Subliminal contributions of service quality dimensions to customer satisfaction in food delivery businesses

Abstract

Food delivery businesses have been influenced by technology, challenging time schedules and changing lifestyles in society. As a result, a sizeable portion of the population, sometimes orders meals for consumption at locations other than in restaurants where the meals have been prepared. Food delivery businesses act as agents to make this possible and by so doing, the quality of the service provided by food delivery businesses can affect the customer’s satisfaction with the food and possibly, the restaurants. This dilates the ramifications of poor service quality by food delivery businesses, for the broad hospitality sector. Yet, the extent to which service quality dimensions correlate with customer satisfaction in food delivery businesses in South Africa remains largely unexplored. Consequently, this study seeks to fill this gap by adopting a quantitative research methodology that employed a regression analysis technique to examine the study’s data. Findings indicate that the service quality dimensions of tangibles, assurance and empathy demonstrate statistically significant relationships with customer satisfaction. On this premise, food delivery businesses are therefore encouraged to prioritise performance improvements along these dimensions to aid the pursuit of higher levels of customer satisfaction.