Measuring customer satisfaction on the cleanliness of food premises using fuzzy conjoint analysis: A pilot test

PLoS One. 2021 Sep 1;16(9):e0256896. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256896. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Determining the level of customer satisfaction in cleanliness regarding a product or service is a significant aspect of businesses. However, the availability of feedback tools for consumers to evaluate the cleanliness of a restaurant is a crucial issue as several aspects of cleanliness need to be evaluated collectively. To overcome this issue, this study designed a survey instrument based on the standard form used for grading the food premises and transformed it into a seven Likert scale questionnaire and consists of seven questions. This study employed fuzzy conjoint analysis to measure the level of satisfaction in cleanliness in food premises. This pilot study recruited 30 students in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Seremban 3. The student's perception was represented by the scores calculated based on their degree of similarities and corresponding levels of satisfaction, whereby, only scores with the highest degree of similarity were selected. Furthermore, this study identified the aspects of hygiene that assessed based on the customers' satisfaction upon visiting the premises. The results indicated that the fuzzy conjoint analysis produced a similar outcome as the statistical mean, thus, was useful for the evaluation of customer satisfaction on the cleanliness of food premises.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Consumer Behavior / statistics & numerical data*
  • Feedback*
  • Female
  • Fuzzy Logic
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Personal Satisfaction*
  • Pilot Projects
  • Quality Control*
  • Restaurants / organization & administration*
  • Restaurants / statistics & numerical data
  • Students / psychology
  • Students / statistics & numerical data
  • Surveys and Questionnaires / statistics & numerical data
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The Malaysian Ministry of Education supported this work through the Malaysia Research University Network (MRUN) grant [UPM/800-4/11/MRUN/2018/5539240]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.