Measuring perceived service quality in food and beverage enterprises: A research in Gaziantep

Innovative technologies implemented in a variety of businesses operating in globally, producing goods and services; it has created a change in the lives of the employees and has influenced all the societies until the last quarter of a century. Consumers who are aware of how to use their leisure time effectively outside the working time have started to provide different savings on the remaining disposable income after meeting their basic needs. On the other hand, as in the various branches of the tourism sector, as a result of changing consumer preferences for the services offered in the food and beverage sector, consumers started to see food and beverage companies as a socialization tool together with their relatives and friends. In the past years, the movement of eating outside by the wealthy people for luxury, glamor and grace has penetrated to the wider segments of society today; it has become a leisure time activity for resting, having fun, culturing, stressing and socializing. Of course, as a result of this situation, the number and qualifications of the enterprises in the food and beverage sector have increased dramatically and intense competition has begun. As a positive return on this competition among enterprises, evaluations of customers who prefer themselves have become of great importance for enterprises that try to differentiate themselves from their competitors and thus ensure customer satisfaction. Especially, increasing the number of consumers evaluating food and beverage enterprises from different aspects in social media today, increases gradually the importance of this concept. The purpose of this research is to measure perceived service quality by consumers in food and beverage enterprises in Gaziantep. In this context, quantitative research method was used in the research. The questionnaire, which was developed by reading the literature, was applied on 772 individuals who visited the food and beverage enterprises in Gaziantep in April and May 2017 and in the months of May and June 2016. As a result of the research, it has been determined that the perceived quality in food and beverage enterprises is composed of three dimensions and 29 items related to these dimensions; "Assurance and Empathy", "Tangibles" and "Reliability and Responsiveness". In addition, it was revealed that customers perceived the quality high level in food and beverage enterprises in Gaziantep. However, the highest level of the perceived quality by customers is determined as "reliability and responsiveness" and the lowest quality dimension was determined as "tangibles". Considering the findings from the research results, the owners and managers of food and beverage enterprises in Gaziantep were presented with various suggestions to improve the service quality of their businesses. Keywords: Food and Beverage Enterprises, Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Gaziantep.