Impact
of Hygiene and Safety Training Programmes on Food Vendors
Introduction
Satisfied
customers are considered as vital to the long-term success of a business, and
the connection between customer satisfaction and customer behavior has been the
focused of different marketing literature for a long time. Tinker,
(1997) stated that
high consumer will help to motivate great customer loyalty, which will result
to future revenue (Vapnek, 2007). According
to Michigan Food Law, (2000) service and food quality is considered as reliant
on a chain of subsystems that are connected to the behaviors of the consumer,
together with profitability. This relationship is called the service profit
chain (Vapnek, 2007), which indicated that increased in the
satisfaction of the customer will help to decrease customer complaints and will
eventually lead to the loyalty of customer.
The quality of
services is critical and vital success factor for food businesses especially
those small food businesses. The quality of food products and service is close
conceptual and empirical connection to the satisfaction of the customers turned
it into the primary marketing instrument, by making it the most researched area
in the field of services marketing (Vapnek, 2007). The quality and excellence of food products and service
helps to enhance the inclination of the customer to avail, and buy more, to buy
other services and to become less price sensitive, at the same time, tell other
people about their positive experiences (Vapnek,
2007). The activities of employees within a service
company enable the company to be connected to their customers. The main aim of
these activities focuses on maintaining good consumer relationship with the
customers. Therefore, these activities are considered as a critical aspect in
developing effective working relationships with the customers (Vapnek,
2007). As a result, the vendors,
particularly in the food industry are vital in ensuring success in the said
areas because of the fact that they are the person that are ultimately
accountable or in charge in providing a quality service which will meet the
expectations of the customers. Therefore, vendors’ skills, attitudes as well as
equipment, hygiene and safety food preparation practices and other support that
can help them will be considered as a determinant precursor towards the
satisfaction of the customers (Powitz, 2008).
On the other
hand, it is important to consider the different factors that are connected with
satisfaction of the customers including expectations and service encounter and
hygiene and safety food preparation practices.
Statement of the Problem
The food
industry is considered as one of the most vulnerable industries because it can
be affected by most of the changes in the preferences, demands and needs of the
customers, particularly regarding the cultural and social aspect. This is
greatly applied in the food service industry; where in the quality of service
is considered as vital. Quality of food and service is connected or related
with the satisfaction of the customers which will help to drive customer
satisfaction and retention then help to improve financial performance and
market share.
In Ghana, the
need for hygiene and safety food preparation training was needed by vendors to
promote not only increase in profits but also safeness for consumers. However,
just like what have mentioned, the vendors is being affected by the different
factors which affect the demands and needs of the customers, particularly in
the aspect of product and service offerings. This is aside from that fact that vendors
had already established strong bond with their loyal and long-termed customers.
Thus, this study
will focus on the different problematic areas in food vending by focusing on
the different factors and attributes that are connected to the performance of
the vendors in terms of hygiene and safety food preparation practices. Thus, it
will focus on the examining and analyzing the relationship between the
satisfaction of the customers and the perceived quality towards the products
and services offered by vendors.
Objectives of the Study
The objective of
this study is to explore the case of food vendors in Ghana focusing the
evaluation on the importance of hygiene and safety food preparation trainings and
its influence on the customer loyalty. In lieu with this, the following
research objectives will be addressed:
- analyze the importance of the hygiene and safety
food preparation practices for a small food business;
- identify and monitor how do service quality
and service experiences of customers’ affect the stronger customer
relationship in order to help raise the customer loyalty;
- find out which issues play the most important
roles in service quality and how those issues working and explore to
maintain and improve the customer loyalty and the food business running;
- recommend strategies on how vendors will improve customer satisfaction.
Research Question
The key
questions that will be answered in this study are:
- what are the important factors which influence
the satisfaction of customers in food vending in Ghana?;
- how the customers perceived the quality of food
products and service in food vending in Ghana?;
- how important hygiene and safety food
preparation training is for food vendors in Ghana?;
- how satisfactions of the customers towards the
hygiene and safety food preparation, influence their loyalty in buying
food products?
Methodology
Both
primary and secondary resources were analyzed and investigated in order to
evaluate the past research that have been conducted regarding the perception
and satisfaction of customers in food business industry. This enables the
researchers to focus on the different variables and factors that will be
considered in the study. The next stage engaged on the process of gathering
information by using qualitative methods from the customers of small food
businesses in Ghana. This procedure enables the researchers to recognize and
reduce the key factors and the related elements which comprise the factors that
are expected in order to explain the satisfaction of the customers. The next
stage involved the process of designing and pre-testing of the questionnaire
that was disseminated by using the convenience sampling or the sampling method
that is used for convenience rather than representing the larger population.
The pre-testing process was done in order to evaluate and review the strengths
and weaknesses of the questionnaire, and ensure that all of the important
variables will be included. During this stage, different alterations were made
to the instrument in order to remove vagueness, at the same time, remove those
items that seems out of place to the context (e.g. location or position of the food
business). In addition, it had also helped in order to improve the flow of the
question in order to maintain the interest of the respondents.
This
study is a descriptive research, which is a research that aims to show facts
that concerns with the current status and situation, as it exists at the time
of the study (Creswell, 1994). It also helps to focus on the relationship and
practices that exist, together with the beliefs and processes that are going
on, thus affects things that are in demand or in trend. Furthermore, it can
help to describe the current situation based on the impression and reactions of
the respondents of the study (Creswell, 1994).
Fundamentally,
a descriptive research utilizes observations and surveys. That is the reason
this approach was chosen by the researcher, whose intention is gather first
hand data from respondents. Furthermore,
it also allows flexible approach that when new issues arise during the study, a
further investigation can be conducted in order to fill the gap. Apart from
this, the research will also be allowed to drop different unproductive areas of
research from the original plan of the study. Above all, it will be fast and
cost-effective.
Primary
data was collected directly from conveniently selected customers in food
business in Ghana. A set of questionnaire was used in order to get the
perceived and expected values of the customers. The questionnaire was designed
in a way that was straightforward enough that respondents only needed to spend
minimal time in the process (Creswell, 1994).
References:
Creswell, J.W. (1994) Research design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California:
Sage.
Michigan Food Law, (2000) “Proper Food Handling,
Food Safety, and Sanitation Practices”, Accessed 28 July 2010, from http://www.dining.mtu.edu/docs/food_handling.pdf
Powitz, R.W., (2008) “SSOPs for the Retail Food
Industry? An Idea Whose Time has come”, The
Sanitarian’s File, Accessed 28 July 2010, from http://www.extension.iastate.edu/NR/rdonlyres/9B821C2E-CCD3-4C7B-B96F-53D20D16D703/88132/SSOP_Food_Safety.pdf
Tinker, I., (1997) “Street Foods: Urban Food and
Employment in Developing Countries”, Oxford
University Press
Vapnek, J., (2007) “Legislative Implementation
of the Food Chain Approach”, Vanderbilt
Journal of Transnational Law, 40
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