Abstract:
Hela bojun restaurant is a traditional food court concept initiated by the
Department of agriculture in the aim of empowering the rural women by
generating agriculture based entrepreneurship, employment and private
enterprise opportunities while encouraging young people to become aware of
and interested in local, wholesome, and nutritious traditional cuisine and
reducing the effects of the unhealthy Western fast-food culture. However, the
level of service quality of Hela bojun restaurants and customer satisfaction has
not been measured for years since its initiation. The purpose of this study is to
examine the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in
Traditional food courts in Sri Lanka. Quantitative research approach was
followed for the study and a structured questionnaire was developed and
distributed among 150 customers who visited the food courts in Southern
Province applying the convenient sampling method. This study identified
service quality dimensions as independent variables and customer satisfaction
as dependent variable based on SERVQUAL model. Gathered data was
analyzed through univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis using SPSS
version 26. According to the results of the analysis, Reliability,
Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy have a positive significant impact
on customer satisfaction whereas a negative insignificant impact of empathy
on customer satisfaction. According to the findings, the service quality act as
an important factor of higher customer satisfaction in traditional Sri Lankan
food courts. The study was conducted during the post-pandemic period
limiting to Southern Province which identified as limitations of the study. To
achieve a high level of customer satisfaction, supervisors and operators would
concentrate on Reliability, Responsiveness, and Assurance while focusing on
Empathy, which will lead to customer retention and increased socio-economic
benefits.
