Analyzing Factors to Improve Service Quality of Local Specialties Restaurants: A Comparison with Fast Food Restaurants in Southern Vietnam

The top fast food restaurant brands like KFC and MacDonald’s have gone global and demonstrated their successful business strategies through providing quick-service and convenience for customers. Meanwhile, local specialty food has recently emerged as a phenomenon attracting customers’ attention on traditional value of ethnic food culture. The purpose of this study is to conduct a regional survey in Vietnamese restaurant companies to identify some key factors that make customers interested in local dishes. Questionnaires were delivered to customers having meals at local specialty restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The restaurants’ service quality focuses on six dimensions including price, healthy food, staff management, decoration, hygiene and location using a 5-rank scale measurement. The management staff of the surveyed restaurant companies demonstrated good level of knowledge on and awareness of doing business. However, issues of price and cultural management style in the restaurant business are insufficient. The results showed that the menu price for regular items of these specialty restaurants is not reasonable for most local diners to afford. Concerning about communication culture, the research interview also pointed out that the management staff should provide proper guidance for waiters on serving etiquette to make customer more satisfied. The main conclusion of this study is the need for collaboration between restaurant entrepreneurs in the area in order to implement the principles of healthy eating in out-of-home settings.