Abstract

This study was designed to develop the strategy plans for the customer satisfaction on foodservice in the senior care facilities. For this, we examined the level of the customer satisfaction and foodservice quality. Additionally, the association between service quality, customer satisfaction, and social, psychological, physical factors of the aged were tested. Data from convenience samples from 3 senior care facilities were collected by using a questionnaire. Exploratory factor analyses were completed on 20 attributes for the food and service quality and 7 items for the social and psychological states of the aged, respectively. Cronbach's alpha was estimated for reliability, and Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were used for statistical analyses. The level of the satisfaction on foodservice was 4.01 of 5.0. The satisfaction on foodservice did not show the significant differences by gender, education level, BMI, and socio-psychological satisfaction. But the foodservice quality and the satisfaction showed significant difference by income and physical problem, and the goal of life of the eldely, respectively. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the determinants of the customer satisfaction on foodservice were the core quality of product, confidence, professionalism of employees and secondary quality of products. Especially, the kindness of employee is the most important attribute of the foodservice. Based on these results, we can set the strategy plans as follow: (1) the introduction of the foodservice evaluation system (2) the deployment of the event activities for offering fun to the customer (3) the continuous training of employees for ensuring the professional and kind service system, and (4) the introduction of selective menu system and take-out service of menu.

• Keywords: senior care facilities; food service quality; determinants of foodservice satisfaction; sociopsychological satisfaction