Strategies Used to Monitor and Control Service Quality: A Case Study of Restaurants in Nairobi City

Service quality (SQ) plays an important role in the success of any service establishment. The purpose of the current study was to assess the strategies used in the process of monitoring and controlling SQ in the restaurant business. Specifically, the study aimed to establish what is involved in monitoring and controlling SQ, to identify the challenges encountered in monitoring and controlling SQ, to establish what restaurants are doing to overcome these challenges and to determine the most effective strategies in monitoring and controlling SQ. A case study design was adopted with primary data being collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. A sample of 60 staff respondents were chosen while all managers and supervisors of restaurants involved in the study qualified to be part of the respondents. However, only 35 questionnaires were filled and returned. The major findings from the study indicated that all restaurants carry out monitoring and controlling of SQ. The control of SQ is done mostly through use of some process standards manual. However, there is more reliance on supervision and verbal guidance than a strict manual. Monitoring of SQ is done on a daily basis by a majority of restaurants through close supervision. Of all the indicators of SQ, ‘sales’ was highly ranked. Some of the challenges encountered during monitoring and controlling of SQ included diversity among customers with dissimilar needs and expectations, and employees giving varied responses to quality issues. It is recommended that efforts to improve team work among staff must be made. Keywords: Service quality; Strategy; Monitoring and controlling; Restaurants; Nairobi