Quality of the product and service offered becomes the voice of consumer in retail café industry. The objective of this paper is to examine the service quality dimensions in coffee shops through a SERVQUAL study. A descriptive research design was employed using convenient sampling with a sample size of 160 to measure customer expectation and perceptions on five dimensions- reliability, assurance, tangible, empathy and responsiveness in the context of cafes. The results revealed that the perceived performance on all dimensions fell short of expectations. Maximum gap between perception and expectation was for responsiveness and empathy while least gap was for tangibles. Customers had the highest expectation from café employees who were willing to help and respond to their requests. Highest perception was related to tangibles dimension, indicating the physical environment at cafes was appealing, while lowest perception was for reliability dimension indicating cafes did not perform service properly (eg. slow delivery). The bivariate tests confirmed that service quality expectation and perception differed between age groups and occupational status. The café owners need to address the gaps and enhance the customer satisfaction, which would subsequently result in higher conversions and boosting profits.
Volume 11 | 03-Special Issue
Pages: 1185-1191