PERCEPTION OF KITCHEN DEPARTMENT STAFF IN HOTEL TO IMPROVING SERVICE QUALITY FOR ELDERLY CUSTOMERS

Abstract

Kitchen department in hotelis one of section that should give priority to food service quality. Especially for food productionand preparation, because satisfying and trusting customers will encouragethem to come back for revisit, as it is related to their health and consumptionquality of customersdirectly.The research investigated perceptions of kitchen department staff of five hotels in service quality improvement for their customers in Bangkok. This qualitative research uses Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry’s (1990) service quality model as a theoretical conceptual framework. The in-depth interview method was used to collect data fromkitchen department staffs of five hotelsin Bangkok and using content analysis.The findings showed that kitchen department staff of hotel place great importance in all five dimensions of service quality componentswhich include1) Tangibility, 2) Reliability, 3) Responsiveness, 4) Assurance, and 5) Empathy. More importantly, the kitchen department staffs in five hotels are of the utmost importance to reliability and the front-lines hotel staff as they are main factor in encouraging elderly customers and representing the kitchen department in food presentation.In addition, the findings of this study can be used as a guideline for the development of kitchen department service quality in food production and preparation which will benefit the hoteloperators as well as government agencies who responsible for the food service business.