Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the customer's perception of the importance of restaurant quality by using a developed SERVQUAL model. In particular, it was intended to provide the basic information for nutrition education for family's eating out. the data were collected through the survey over 440 families who have lived around the apartments in Kyongju and Seoul. The structure questionnaire included 35 items evaluating the quality of restaurants, adapting SERVQUAL model and adding other factors related to restaurant and the general characteristics of the families. The data were analyzed using SPSS 10.0 WIN program for descriptive analysis, a chi-square test and Pearson's correlation test. The major results were as follows: From the factor analysis, the 35 items related to the quality of restaurant have been categorized into 10 factors, ie., 'Health', 'Reliability', 'Employee', 'Food', 'Facilities', 'Product', 'Empathy', 'Access', 'Comfort', and 'Safety'. From the analysis of the correlation between family life cycle of four steps and 10 factors, four factors such as 'Health', 'Facilities' (p<0.001), 'Comfort' (p<0.01) and 'Product' (p<0.05) showed statistical significance. 'Health' and 'Product' factors marked the highest score in the family with senior couple live without children or single, but the lowest score in the family with young couple without children or single. 'Facilities' and 'Comfort' factors showed the highest scores in the family with under elementary school children, and the lowest scores in the family with over elementary school children.

• Keywords: eating-out; restaurants quality; SERVQUAL; family lifecycle