Analysis of the Quality Attributes and the Customer Satisfaction in School Foodservice by School Type and Distribution Place

ABSTRACT

The purposes of this study were to analyze the quality attributes and customer satisfaction in school foodservice by distribution place and to suggest an improvement plan. The survey was distributed to different respondents (students, parents, and faculty) at different types of schools (elementary school, middle school, and high school) on September 2008 in 16 cities and provinces. The statistics were analyzed using descriptive analysis, t-test, and ANOVA by SPSS 12.0. All foodservice quality attributes were significant different by school type and the students in elementary schools had higher scores than students in middle and high school. A comparison of scores by school type and distribution place demonstrated that elementary schools had a higher score for quality attributes and in middle and high school dining halls had a higher score for quality attributes. The overall customer satisfaction with school foodservice was higher for dining halls than classrooms for all respondents (students, parents, and faculty). For students, the overall customer satisfaction score was 69.1 for schools using dining halls and 66.4 for schools using classrooms. The overall customer satisfaction for classrooms was higher in elementary school but, this score for middle and high school was higher for dining halls. Therefore, students prefer dining halls to classrooms. Especially, as the students grow, they have an increased preference for dining halls.