Service Quality as a Strategy to Enhance Customer Satisfaction

A Study at Ocean Garden Restaurant Turen

Abstract

This study examines service quality as a strategy for enhancing customer satisfaction at Ocean Garden Restaurant in Turen, using a qualitative case study approach with data gathered through in-depth interviews, participatory observation, and document review involving management, staff, and fifteen customers. Findings show that Responsiveness and Empathy are the dimensions customers experience most directly as satisfaction drivers, with senior staff flexibly setting aside written SOPs to accommodate personal customer needs, while Tangibles, Reliability, and Assurance function as baseline expectations rather than differentiators. Management addresses peak-hour pressure through shift allocation and pre-employment training, reflecting a people-based rather than technology-based strategy. These service quality dynamics translate into repeat purchase intentions and positive word-of-mouth, offering a theoretical contribution by showing how SERVQUAL dimensions are situationally negotiated in a small-to-medium local restaurant with a communal, repeat customer base, a context underexplored relative to standardized franchise settings. The study recommends increasing staff during peak hours, developing flexibility- and empathy-based training, maintaining physical facilities, and strengthening an integrated customer feedback system linked to staff performance evaluation