Quality of service delivered by alcoholic beverage suppliers to customers in the South African hospitality industry

Service quality can be described as the relative distance between a customer’s expectation of how they feel a service should be performed, and their perception of how that service was executed. Anecdotal evidence suggested that, according to this definition, a service quality “gap” exists between the service attributes expected by businesses in the hospitality industry and those actually offered by service providers in the South African alcoholic beverage industry. The primary objective of this study was to investigate whether there is a discrepancy between the reselling customer’s expectations and perceptions of the service quality delivered by South African alcoholic beverage suppliers. This is necessary due to the importance of the South African alcoholic beverage industry within the global and local contexts, as well as service quality's significant role in business. Secondary objectives involved exploring service quality dimensions and what customers' actual expectations and perceptions are. This exploratory research study was conducted through the use of online SERVQUAL surveys to obtain the relevant data from respondents. Screened respondents were reached via email and social media platforms. This study found that there is a discrepancy between customers’ expectations and perceptions of service quality in this context. It also found that there are discrepancies for each of the RATER dimensions, of which Reliability showed both the highest expectation and gap score, and that all five RATER dimensions have a unique effect on customers’ perception of service