Investigating the management of service quality in the fast-food franchise industry in Gauteng

Abstract

The fast-food franchise industry is the largest global franchise sector. In South Africa, the fast-food franchise industry makes up more than 25% of the whole franchise sector. This has resulted in the fast-food franchise industry becoming one of the most competitive industries. The implication is that organisations within this industry have to implement additional measures to give themselves a competitive edge. Service quality has been recognised as an essential determinant of increasing an industry’s and organisation’s competitiveness. The quality of the service offered can affect the competitiveness and sustainability of a fast-food franchise directly, and negatively if these franchises’ services do not coincide with customers’ previous expectations and experiences. The problem that is presented is the observation that the service quality offered by all franchises does not align with customers’ expectations and experiences, which has a negative impact on the sustainability and competitiveness of fast-food franchises. While literature exists on service quality in the franchise industry, no present literature exists on quality management in the fast-food franchise sector. This gap was addressed with this study by contextualising the management of service quality, thereby contributing broadly to the body of knowledge on customer expectations, customer experience and customer satisfaction in the fast-food franchise industry in Gauteng. The primary objective of this study was to investigate service quality in terms of expectations and experiences in the fast-food franchise industry in Gauteng and to identify the dimensions of service quality that need to be managed for enhanced customer satisfaction. To gather the necessary data interpretations, a quantitative research approach was implemented in this study with a combination of exploratory and descriptive research designs. Descriptive research was conducted in the form of a structured, self-administered questionnaire that was developed on Google forms and shared via the researcher’s networks on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. All fast-food franchise customers were classified as the target population, and feedback was obtained from the 315 responses that were received, which could be utilised for statistical analysis. Data entry, tabulation and statistical analysis were done by the Statistical Consultation Services of the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus). The respondents in this study were on average 34-year-old full-time employed white females with a post-matric qualification. They had been fast-food customers for more than 10 years, purchased at least once a month in the afternoons from fast-food outlets in Gauteng, and they relied, to a great extent, on the quality of the products they bought from fast-food franchises. The psychometric properties of the SERVQUAL measuring instrument used in this study indicated that the instrument had high levels of internal consistency and acceptable elements of validity. Abstract

The empirical results and findings indicated that respondents often have higher expectations of service quality than that which they end up experiencing. The respondents found the service quality of fast-food franchises in Gauteng to be low and, subsequently, their customer satisfaction is influenced negatively. Based on the results, it is recommended that, in order to better manage and improve service quality, there should be a greater managerial focus on increasing the service quality aspect of the reliability dimension (largest gap) and less managerial effort on the tangibles dimension (smallest gap). Recommendations for future research include a broader scope of respondents and investigating why the respondents deem some of the service quality dimensions as more important than others. This study accentuates that the success of the fast-food franchise depends on the level of customer satisfaction because it will retain more customers, which will result in profit maximisation and the survival of the fast-food franchise.