were male

while 22 were female. Lastly, in the nationality category, 26 of the respondents were Filipino citizens

while 8 were foreigners. However, the limitation for the survey is that it was limited to a small time frame

of just six days. In addition, only a portion of the population was surveyed and it might not reflect the

overall suggestion of the entire population.

2. General findings

2.1 Importance of each of the five dimensions of a fine dining restaurant service quality

When evaluating the quality of a service centered business, the SERVQUAL construct is one

method for measurement of customer satisfaction that is based on multiple factors rather than one factor.

According to Valarie Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman and Leonard Berry, the dimensions utilized to measure

service quality are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The descriptions of each

are as follows:

Tangibles Tangibility is the appearance of the restaurant’s physical facilities, equipment, personnel and

communication materials.

Reliability This dimension depends on managing problems regarding customer services. Therefore,

reliability is the ability of the restaurant to perform the promised service dependably and

accurately. It is also executing services right the first time and maintaining an error-free record by

providing services at the promised time.

Responsiveness Responsiveness described as the willingness or readiness of employees to provide service. This

dimension also involves timeliness of services, understanding the needs and wants of the

customers, convenient business hours, individual attention conveyed by the staff, and

responsiveness to the customer’s problems and safety in their transaction. (Kumar et. Al., 2009)

Assurance Assurance is defined as knowledge and courtesy of employees and the ability to convey and

inspire trust and confidence.

Empathy According to Parasuraman et al. (1985), empathy is the caring and individual attention the

restaurant provides its customer. Furthermore, Empathy comprises of giving the customers

individual attention, employee understanding of the needs of their customers, and providing

convenient business hours. In the case of fine dining restaurant, empathy may be relevant to

guarantee the loyalty of their customers as the server recognizes the customer’s preference of how

his/her food is prepared. Moreover, empathy in the milieu of fine dining can be exhibited through

showing concern when service failure occurs and providing recovery of service and trying very

hard to provide special needs of the customer

In this part of the survey, the proponents were tasked to allocate points totaling 100 among the

five dimensions pertaining to the service quality of any restaurant depending on how relevant each

dimension is for them. Furthermore, they were informed that more points allocated to a certain dimension

correspond to more importance of that dimension relative to others.

Table 1. Average and Standard deviation of ratings of customer expectation (n = 30)

No. Dimension Feature Average Standard

Deviation

1 Tangibles The appearance of Vatel Restaurant’s

physical facilities, equipment, personnel,

& communication materials.

25.9 8.9

2 Reliability Vatel Restaurant's ability to perform the

promised service dependably and

accurately.

21.2 6.9

3 Responsiveness Vatel Restaurant's willingness to help

customers and provide prompt service.

22.6 8.1

4 Assurance The knowledge & courtesy of Vatel

Restaurant l's employees and their ability

to convey trust & confidence.

14.9 4.8

5 Empathy The caring, individualized attention Vatel

Restaurant l's provides its customers.

15.7 9.0

The two dimension that gained the largest average points are Tangibles (25.9) and

Responsiveness (22.6), followed by Reliability (21.2) (see Table 1). It can be interpreted that the

respondents perceive Tangibles and Responsiveness as the most relevant dimensions and expect that a

fine dining restaurant should surpass other types of restaurant in terms of the restaurant’s appearance, the

willingness to aid customers, and the delivery of prompt services. On the other hand, Assurance (14.9)

was perceived as least important dimension of service quality expectation of the restaurant followed by

Empathy (15.7).

The standard deviations for the points allocated to Tangibles (8.9), Reliability (6.9),

Responsiveness (8.1), Assurance (4.8), and Empathy (9.0) are all quite high. The ratios of the standard

deviation to the average points given to Tangibles (0.3), Reliability (0.3), Responsiveness (0.4),

Assurance (0.3), and Empathy (0.6) are all above the 0.1 ratio. As such, all the standard deviations are

considered high meaning that opinions regarding the relevance of all the five dimensions are widely

spread and there are disputes between the respondents’ context of their relevance.

Table 2. Average points and ranks assigned to 5 dimensions (n=30, R-squared=0.99)

No. Dimension Ave.

Points

Rank

1 Tangibles The appearance of Vatel Restaurant's physical

facilities, equipment, personnel, &

communication materials.

25.9 2.1


promised service dependably and accurately.

21.2 2.7



22.6 2.5


Restaurant's employees and their ability to

convey trust & confidence.

14.9 3.9


Restaurant provides its customers.

15.7 3.8

The respondents were also tasked to rank the five dimensions in regards to its importance with 1

as the least important and 5 as the most important (see Table 2). Tangibles (2.1) and Responsiveness (2.5)

ranked the highest. On the other hand, Assurance (3.9) and Empathy (3.8) ranked least with ranks equal

ranks.

For human-related studies, consistency is measured by R-squared (coefficient of determination)

and a perfect consistency requires a R-squared of 1.00 and an acceptable one should not exceed 0.64. The

allocation of points and ranking were deemed consistent since R-squared acquired in the survey is 0.99,

which is near perfect consistency.

2.2 Satisfaction on each dimension and on overall service quality

In this part of the survey, the guests were asked to rate their satisfaction with each of the five

dimensions illustrated through 22 items where they could rate integrally from 1, as strongly disagree, to 7,

as strongly agree. The 22 questions in the survey from for this part were disaggregated of the five

dimensions, which are Tangibles (1-4), Reliability (5-9), Responsiveness (11-13), Assurance (14-17), and

Empathy (18-22).

The customers were generally pleased at the level of service Vatel Manila Restaurant offered. Out

of all the five dimensions, it is shown that Assurance has the highest average rating of 5.92, followed by

Empathy with a rating of 5.78 (see Table 3). The lowest rating was given to Tangibles, with an average

rating of 5.40. The ratios of the standard deviations to the averaging ratings per dimension of Tangibles

(0.2), Reliability (0.2), Responsiveness (0.2), Assurance (0.2), and Empathy (0.2) are all above 0.1. As

such, they are considered to have high standard deviations meaning that the responses of the respondents

differ significantly and that responses are dispersed widely.

Table 3. Average and Standard deviation of ratings of customer satisfaction

No. Dimension Factor Average Standard

Deviation

1 Tangibles The appearance of Vatel Restaurant's physical

facilities, equipment, personnel, &

communication materials. (Items 1-4)

5.4 1.0


promised service dependably and accurately.

(Items 5-9)

5.5 1.0

3 Responsiveness Vatel Restaurant l's willingness to help

customers and provide prompt service. (Items

10-13)

5.6 1.1


Restaurant's employees and their ability to

convey trust & confidence. (Items 14-17)

5.9 0.9


Restaurant's provides its customers. (Items 18-

22)

5.8 0.9

The overall weighted service quality rating of Vatel Restaurant Manila of 5.6 was calculated

using the importance level , which signified that on average, the respondents are satisfied with the overall

service of the restaurant (see Table 4). In a 7 point scale, that translates to 80% satisfaction.

Table 4. Satisfaction ratings of the 5 dimensions: average and importance

No. Dimension Factor Satisfaction Importance

1 Tangibles The appearance of Vatel Restaurant's

physical facilities, equipment, personnel,

& communication materials. (Items 1-4)

5.4 25.9


promised service dependably and

accurately. (Items 5-9)

5.5 21.2



(Items 10-13)

5.6 22.6


Restaurant's employees and their ability

to convey trust & confidence. (Items 14-

17)

5.9 14.9


Restaurant provides its customers. (Items

18-22)

5.8 15.7

Overall Weighted

Average

5.6

When comparing the satisfaction level of customers with the degree of importance and ranking

they assigned to the five dimensions of service quality, it can be observed that the Responsiveness

dimension (5.6), which has the highest rank in terms of customer importance, is the closest to the overall

weighted service quality rating. This is not an alarming finding. However, this signifies that the

Responsiveness factor can be further improved to increase the satisfaction rating of customers. Tangibles,

which has the highest importance rating, has the lowest satisfaction rating (5.4). Despite being an

important dimension, it garnered the lowest satisfaction rating. This is an alarming observation and

should be addressed by the management as soon as possible. On the other hand, the dimensions

Assurance (5.9) and Empathy (5.8) garnered the highest satisfaction while having the lowest importance

ratings. This is a significant observation as it implies that the restaurant is focusing on elements of the

restaurant that the customers do not consider as the most important while being unable to prioritize the

most important factors for the customers.

From the 22 factors considered in the survey, factors 1 (5.2) and 10 (5.2) have the lowest ratings

(see Table 5). As factor 1 (Vatel restaurant has modern-looking equipment.) is part of the Tangibles

dimension and factor 10 (Employees in Vatel restaurant tell you exactly when services will be

performed.) is of the Responsiveness, this is alarming since Tangibles and Responsiveness are the top two

most important factors customers consider in service quality. As such, this signifies that Vatel Restaurant

Manila should consider improving their equipment and responsiveness to customer needs to increase

customer satisfaction. The highest satisfaction rating was obtained by factor 19 (6.2), followed by factor

15 (6.1). Factor 19 (Vatel restaurant has employees who give you personal attention.) and 15 (You feel

safe in your transactions with Vatel restaurant.) are from the Empathy and Assurance dimensions

respectively, which are the dimensions with the lowest importance ratings. This further implies that the

Vatel Restaurant Manila garners the highest satisfaction levels on the least important factors according to

the respondents. As such, the establishment may choose to focus more on the Tangibles and

Responsiveness factors as they are the most important according to the respondents.

Below shows the highest ratings were obtained by 19 and 15; while the lowest were by 1 and 10.

19. Vatel restaurant has employees who give you personal attention. 6.2

15. You feel safe in your transactions with Vatel restaurant. 6.1

1. Vatel restaurant has modern-looking equipment. 5.2

10. Employees in Vatel restaurant tell you exactly when services will be performed. 5.2

Table 5. Average and Standard deviation of ratings of customer satisfaction on service quality dimensions

and their factors

Dimension Factor Average Standard Deviation

1 Tangibles 1. Vatel restaurant has modern-looking equipment. 5.2 0.8

2. Vatel restaurant's physical facilities are visually appealing. 5.4 1.0

3. Vatel restaurant's employees are neat-appearing. 5.8 1.2

4. Materials associated with service (such as pamphlets ) are visually appealing 5.3 0.9

5.4 1.0

2 Reliability 5. When Vatel restaurant promises to do something by a certain time, it does so. 5.4 1.0

6. When you have a problem, Vatel restaurant shows a sincere interest in solving it. 5.6 1.0

7. Vatel restaurant performs the service right the first time. 5.7 0.9

8. Vatel restaurant provides its services at the time it promises to do so. 5.4 1.0

9. Vatel restaurant provides accurate and timely information. 5.3 0.9

5.5 1.0

3 Responsiveness 10. Employees in Vatel restaurant tell you exactly when services will be performed. 5.2 1.1

11. Employees in Vatel restaurant give you prompt service. 5.6 1.1

12. Employees in Vatel restaurant are always willing to help you. 5.9 1.0

13. Employees in Vatel restaurant are never too busy to respond to your requests. 5.8 0.9

5.6 1.1

4 Assurance 14. The behavior of employees in Vatel restaurant instills confidence in you. 5.8 1.0

15. You feel safe in your transactions with Vatel restaurant 6.1 0.9

16. Employees in Vatel restaurant are consistently courteous and polite to you. 6.0 0.8

17. Employees in Vatel restaurant get enough support from management to do job

well

5.9 0.9

5.9 0.9

5 Empathy 18. Vatel restaurant's management and staff attend to your specific individual needs. 6.0 0.9

19. Vatel restaurant has employees who give you personal attention. 6.2 0.8

20. Vatel restaurant knows what your needs are. 5.4 0.8

21. Vatel restaurant has your best interests at heart. 5.6 0.9

22. Operating hours of restaurant are convenient to you. 5.8 0.9

5.8 0.9

2.3 Percentage rating compared to other fine dining restaurants

In order to classify the rating of Vatel Restaurant Manila, the respondents classified Vatel as to

which bracket they belong to in terms of the other fine dining restaurants. 44.1% of the respondents which

corresponds to the biggest percentage placed Vatel within the top 60% bracket based from the average

number of other fine dining restaurants that they visited which is at 3.8 (see Table 6). In addition, the least

number of respondents placed Vatel within their top 20% bracket with 8.8% with an average number of

other fine dining restaurants visited at 6.0. This implies that the rating of Vatel is around top 40%-80%

which is just satisfactory. However, it might be an opportunity for Vatel since there is more room to

grow. Although the data might not be as accurate since the average number of other fine dining

restaurants that the respondents visited is fairly low since Vatel is compared to an average of 3-6

restaurants only.

Table 6. Rating compared to other fine dining restaurants

Rating Percentage of

Respondents

Average number of other fine

dining restaurants visited

Top 20% 8.8 6.0

Top 40% 20.6 4.2

Top 60% 44.1 3.8

Top 80% 26.5 3.8

2.4 Strengths and areas for improvement

2.4.1 Strengths

At the end of the survey, the respondents were asked to cite at least two strongest features or

strengths of the restaurant.

Table 7. Strengths, frequencies mentioned, and their corresponding factor

Strengths Frequency Factor

Clean 2 2

Organized 1 2

Ambiance 7 2

Facilities 3 2

Employees with pleasing personality 5 3

Promptness 1 11

Hospitality and Care 3 16, 19

Affordability 2 21

Furnitures 3 1, 2

Food 6 21

Menu 2 4, 21

Service

6 7, 11,

12, 13

Most of the strengths mentioned by the guests belongs to factors under tangibles (see Table 7).

Most of the respondents agree that Vatel Restaurant has a pleasing and comforting ambiance, and

employees with pleasing personalities. This verified the high importance of the tangibles, the second

highest next to responsiveness, to the respondents. Meaning, these are the factors that are perceptible to

the respondents since they find these factors significant. However, it got the lowest satisfaction rating

among the five dimensions. Moreover, the most respondents cited the quality of service which falls under

Responsiveness (factors 11, 12, and 13). This verified why Responsiveness acquired the top importance

among the five dimensions. The variety of menu, the affordable price, and the food that the restaurant

serve, which belong to factor 21 under Empathy, was also cited more than once. This explains the high

satisfaction rating received by Empathy.

2.4.2 Areas for improvement

The respondents were also asked to cite at least two aspects of the restaurant that needs

improvement.

Table 8. Areas for improvement, frequencies mentioned, and their corresponding factor

For improvement Frequency Factor

Ventilation and air conditioning 2 1

Communication materials 1 1

Reception 2 2

Interior design 3 2

Pool 1 2

Exterior area 1 2

Al fresco dining area 1 2

Location 2 2

Ambiance 3 2

Sitting capacity 3 2

Vicinity 1 2

View 1 2

Receptionist sometimes forget to welcome guests 1 16

Price 2 21

Operating hours 2 22

Service time 3 11, 13

Food 5 21

Menu 4 4, 21

Beverage menu 1 4, 21

Professionalism 1 many

Most of the aspects cited also belong to factors under tangibles (see Table 8). This explains why

tangibles received the lowest satisfaction rating even though most strengths cited by the respondents

belongs to this dimension. This means that the feature that needs improvement in this dimension

outweighs its strong features. On the other hand, the menu and the food (factor 21 under Empathy), which

were considered as strengths, were also cited as areas for improvement more than once. Although

Empathy received a high satisfaction ranking, the frequency suggests that these aspects still needs further

improvement.

References

Berry, L., Parasuraman, A. & Zeithaml, V.(1988). Servqual: a multiple-item scale for measuring

consumer perceptions of service quality. Retrieved from http://areas.kenan-

flagler.unc.edu/Marketing/FacultyStaff/zeithaml/Selected%20Publications/SERVQUAL

%20A%20MultipleItem%20Scale%20for%20Measuring%20Consumer%20Perceptions

%20of%20Service%20Quality.pdf

Kumar, S. A., Mani, B. T., Mahalingam, S., and Vanjikovan, M. (2009). Influence of Service

Quality on Attitudinal Loyalty in Private Retail Banking: an empirical study. IUP Journal

of Management Research, 9(4), 21-38.

Appendix Appendix A: Servqual questionnaire

SERVICE QUALITY for Vatel Restaurant

Dear guest, may we have 15 minutes of your time to answer this survey to help improve the services our restaurant provides.

Name: No.of times visited this restaurant___ Age:_<30 _at least 30yrs.

No.of other fine-dining restaurants visited ____

Nationality:__Phils. __Other:_______ Sex:__Male __Female

PART 1. Directions: Listed below are five features pertaining to restaurants and the services they offer. We would like to know how important each of these features is to you when you evaluate a restaurant's quality of service. Please allocate a total of 100 pts among the five features according to how important each feature is to you - the more important a feature is to you, the more pts you should allocate to it. Please ensure that the point you allocate to the five features add up to 100.

1 Appearance of the physical facilities, equipment, personnel, & communucation materials

2 Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately

3 Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service

4 Knowledge &courtesy of the employees and their ability to convey trust & confidence

5 The caring, individualized attention the restaurant provides its customers

TOTAL points allocated>>100 pts

Which one feature among the above 5 is most important to you? (Enter feature's number)

Which feature is second most important to you?

Which feature is least important to you?

PART 2. Directions: The ff. set of statements relate to your feelings about Vatel Restaurant. For each statement, please rate the extent to which you believe Vatel has a feature described by the statement. Rating of 1 means that you strongly disagree that Vatel has that feature, and a 7 means that you strongly agree. Check(/) any of the numbers (1,2,3,4,5,6, or 7) that shows how strong your feelings are. We are interested in a number that best shows your perceptions about Vatel.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Strongly Agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Vatel restaurant has modern-looking equipment.

2. Vatel restaurant's physical facilities are visually appealing.

3. Vatel restaurant's employees are neat-appearing.

4. Materials associated with service (such as pamphlets ) are visually appealing

5. When Vatel restaurant promises to do something by a certain time, it does so.

6. When you have a problem, Vatel restaurant shows a sincere interest in solving it.

7. Vatel restaurant performs the service right the first time.

8. Vatel restaurant provides its services at the time it promises to do so.

9. Vatel restaurant provides accurate and timely information.

10. Employees in Vatel restaurant tell you exactly when services will be performed.

11. Employees in Vatel restaurant give you prompt service.

12. Employees in Vatel restaurant are always willing to help you.

13. Employees in Vatel restaurant are never too busy to respond to your requests.

14. The behavior of employees in Vatel restaurant instills confidence in you.

15. You feel safe in your transactions with Vatel restaurant

16. Employees in Vatel restaurant are consistently courteous and polite to you.

17. Employees in Vatel restaurant get enough support from management to do job well

18. Vatel restaurant's management and staff attend to your specific individual needs.

19. Vatel restaurant has employees who give you personal attention.

20. Vatel restaurant knows what your needs are.

21. Vatel restaurant has your best interests at heart.

22. Operating hours of restaurant are convenient to you.

Compared with other fine dining restaurant, Vatel's services are within the top ___20% ___40% __60% __80%

Please cite at least two of the strongest features of Vatel restaurant:

Please cite at least two areas for improvement of Vatel restaurant:

Appendix B: Picture of authors in front of the restaurant

Appendix C: Excel file of data sheet for respondents

Appendix D: Acknowledgement receipts

vatel group3 revised

Documents