Service Quality Analysis of Dining Restaurant-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the service quality analysis of a fine dining restaurant. Answer: Introduction There are two types of business environment in which an organisation operates in, internal and external. Internal business environment are under the control of an organisation by the external business environments are not. Therefore as the company is devising its policies and strategies of management it should always keep in mind the changing dynamics of the external business environment. Service strategies of management include ways and means to improve the current service, incorporate relevant changes in order to keep an edge over the competitors, attention to customer service and customer requirement are some of the reason for organisations to keep the strategies evolving. This report will focus on the service management strategies adopted by the hospitality industry. The manufacturing and services sectors are similar yet different in many aspects, firstly customization and standardization is the most important difference. As the service industry is customizable the expectations o f the consumers are different from that of service sector organisation for example a beauty parlor or a restaurant (Goldstein, Johnston, Duffy Rao, 2002). In this report the management strategies of restaurants will be studied in order to evaluate the key service quality dimensions, analyze the present service management strategies and lastly provide some recommendations of changes in the future. About the company Al Dente is a chain of restaurants that has one flagship at the central business district where as four other in suburban locations. The restaurant offers the consumers with a range of food and beverage option that is sumptuous and mouth watering. The flagship restaurant has 60 seating arrangements and the restaurant is open for lunch and dinner. The restaurant features an open kitchen with a bar counter. It is a fine dining restaurant and the organisation has to keep up with the changing demands and requirements of the customers in order to keep up with the intense competition. As a fine dining restaurant the organisation has to pay attention to every detail and requirement of the customer apart from proving good food and good time. The organisation attracts a lot of tourist customers owing to the prime location of the restaurant. Corporate and working people are also common during the weekdays and in the weekends the restaurant expects families and couples. The organisation is prou d of their customer service and innovative rotational menu. The objectives of the restaurant are: To satisfy the customers with a unique fine dining experience To have a regular rate of table turnover Evaluation of the key service quality dimensions at the flagship restaurant Service quality in the service sector is the level of importance and focus the organisation devotes towards the needs and requirements of the consumers and the target market. It is also based on how the service is delivered to the customer. The quality parameter of the customers varies depending on the kind of service that the organisation has to offer. Service qualities can be broadly segmented in two divisions: technical quality, which is what the customers receive form the service that is offered by the organisation; and functional quality, it is the process by which the service is delivered to the end customers. Service providers are in constant quest of finding the evolved demand of the customers so that the quality of the service can improve (Goldstein, Johnston, Duffy Rao, 2002). The service gap model explains the difference in the expectation of the customers and the experience that they have. It is used to identify and measure the gaps in between customer expectation and experience SERVQUAL is a service quality framework that has been developed to measure the scale of quality in the service sector. There are five dimensions in this theory: responsiveness, assurance, tangibles, empathy and reliability. Al Dente is a popular chain of restaurants among the locals; the company has been serving fine dining to the customers at the flagship restaurants. Here is an analysis of the dimensions aforementioned based on the customer feedback that has been collected (Parasuraman, Zeithaml Berry, 1988). Responsiveness: In a fine dining restaurant the expectation of a customer is high, in terms of every aspect be it ambience, food, delivery service, behavior etc. There has been a clear issue of lack of communication among the team as the people have complained against the responsiveness of the staff even the gap in communication among the managers. This is a problem for a restaurant where the price that is being charged is high; people expect impeccable service and food. People have appreciated the staff but majority has acknowledged that the staff service could have been better. It is not as expected from a fine dining restaurant (Kang James, 2004). Assurance: behavior of the staff is also questionable; incidents have been identified where the people are not even well versed with the language spoken by the customer. There has been a clientele complaint against the mangers for not having any documents regarding the payments. Even after reservation people complain that they have to wait for an hour to get the table which completely dismisses the point of reserving. Therefore it can be said that this dimension of the quality is also absent from the services provided by the restaurant. Tangibles: The ambience, interior decoration as well as the food is average, the price of the food items and the quantity has been criticized by many customers. On the other hand, the quality of the food and the ambience has been appreciated by many. This dimension of the service quality is present in the restaurant service but the quality can be said to be is average than been good (Jun Palacios, 2016). Empathy: None of the customers have commented about the customer care service, but as motioned above the staff and the managers who are in direct contact with the customers have been criticized for their behavior and their service. It can be concluded that this aspect of quality is also absent from the services offered by the restaurant. Reliability: People have to wait in the queue for an hour even after reservation, on the other hand there has been positive response as well where the staff members have been said to be helpful. But majority of the people have complains against the staff and managers therefore it cannot be said to be even reliable. The only quality dimension that is presence on an average scale is tangibles, therefore the service quality of the restaurant can be deemed to be below average and the people who are in direct contact with the customers have to improve their communication skills and other related aspects of service in a restaurant to improve the service quality (Adil, Al Ghaswyneh Albkour, 2013). Issues identified at the flagship restaurant The issues that will be discussed are from the perspective of both the consumers as well as the employees of the organization. This is because the issues and grievances faced by the employees of the organisation impact the operations of the business and in turn on the quality of the services. Customers issues: Communication gap among the management Bad and irresponsible behavior form the staffs Issue with the high price and less quantity of food Poor service form the front of the house staff members (Gremler Gwinner, 2008) Employees grievances: The different teams in the restaurant do not communicate among themselves There is an internal conflict among the managers as well as among the management and the team The staff are underpaid The employees are overburdened and loaded with work There is no evident line of communication There are no recruitment criteria for the front of the house jobs There is little or no scope of skill development and learning in the process There is also a communication gap in between the staff members and the management team (Hemmington, 2007) Analysis of the effectiveness of the existing service management strategies As the restaurant is open for both lunch and dinner there are two different managers to look after the shifts, this is a good idea as it may be difficult for one person to keep track of the entire day (Dillard, Browning, Sitkin Sutcliffe, 2000). The restaurant has the table reservation facility which is important for a fine dining restaurant, people who visit a fine dining restaurant do not go only for the food, it is the overall experience of the place that counts. There is a rotational menu which offers a range of fusion food which mainly revolves around Italian and Modern Australian cuisine. The location of the flagship restaurant is in the central business district which attracts a lot of target customers as well as tourist which keeps the place busy and the revenues following. The restaurant focuses on the quality of the food and customer care as their priority as the management. In the service industry the role of the customer care plays an important role (Klidas, Van Den Berg Wilderom, 2007). Recommendation The management of the restaurant should first resolve the internal issues among the teams. A restaurant is a business enterprise where teamwork and compatibility with other teams should be encouraged and motivated. As pointed out by one of the employees there is no co-ordination among the team. The issues should be highlighted to the higher management and should be sorted before it starts impacting the business operation, the higher management should also keep an eye on all the employees (Wilkins, Merrilees Herington, 2007). The management must have a set of requirement while hiring for any position. Another issue that has been highlighted is the lack of qualification requirement while hiring people which make it difficult for other also to co-ordinate. The structure and the hierarchy of the organisation is not clear to the employees hence they do not understand who to go while facing any kind of problem in the work place. The duties and the responsibilities of the people should be clearly stated so that there is no case of miscommunication with the customers. The management should focus on customer satisfaction by improving their quality of food, the present workers should be given scope to lean and improve their skills so that the quality of their performance is improved (Bailly Ln, 2013). The front and the back of the house employees should be provided with guidelines and rules regarding their behavior with the customers as well as among the co-workers to ensure that the work environment is healthy (Bowen, 2016). The management should also employee more people so that the existing workers are not stress and overburdened with work. The focus of the management should be on the overall quality improvement of the service as the restaurant only had one dimension of service quality that is also average. Conclusion It can be concluded form the above discussion that the restaurant requires an internal change of strategies, the company can device changes from the feedbacks received from the customers as well as from the employees. The internal conflict among the employees is recognized as one of the major issues which have given rise to other problems. The company can employee the stated recommendations to eliminate the barriers in the service quality. Reference list: Adil, M., Al Ghaswyneh, O. F. M., Albkour, A. M. (2013). SERVQUAL and SERVPERF: A review of measures in services marketing research.Global Journal of Management And Business Research. Bailly, F., Ln, A. (2013). The personification of the service labour process and the rise of soft skills: A french case study.Employee Relations,35(1), 79-97. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01425451311279429 Bowen, D. E. (2016). The changing role of employees in service theory and practice: An interdisciplinary view.Human Resource Management Review,26(1), 4-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.09.002 Dillard, C., Browning, L. D., Sitkin, S. B., Sutcliffe, K. M. (2000). Impression management and the use of procedures at the Ritz?Carlton: Moral standards and dramaturgical discipline.Communication studies,51(4), 404-414. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10510970009388534 Goldstein, S. M., Johnston, R., Duffy, J., Rao, J. (2002). The service concept: the missing link in service design research?.Journal of Operations management,20(2), 121-134. DOI:10.1016/S0272-6963(01)00090-0 Gremler, D. D., Gwinner, K. P. (2008). Rapport-building behaviors used by retail employees.Journal of Retailing,84(3), 308-324. doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2008.07.001 Hemmington, N. (2007). From service to experience: Understanding and defining the hospitality business.The Service Industries Journal,27(6), 747-755. https://doi.org/10.1080/02642060701453221 Jun, M., Palacios, S. (2016). Examining the key dimensions of mobile banking service quality: An exploratory study.The International Journal of Bank Marketing,34(3), 307-326.https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-01-2015-0015 Kang, G. D., James, J. (2004). Service quality dimensions: an examination of Grnrooss service quality model.Managing Service Quality: An International Journal,14(4), 266-277. DOI 10.1108/09604520410546806 Klidas, A., Van Den Berg, P. T., Wilderom, C. P. (2007). Managing employee empowerment in luxury hotels in Europe.International Journal of Service Industry Management,18(1), 70-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564230710732902 Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L. (1988). Servqual: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perc.Journal of retailing,64(1), 12. Wilkins, H., Merrilees, B., Herington, C. (2007). Towards an understanding of total service quality in hotels.International Journal of Hospitality Management,26(4), 840-853. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2006.07.006