Diners’ Perceptions and Attitudes of a Crowded College Dining Environment: a Qualitative Study

Good food quality and optimum service delivery environments are fundamental factors in customer satisfaction. This study sought to determine the food quality and servicescape provision, offered as a supplementary service in a university dining environment. Exploratory research, using focus groups were used as an effective way of gathering customers` in-depth feelings, opinions, perceptions and behaviors of the services offered by the university dining venue, Quad Café. The areas of customers’ perceptions of, and attitudes towards, service delivery, food and service quality, and the service atmosphere with an emphasis on temporal dimensions and crowding were reviewed as a basis for understanding the case and the interviewees’ responses. The results showed that customers were satisfied with the quality of the food overall but felt that there were unexplored opportunities for improvement. They also expressed dissatisfaction with the level of crowding and resultant waiting times for a dining space. Future research is proposed that will investigate two areas: firstly, product and service concept testing regarding the food and servicescape, and secondly, the degree to which, if at all, supplementary university products and services affect consumers’ perceptions of the overall educational service provided by a University.