Abstract

Customers’ perceptions about food and service attributes are considered to be very crucial in influencing their satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the food and service industry. This study focused on customer satisfaction and the general perception about food services of two restaurants on the Nyankpala Campus of the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. The study further looked at the challenges the restaurants encounter in acquiring and storing agricultural produce in the industry. The two restaurants were Alimento (A) and Lovely Sisters (B), purposively sampled, based on their high levels of patronage. A semi-structured questionnaire was designed and administered to a total of 240 respondents in both restaurants during the second session of 2009/2010 academic year. The main methods of analysis were principal component analysis and a multiple regression to find out the factors that influenced the levels of patronage so as to make recommendations for improvements. The study revealed that while only 38.8% of the customers were satisfied with the services of Restaurant A, as much as 81.7% of the customers in Restaurant B were satisfied. The principal components that influenced patrons’ frequency of visits to Restaurant A were cleanliness of eating area, cleanliness of serving area, appearance of staff and relaxed atmosphere. For Restaurant B, efficiency of service, friendliness of servers and pleasing appearance of food were the principal components that influenced patrons’ frequency of visit. Regression of patron’s frequency of visits on the principal components confirmed the significance of the factors in influencing the dependent variable. It is important that apart from reducing the price, Restaurant A improves upon its assurance and empathy dimensions while Restaurant B also improves upon its tangibility dimensions. Also, in order to avert the seasonal shortages of produce, it may be necessary for the restaurateurs to put up simple storage structures to store their raw materials.

Key words: Food service, perceptions, principal components, regression coefficients.