You are a Hospitality consultant who has been approached by Mr John Smith. Mr Smith has just purchased a 50 seat licensed restaurant in Courtenay place Wellington, that provides an eclectic mix of bistro style food and an extensive range of wines (available by bottle or glass) and other beverages. The majority of the clientele are between 18 and 50 years old, middle to high income earners ($65K – $100+K). The menu is priced with entrees averaging $15, Main courses $30 and Desserts $15. The restaurant is open seven days a week Lunch 12.00pm – 3.00pm and Dinner from 6.00pm. The restaurant has a manager, two permanent food and beverage staff and a number of casual waiting staff. In the kitchen are four fulltime employees, the Chef, a sous chef, a cook, a kitchen hand, and several casual dishwashing staff. Ordering of stock is managed by the restaurant manager and chef, who also handle recruitment, selection and termination of staff for each of their areas. The accounts are managed by Mr Smith and his accountant.
Mr Smith needs advice on Services Management concepts and techniques. Write a report (refer to Moodle for report structure) for Mr. Smith addressing the following:
1. A service blueprint that tracks the customer interaction with the business. 2. A description of five (5) customer relationship management strategies that he can easily put in place without excessive capital expense. 3. A simple customer satisfaction questionnaire. 4. Ten (10) service delivery standards appropriate for this restaurant.
Assessment 2 - Report Marking Schedule:
Correct and consistent decimal numbering system used Spelling, punctuation and grammar accurate Paragraphs and complete sentences used Wording used is right for the business context Formal objective language used throughout No personal pronouns or abbreviations included No irrelevant material used Referencing
Correct APA format used in reference list Reference list – at least 15 references (including texts, journals and on line resources) Citations used in body, & in correct format Content
Service blueprint (20 marks) Customer relationship strategies with supporting theory (50 marks) Questionnaire (10 marks) Service delivery standards with justification (20 marks) TOTAL MARKS 120
Service Blueprint for Tracking Customer Interaction
Service blueprint is nothing but a map, which appropriately portrays the customer service system of a service providing firm. A service blueprint of a particular service providing firm helps the service providers to realise and deal with overall objectives. Consideration of effective service blueprint will undoubtedly assist Mr. John Smith to design and development the stages of appropriate service development. The service mapping blueprint of the Wellington based restaurant should be developed on three important aspects, such as process, points of contact and evidence.
In terms of service delivery process, all the four fulltime employees along with the causal dishwashing staffs should be focused on collaborative workplace performance. Apart from the major service providing activities, other support activities, such as purchasing, training, maintenance and telephone system should be monitored. All the miscellaneous service delivery activities should be controlled collaboratively by the staffs of respective department. The Wellington based restaurant can create a benchmark within the restaurant and hotel industry by ensuring effective and flawless service delivery process (Lovelock & Patterson, 2015). In addition, points of contact or a point of interaction is important to improve the degree of service delivery process and service mapping. Effective area of communication, training and development programme, and guest empowerment can help Mr. John Smith to improve the degree of interaction point at the Wellington based restaurant. Lastly, the evidence of effective service delivery mapping should also be considered by the restaurant manager (Susskind et al., 2018). A well-developed service delivery blueprint can help the manager of the Wellington based restaurant to interact with the customers in an effective way.
The Blueprint
Following is the blueprint developed by the hospitality consultant in order to track the customer interaction with the business management activities of the restaurant.
In the above mentioned blueprint, customers are regarded as the major stakeholders. The restaurant is designed to host 50 guests at a time, which is not a less number. Therefore, it is the major responsibility of the employees to take care of the needs of the customers through effective interaction process. The hospitality consultant will consider 12 service delivery components to implement the developed blueprint successfully. These are customer actions, onstage employee actions, backstage employee actions, support process, customer actions, onstage contact employee activities, backstage contact employee activities, support processes, line of interaction, line of visibility, line of internal interaction and physical evidence (Ladhari et al., 2017). All these components will facilitate two important aspects of the blueprint, such as contact employees and support processes.
In terms of customer actions, purchasing, consumption and service evaluation process should be monitored by the employees and restaurant manager. In terms of onstage employee actions, contact employees’ performance should be evaluated during customer interaction. In terms of the backstage employee actions, Mr. John Smith should try to evaluate the support activities conducted by such employees. This is acceptable that the support activities, such as maintenance, consumption, purchasing and following up of customers should be controlled by backstage employees. In the service delivery blueprint, the backstage employees are responsible for enhancement of effective support process (Sweeney et al., 2016). Apart from these, the internal support processes should also be covered in order to ensure conflict free interaction between the employees and customers to ensure conflict free interaction process. These mentioned actions and processes are highly important to ensure strong customer interaction.
The line of the interaction should be transparent to promote customer action; similarly the line of visibility should be taken care of for better onstage contact employee actions. The line of internal interaction should be controlled by backstage employees to maintain the quality and efficiency of overall support process. A direct line of interaction between the customers and the Wellington based restaurant should be developed for better customer service (Tam et al., 2016). Similarly, line of visibility should be enhanced through the development of effective parallel communication network between the employees and customers. It will make all the support activities visible to the target customers, who are aged between 18 and 50. The line of internal activities of contact employees should be separated from other people and service support activities. Lastly, physical evidence is important in order to create a positive perception about service delivery in the minds of target customers. The appropriate use of colour, logo, signs and other brand identity elements should be considered in the service delivery process for better customer loyalty (Nikbin et al., 2016). Overall the feedback, result and outcome measurement as well as evaluation process will significantly indicate whether the service delivery blueprint is effective for positive customer interaction or not.
Customer Relationship Strategies with Supporting Theories
The major aim of Mr. John Smith, the hospitality consultant, the restaurant manager and the newly developed Wellington restaurant is to develop effective customer relationship management strategy to establish a strong relationship with the target customers. The less expensive customer relationship strategy for the Wellington based restaurant is discussed below.
First of all, the restaurant manager along with the hospitality consultant should focus on brand identity development strategy. The consideration of the positive brand development strategy will assist the customers to develop a positive image or perception about the brand. The brand identity development can be enhanced through effective delivery of high quality food products. Moreover, effective interaction with the target customers and taking care of the service needs can assist the employees of the company to establish a healthy relationship between the restaurant management and the customers, which is essential for the restaurant to improve revenue generation and profitability.
Secondly, the management along with the employees of the restaurant should cherish each and every customer. Wellington is one of the major popular cities across New Zealand. On the other hand, Kiwis aged between 18 and 50 belonging from medium as well as higher income group love to hang around with friends, colleagues and relatives in any restaurant in which the quality of the food items, drinks and service delivery is good. The company management is assuring that the restaurant will take care of the higher quality of the products and services. Still the quality of service delivery process should be a real concern considering the intense competitive nature of the market. However, the restaurant manager and Mr. John Smith should take care of the good ambiance of restaurant, hygienic factor of the restaurant and friendly behaviour of the employees (Gursoy et al., 2017). These service delivery elements should be incorporated in the operation management process, which will help all the employees to cherish every customer. This will undoubtedly be considered as an important customer relationship strategy.
Thirdly, networking and feedback can be regarded as an important customer relationship strategy. The restaurant manager along with Mr. John Smith should try to take valuable feedback about in-room services with appropriate ratings. This aspect will assist all the visiting customers to realise that the restaurant management is really concerned about the preference of the customers. This will automatically improve the perception level. Apart from the feedback process, the company management should also take serious initiatives in case of the negative feedback about the negative experience of the customers. These initiatives should also improve the loyalty level of such customers towards the brand image of the restaurant as they will feel preferred. Moreover, networking is highly important for Mr. John Smith to interact with the important customers. Effective advertising and promotional campaigning will be considered as important networking approach. Social media advertising will be regarded as an important direct marketing approach, which will be get connected with the majority of the social media users. Apart from Facebook marketing, the restaurant manager should also promote the brand through the hoardings in localities. In addition, the management should also distribute leaflets in localities to provide information about products and services (Sichtmann & Micevski, 2018). Apart from it, a PR campaign should also be introduced by Mr. John Smith to interact with majority number of target customers. This is also considered to be an important customer relationship strategy, which will help to develop effective and healthy relationship between the customers and restaurant management team.
Fourthly, the restaurant manager along with Mr. John Smith will give preference to the customers by listening their motivation, dissatisfaction, claims and suggestions regarding service delivery process. For example, if any client or customer is not happy with the way of presentation of food items on table, the employees along with the management team should give priority to such complaints and suggestions. Ultimately it will help to overcome the conflicts, which can be developed in the relationship between the customers and management due to establishment of negative perception level of in the minds of target customers. In any service proofing firm, the management needs to listen to the customers to provide best possible service as customer service is the ultimate thing to gain success within the competitive market and Mr. John Smith should consider this particular aspect. In this process also, the customers’ perception and preference level can be reviewed through the power survey tool. It is a dynamic CRM tool, which assists to collect the feedback from the target customers (Manhas & Tukamushaba, 2015). Most importantly, this particular approach through the listening to the customers can effectively help to develop strong relationship with the target customers.
Fifthly, the restaurant management should also consider different kinds data management tools in the business operation process. Advanced and modern data management tool, such as Big Data should be installed. The installation of Big Data will assist to handle large number of data. It is a service providing industry, handling of large dataset is highly important. It will automatically help the management gather information about the possible target customers. This will assist to offer information to the appropriate target customers. Most importantly, it is a time and cost effective approach. Apart from it, the customers need to be offered free information by the company management. Lastly, some loyalty rewards should also be provided to the target customers (Rauch et al., 2015). Loyalty rewards, such as seasonal discount, discounts on the booking of first order and other important aspects etc. These promotions and consideration of the effective data management tools will significantly assist the management of the restaurant to improve the loyalty of the target customers. In terms of the loyalty rewards, special events should be organised by the restaurant management team (Harun et al., 2018). The events should be organised on some special days, such as foundation day, festival days etc. Special discounts on these events will help to establish a strong relationship with the target customers. Some customer relationship management theories will be implemented in this part of the report to justify the adoption of the developed strategies.
The CRM behaviour theory can be applied and discussed here in order to justify the developed strategies. The CRM behaviour theory is comprised of five important perspectives, such as internal, external, PM and Linking. Internal perspective is considered to justify the leadership and organisational process system. The external perspectives are being considered in order to justify the adopted customer service management process. The PM perspective is being considered in order to justify the adaptation of the measurement system. Lastly, the linking perspective is being considered in order to justify the overall system. All of these mentioned perspectives and systems are being considered to develop an effective corporate relationship between the corporate clients and company. In addition, this theory will also assist to evaluate the relationship between the customers and company.
According to the principles of the behaviour theory, the companies need to strengthen the relationship between the target customers and company by taking care of the service related needs and demands. In this specific case, the service related needs and demands of the target customers of the Wellington based restaurant can be fulfilled through the above mentioned strategies, such as networking, introducing loyalty cards, listening to the customers, considering advanced data management tools, conflict free communication, development of brand identity (Bitner & Wang, 2014). Hence, it will be essential to understand that the behaviour of the target customers should be evaluated to understand whether the mentioned strategies will be applicable or not. As long as the company is new and the restaurant is trying to make a mark through the offering of effective hospitality services, it will be important to understand the behaviour of customers and implement the above mentioned strategies quite effectively.
The seven holistic CRM theory perspectives is generally developed based on seven important management elements, such as leadership, managerial strategy, organisational management, process management, system management, customer management, and measurement strategy. In terms of leadership system, it is suggested that the employees should be entitled to develop a strong relationship with the target customers. In order to do so, the employees should be motivated enough to take care of the needs of target customers. Most importantly, consideration of democratic leadership approach will be essential here for Mr. John Smith to apply for better customer relationship (Osborne et al., 2016). In terms of the managerial strategy, the restaurant manager should administrate the large amount of customers’ data in a time and cost effective way to overcome different types of hazards and conflicts, which may affect the quality of the customer relationship strategy. Efficient data and complaint management also can be regarded as an important CRM approach. In terms of organisational management, the restaurant manager should develop a strong transparent communication and collaboration approach for better customer relationship. In terms of process management, Mr. John Smith needs to ensure strong physical evidence in each and every service delivery activity to ensure strong customer relationship (Sivakumar et al., 2014).
In terms of the customer management, all the visiting customers should be treated as loyal stakeholders of the company to ensure strong customer relationship, which can be turned as an effective competitive strategic approach. In terms of the system management, the company needs to install the advanced data management tools and customer survey applications to management complaints, which will help the company to ensure a strong customer relationship (Nguye et al., 2018). Lastly, measurement system should also be considered and this measurement system can be conducted through the online feedback option. It will assist to understand the effectiveness of the adopted customer relationship strategies.
Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire
Service Delivery Standards with Justification
Mr John Smith should consider some important service delivery options during the offering of restaurant service to the visiting customers in order to become one of the popular restaurants across Wellington.
First of all, the restaurant manager should develop customer service standard in terms of timeliness of the delivery of service. Limited waiting time to avail foods and drink items should be considered as the major standard of the customer service delivery process.
Secondly, the customer service delivery standard of the restaurant should be developed based on the accuracy aspect. The employees of the restaurant should be liable to provide accurate information about the products and services, which are going to be offered to the target customers. This particular aspect will undoubtedly assist the restaurant to be renowned as one of the customer loyal restaurants across Wellington.
Thirdly, the customer service delivery standard should also be developed based on the appropriateness aspect. In terms of the appropriateness aspect, this is highly important to state that the service should be clean and according to the needs of the target customers. Therefore, accuracy, timeliness and appropriateness should be incorporated in the service delivery process of the restaurant to become one of the popular restaurants.
In terms of food safety standards, Mr. John Smith should maintain the hygiene factor and healthiness of all the food items. Each and every use resource and raw material should be sourced from quality suppliers.
The regulatory standards and other government standards should be followed to continue with the business operation process in a conflict free pathway. The restaurant owner and manager should renew all the licenses, which are required to do business without any hazard.
Apart from several effective service delivery standards, this will be highly possible for the company that some visiting customer could be unhappy with the service and experience. In these cases, the company management needs to ensure two standards to be initiated, such as communication and interaction. It will help to develop a good customer service relationship.
Effective promotional activities and feedback given strategy should also be considered to ensure accuracy and appropriateness of the customer service delivery process. It will help in establishment of a conflict free communication standard.
In order to ensure effective service delivery standards in the customer service sets, some important stakeholders should be accounted by the management of the restaurant. These stakeholders are management, employees, former lost customers, new target customers, existing customers, regulatory authorities and competitors. Consideration of these will assist in ensuring improved customer service delivery process.
The restaurant environment should be hygienic and clean. Moreover, fire safety, flood, earthquake and other types of security standards should be considered for better customer service.
The management of the restaurant needs to be able to improve the image of the brand and establish a strong brand image in the minds of target customers through effective physical evidence in each and every service.
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