Measuring service quality in gourmet coffee restaurants in Penang

The food service industry in Malaysia has shown a tremendous growth in the past few decades. Gourmet coffee restaurants as one of the sub-segment, has been a major contributor to the food service segment. Being an establishment that is highly customer-oriented, understanding their wants and needs is very crucial in staying competitive in the market. This is due to the factor that the power of word-of-mouth from those who patronized the restaurants and therefore, satisfying their needs could be viable in creating more demands for their products and services. This research emphasis's on measuring the service quality perception among gourmet coffee restaurants’ customers. It is done by comparing between customers’ actual experience about the products and services with their expectation. The questionnaire used for this research has been constructed based on the SERVQUAL dimensions which include ‘tangibles’,‘reliability’,‘responsiveness’, ‘assurance’, and ‘empathy’. The questionnaires were distributed among the gourmet coffee restaurants’ customers in some of Penang’s major attraction places and the analysis has been done by using the SPSS package to see the results from the survey