Development of SERVQUAL and DINESERV for Measuring Meal Experiences in Eating Establishments

During the last two decades, SERVQUAL and DINESERV have been widely used to measure service quality in the hospitality industry. At the same time, interest in and research of meal experiences have increased. This article develops a measurement tool for meal experiences by combining SERVQUAL, DINESERV, and meal experience models. By measuring the meal experience, eating establishment owners should be able to increase the number of customers returning to their restaurants. Three sets of statements based on SERVQUAL were discussed in terms of six meal experience aspects, resulting in 14 new statements covering different parts of the meal experience; 11 were included in the new set of statements. Both old statements and new statements were assembled into a list of 89 statements and then randomized; the entire list was presented to three professional experts in the hospitality industry who favored statements that would cover an entire meal experience. This resulted in 29 new and old statements that together cover six meal experience aspects: core product, restaurant interior, personal social meeting, company, restaurant atmosphere, and management control system. This article develops new statements that will be adjusted to meal experience and its complexity in eating establishments. This instrument needs testing in real settings, which will be reported on in future research.