Restaurant Hospitality Services: Measuring And Improving The Quality Of Customer Services - Essay Example

?RESTAURANT HOSPITALITY SERVICES MEASURING AND IMPROVING THE QUALITY SERVICES ASSIGNMENT PART A PROJECT PROPOSAL Research Purpose With the advent of industrialism and introduction of more sophisticated computer technology, world has noticed a shift in global market trends from pure agriculture to service oriented markets. In response, businesses in nearly all industries and sectors are making their utmost efforts to improve the quality of the service provided and meet the customer expectations, especially in hospitality services. Basic needs and expectation of the customers and the factors affecting those are the main concerns of operators in hospitality management. Besides identification and understanding of the customer expectations, measuring and controlling the critical factors that affect those expectations are equally important. In hospitality services, undoubtedly customer satisfaction is a direct measure of customer retention. Customers in XYZ (your country/area) seem to be more concerned with high standards of hospitality and value restaurants offering excellent services. With the increased competition, operators in hospitality industry not only focus on menu but also emphasize quality staff and personal services, which is at the top of every customer visiting the outlet. In this context, quality of services offered to customers is based on a subjective comparison between customer expectations and the perception of the service execution. This research would be the outcome of my passion for developing and managing hospitality services in a restaurant where I have been working for more than X years and of the desire to develop comprehensive understanding of hospitality services and project management. Apart from personal experience gained through working in a restaurant, I often tried to find reasons as to why some restaurants are successful while others are labeled as failure. However, I have not been able to find a precise and comprehensive answer to this question from the literature published and professionals working in the industry. The lack of understanding on these aspects motivated my research on the subject that was not fully explored earlier. For any organization to be successful there is a certain set of factors that need to be cared. In a similar fashion, hospitality services in restaurants are no exception since these must comply with the factors that are critical to and appropriate to their industry environment. Although, there are similarities between restaurant hospitality services and other commercial services but hospitality services have a very distinctive and definite set of characteristics. Mainly speaking, there are two major components in restaurant business i.e., tangible and intangible. Tangible refers to infrastructure, more of in physical terms, and intangible refers to the services and the quality that is provided to the customers. However, to be actually successful, any restaurant needs to comply with critical factors in both domains. The purpose of this research, “Restaurant Hospitality Services : Measuring and Improving The Quality of Customer Services”, is to identify the weak areas in the restaurant XYZ and plan and manage a project to establish and develop hospitality services to improve quality of services and increase customer satisfaction. Additionally, this study would endeavor to identify the factors that are related to the quality of hospitality services and the fact if the industry is well aware of and recognizes the significance of these factors. For the purpose of the research, published data on hospitality services for the last ten years and various processes involved in the hospitality services management were studied. During this study, the aim is to identify the core problems that impact the quality of services in a specific restaurant and recommend solutions for better management. Literature Review The word “product” used in our daily routine is in fact contains complex meanings and concepts that require careful explanation. Kotler et al. (1999) described product as anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations, and ideas. Definitions that are well recognized are primarily related to the goods manufactured. However, with the introduction and rise of services industry, there has been felt a need to redefine the word “product” to accommodate and identify the services as an idea of product and recognize the complex nature of overall industry. According to Swarbrooke (1999), the idea of product is actually related now to services provided in addition to the manufactured good thus reflecting a combination of both tangible and intangible aspects of product. The services have their own unique and specific characteristics of intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability. Intangibility. The services cannot be felt, tasted and smelled before or after the purchase and in fact are beyond the physical perceptions. The customers here value evidence that is tangible and can promise them the service with confidence and reduce associated risks. Inseparability. For a service to actually happen, the provider for delivery and the customer for receipt of the service need to be present and in contact for the transaction. This simply means that the service provider and the customer both are part of the service delivered. Variability. Another characteristic of the services is the inherent variability associated with their execution. It largely depends that when, where and who provided the service. This aspect results in minimum control on quality, especially for the services that are produced and consumed at the same time. Thus the high degree consistency and quality of service depends on the performance of the service provider at the time of transaction. Perishability. Services are perishable and cannot be stored. These are consumed as these are produced and cannot be hold for a longer period of time. In present era, the organizations are influenced by the complex internal and external environments. The success of the organization depends upon its ability to match its capacity with the requirements and expectations of the customers in a manner that the aims of both sides are achieved Beyond all recognitions, hospitality service industry has changed remarkably. The opportunities to succeed have dramatically increased on one side with an increase in risk of failure on the other side. Main reason for this is that the customers are not willing to act without developing understanding of the customer requests. Another reason is that the people in service business fail to recognize the true nature of the customer and they take customer as an individual or organization who can be manipulated to buy the things that they actually do not require. Market success has now been associated with the perception of the customer and achievement of his requirements that expects customer services to reach a minimum acceptable standard to offer convenience and luxury. . McDonald and Payne (1998) suggested that the success is the outcome of matching and synchronizing all the influential factors that affect the services directly or indirectly. The strength of the organization depends either on the services it offers or the way it offers these services to achieve customer satisfaction. Practically, it is not possible to provide similar and all services to all the customers, rather it is more beneficiary to identify the customer segments whose expectations best match the organizational strengths and strategic objectives. To ascertain the factors that influences the expectations of the customers, many experts may ponder to determine their significance and relevance to the argument vis-a-vis cost, time and efforts associated. The consequences of identifying and interpreting the relative prioritization of the factors critical to the customer services may drastically be adverse because a service delivered to a particular customer would leave the final impression resulting in a loyal or disgruntled customer. Industry experts are of the view that the designing and improving the customer service processes in hospitality services involve a great deal of risk and cost in terms of resources, time and actual capital investment. Increasing uncertainty, changes in market segmentation and rising standards of customer expectations make customer services in hospitality more challenging than the commercial services offered in other industry sectors. Customer services in a restaurant are in fact an unusual formula that combines both tangible and intangible aspects of hospitality management in a well interconnected manner. The successful operator in the industry would understand and appreciate the relative importance of the both aspects. Anderson Hospitality Consultants in their “Hospitality 2000 : The Capital” argue that while location is the prime factor in restaurant businesses, intangible factors like brand, human capital and customer service play a significant role by gaining ground on tangible factors. Although there are similarities in other commercial services and customer services provided in restaurants, the restaurants have very unique and peculiar characteristics such as requiring specific set of expertise in management with the ability to generate future revenue. Pyrr et al. (1989) argues that the factors affecting the success or failures of a hospitality service vary according to its primary function. Restaurant management involves food, meals, entertainment and other related property management functions. According to Lawson (1997), success requirements for customer services fall under five categories:- Marketing. An increasing and unsatisfied demand emerging from dissatisfaction of the customers and poor quality of services Economics. The financial state of the institution that may restrict the achievement of certain service standard. Location. Tangible factors like infrastructure and location have their own significant importance. Service Standard. It corresponds to the standard that the service provider may like to follow or attain. Planning and Design. Vigilant planning, design and creation of customer services that would meet their expectation and satisfy the marketing, business and commercial criteria. It is imperative to consider following factors when designing the processes for customer services and endeavoring to improve their quality. Market Competition Market Segmentation Customer profiles with psychographics Financial constraints Management objectives and goals Strength and weakness of the business Marketing capabilities Earlier researcher have focused service quality in businesses like spa, hotel and tourism but none has specifically focused on the service quality in a restaurant. Kitisuda (2006) conducted a survey at Sivalai Spa Center to measure and analyze the level of customer satisfaction. The survey concluded that the bot the new and regular customers showed a higher level of customer satisfaction upon different aspects like responsiveness, reliability, tangibility measuring the service quality. All customers involved in this study; demographically categorized on basis of age, gender, nationalty and income; suggested to provide facilitates for food and drinks. Similarly Markovic (2004) studied customer satisfaction in Croatian Hotel Industry. She recommended that he SERVQUAL tool was the most appropriate to interpret and measure customer perceptions and expectations. She argued that employment of such method would lead to low turnover of resources and more effective procedure for designing the service processes. Phenphun (2003) conducted a research to study the expectation and the requirements of the international tourists visiting Thailand and the factors that influence the quality of the customer services in the industry. The study revealed that the major problem was the lack of understanding of Engine language that served as a major barrier to communication and frustration of the customers who were unable to make employee understand of their requirements. Yu (2001) support the opinion of Crompton et al. (1991) on the possibility of devising a better solution for measuring the indicators that determine the quality of the services in hospitality and the interrelationship and prioritization of these factors. It was observed in the study that the best indicator of the quality of the customer service in tourism industry was the experience and of tourist because tourism industry is essentially man serving man concept. Otto and Ritchie (1996) supported the use of tourist experience as a measuring tool in future studies to evaluate the quality level of customer services provided in the tourism industry. All the above studies employed SERVQUAL as main tool for measuring and evaluating the quality of customer services provided. In this study, SERVQUAL or any other similar tool or framework that deemed more appropriate would be employed to measure the customer services in the restaurant industry and the perceptions and expectations of the customers. Research objectives The main objectives of this research are:- To measure the expectation of service quality by the customers in five main aspects i.e., empathy, reliability, tangibility, assurance and responsiveness To assess the relationship between the service quality factors and the customer expectations To measure and analyze the gap between the customer’s expectations and the quality of the service executed The completion of this study would lead to:- Identification of the factors that customers perceive as being important to their expectations Identification of the factors that hospitality industry perceives as critical to their success Relevancy of the factors to the tangible or intangible components of the hospitality services management Relative prioritization of the critical factors Identification whether these factors are being addressed in the current hospitality services programs in the industry Model the factors that are significant to the improvement of quality of customer services Identification and investigation of the problems in case study of the restaurant XYZ Solution of problems based on the identified model factors The significance of this study is that:- It would enable hospitality service providers to identify the factors that are critical and important to the customer services. It would provide information to the hospitality services provider institutions and their management in designing the services to meet the requirements and expectations of the customers in the most appropriate way. Once these factors are identified, the model developed in this study can be employed to identify the services level gaps so that the hospitality service provider can introduce such factors into current program. Once the gap is bridged, the service provider would be in established position to direct it efforts towards achieving the quality standard that the customers are looking for. Customer services actually apply to the full spectrum of hospitality service business from operational to tactical and further strategic level. Improvements in the quality of customer services provided can be achieved through a variety of activities like anticipating customer needs, educating customers, improving employee morale, physical layout and other important factors. Although the tangible and intangible aspects of both service industry appear to be distinctive but in fact these are consecutively interconnected to each other from varying aspects in full spectrum of the hospitality services. This full spectrum of customer services would start on one end with practical significance of theoretical management to delivering the high quality final service to the customer on the other end. The scope of this research work includes surveying questionnaires and interviews with the customers experiences the hospitality services and management in the providing the customer services. Some of the customers were interviewed when present at the restaurant while others were surveyed at times other than in the process of experiencing the hospitality services. This study may represent the unique taste and experience preferences associated with the customers I the area (XYZ) and some of the aspects may not be fully generalized outside this region indicating the possibility of limitations associated with this research study. Research Methods Much of the published literature on hospitality and customer services is based on conceptual and theoretical studies rather than qualitative and quantitative empirical based approaches. Very few studies have been conducted using empirical data for qualitative based approach research. However, little or less efforts have been made to identify the significant factors and their interrelationship and relevancy to the quality of the service provided. Thus this research study would not only identify the critical factors but would also endeavor to explore their relationship with the standards and service quality levels that meet customer expectations. Parkhe (1993) explains that these two approaches in research methods could be either be qualitative – subjective approach or quantitative – objective approach. The qualitative approach involves consideration of opinions and insight of informants at organizational level for research, and use of empirical qualitative methods that can contribute in identification of complex phenomenon and understanding of factual realities in an environment under study. In other words, approach based on qualitative research methods allows individuals to develop the understanding of the phenomenon based on their own observations and helps them to pursue the generalized implications of the findings. In contrast, objective quantitative approach is based on quantitative empirical methods to find the accurate and precise facts and their interpretation about under studied phenomenon in a controlled environment resulting in reliable results that have capability of repetition and drawing generalized inferences. Quantitative research uses statistics and probability based testing from analytical theories and implications drawn from sampled population to identify the relationship between different variables. Two major aspects that form the basis of the quantitative research approach are logical positivism and radical behaviorism as stated by Pernice (1996). Quantitative research methods exploit the collection of data from a sampled population and the identification and measurement of different variables and their relative significance. The data collection methods may include survey questionnaire, interviews, written descriptions, company records and even through personal observations. The main strength of the quantitative based methods is their inherent refutability from testing of a scientific hypothesis and the ability to conceptualize, identify and investigate data from sample and apply it to the entire set of population based on a statistical framework. Different phases involved in the research study required application of different research methods rather than one single generalized approach. Thus the research methods likely employed would be Phase I : Using Case Study approach for developing conceptual and theoretical framework and explore inductive reasoning through bottom up approach by testifying a hypothesis Phase II : Study of existing service processes by using insights of organizational informants and observations and opinions of the visitors Phase III : Precise and speculative identification of quality standards the customer expects and the factors that affect these customer services. Phase IV : Using statistical and probability based techniques and hypothesis testing to identify the relationship between a service and critical factors and their relative prioritization for developing a conceptual framework. Also designing of questionnaire for survey and interviews would also be conducted in this phase. Phase V : Gathering data and observations using quantitative methods Phase VI : Investigating and analyzing the gathered data using a qualitative and quantitative based on combinative approach (empirical methods) to raise confidence and significance of the hypothesis under discussion and testing. It is possible that one or more phases planned at this initial stage may be combined later in second project MP2 during practical handling of varied aspects of the project. In the this context, endeavors would be made to bring the framework of the research study to the requisite theoretical composition standards and to make it consistent and relevant to the hospitality services industry. Also endeavors are made in this respect to achieve a standard of objectivity and rigor in formulating the scheme for the research study and research methods prior to data collection. As discussed earlier, most of the researches in hospitality services are theoretical with very few as descriptive employing statistical techniques on varied degrees of rigor with recognized and quantifiable critical success factors. The results and conclusion of this study would help the operators in hospitality and customer services to predict and forecast outcomes of their potential investments. This study is likely to identify and develop a model that can enable other researchers and seekers to benefit from in other regional and global markets. ASSIGNMENT: PART B PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN Significance of Project Management Plan More than 78% of the projects meet failure rather than their objectives because these are over budget, not in time, lack certain important aspects or functionality and finally these are never delivered. The main reason is not the project being bad but the poor project planning. Actually the project team becomes enthusiastic and was to start off with the project activities, where management wants to see a quicker and instant return on the investment and resource contributed to the project but restricted by conflicting priorities. It is imperative to mention that the result of poor of no project planning includes Not meeting organizational objectives and priorities Over budgeting Low morale of team working on the project Conflicting priorities for the resources Increase in resource requirements Unclear and ambiguous or no vertical and horizontal communication at all Missed milestones and key stages Failing to meet customer or end user expectations Gist and Langley (2007) is of the opinion that only careful and extensive planning can prevent a project from failing. Project Management Plan is a formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among stakeholders, and document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines. A project plan may be summarized or detailed (PMBOK, 2008). Actually, the project plan is most important component of project management as it defines the gathering of requirements and may change during the course of project and should be undated accordingly. According to Mulcahy (2011), the purpose of the project management plan is to determine as to how the work would be accomplished to achieve the project objectives. In other words, the objective of the project management plan is to answer basic questions about the project objectives and the ways to accomplish the project scope. Why? – Why there is a requirement of the project and what issues it is likely to address? What? – What activities would be performed and what work would be accomplished to product project deliverables. Who? – The project manager and the project team and their roles and responsibilities would be defined to identify the structure and organization of the project management team. When? - What is the project schedule and key stages and milestones that are required to be accomplished for the successful completion of the project. Project management plan is used to communicate the progress and status of the project and the problems and difficulties that are faced or anticipated to devise reasonably economical solution to meet end objectives within given timelines, agreed upon and scheduled tasks and activities and their dependencies, and identified resource requirements. A project management plan may help to Broaden the understanding of the scope of project Identify the deliverables, their sequencing and priorities Identify the activities and tasks and their dependencies and resource requirements Establishing the project schedule Risk involved in the project execution and other related problems Access to final deliverable know-how Managing the expectation of the project initiator to avoid last minute changes the project scope and adapting to future eventualities Key Stages and Milestones Work schedule plan spread over a period of six month containing various stages and key milestones necessary to complete the research intended to conduct and the writing up of management project is given below:- Collection of literature One Week Phase I : Using Case Study approach for developing conceptual and theoretical framework and explore inductive reasoning through bottom up approach by testifying a hypothesis Study of Literature One Week Phase II : Study of existing service processes by using insights of organizational informants and observations and opinions of the visitors Analysis of Proposed Scheme One Month Phase III : Precise and speculative identification of quality standards the customer expects and the factors that affect these customer services. Preparation of Scheme/Model One Month Phase IV : Identifying statistical and probability based techniques and hypothesis testing to identify the relationship between a service and critical factors and their relative prioritization for developing a conceptual framework. Also designing of questionnaire for survey and interviews would also be conducted in this phase. Implementation of Scheme/Model One Month Phase V : Gathering data and observations using quantitative methods Analysis One Month and Two Week Phase VI : Investigating and analyzing the gathered data using a qualitative and quantitative based on combinative approach (empirical methods) to raise confidence and significance of the hypothesis under discussion and testing. Result Formulation Two Weeks Phase VII : In this stage of the project, all the results obtained through analysis conducted in phase VI would be studied and formulated logically to reach a conclusion and give recommendations. Final Write-up & Thesis Submission Two Weeks Phase VIII : This is the final stage of the project where the entire effort would be scrutinized in form of a comprehensive report. Diagrammatic representation The proposed time schedule in diagrammatic representation for this research is given below:- Phases Activity Jan 2013 Feb 2013 Mar 2013 April 2013 May 2013 Jun 2013 Phase I Collection of Literature Phase II Study of Literature Phase III Analysis of Proposed Scheme Phase IV Preparation of Schemes / Model Phase V Implementation of Schemes/Model Phase VI Analysis Phase VII Result Formulation Phase VIII Final Write-up & Thesis Submission Potential Problems and Contingency Plans It is likely that the difficulties would be encountered during collection of data as it happens in most of the surveys. Although we have a restaurant as a sample case study but to reach a generalized solution the data is required to be collected from other parts and concerning areas of the industry. For this purpose, efforts would be made in advance to contact the restaurants in the area that have been shortlisted for visit rather than surprising them off. In this case, telephonic communication and written invitations to restaurants for being part of the research project and educating them on the objectives of the project would be initiated. The formal responses from the outlets would be kept in a separate record for reference. Also situation may be more aggravated by the fact that there would be limited time to complete long questionnaire to collect the primary data. To cope up with this factor, the questionnaire for survey would be prepared in earlier stages of the project in parallel to other phases. To facilitate the respondents, efforts would be made to keep the survey questionnaire language simple and easy to comprehend. Not to forget, geographical location and distance among different restaurants in the area is likely to present difficulty to put cohesive and focused efforts in the research. In such case, support from other class mates and friends would be taken during the data collection process where data would be collected simultaneously from multiple location by a team of researchers. Another major setback could be reluctance by the restaurant owners to share their data with regard to their customer confidentiality and information. Also another potential problem may be that the interviewee may not be able to keep its appointment causing significant delays in data collection. Similarly, access to interview the workers at the restaurant and the management that is involved at the spot decision making may be restricted by the higher management in the restaurant. In all above cases, replacements and standby arrangements would be made so that efforts may be concentrated in other direction to timely collect the data. Apart from the sample selected, there would be individuals and organizations that would replace the primary selection if it fails to respond so that the integrity of the sample size and responses required to carry out the research are maintained and achieved. In the same context, expected are incidences where restaurant owners may not like to participate in the research, show inability to share customer information, gave vague answers and incorrect figures and underestimating financial figures fearing that same information may not be used against them by the competitor or the government tax regulatory bodies charging them with fraudulence. Although it would be difficult to eliminate and identify the impurity in the data, statistical tools and trends may be used to identify any irregularity in the data collected that requires more in-depth investigation. It is very likely that the respondents may have difficulty in recalling some information or making decision about a particular question asking for a preference in the questionnaire. In such case, it is most appropriate to give respondents more time for recalling and thinking to reach a conclusive and accurate decision rather than an obscure one that may contaminate the efforts made in data collection. Also it may be difficult to calculate the cost on a particular service process either due to lack of record keeping or unwillingness to share such information. If any such situation arises, then standard costs based on the industry benchmarks of available costs would be utilized to calculate the overall cost of the service. This is relatively an important factor because improvement in the quality of the services would not only be measured in terms of customer satisfaction but also financial gains received by the organization. References Crompton, J. et al. (1990) Measuring The Quality of Recreation Services. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 8 (3), p.47-56. Gist, P. and Langley, D. (2007) Application of Standard Project Management Tools to Research – A Case Study from a Multinational Clinical Trial, The Journal of Research Administration, XXXVIII. Kitisuda, P. (2006) Customer:s Satisfaction with Spa Services at Sivalai Spa. Graduate. Thammasat University. Kotler, P. et al. (1999) Marketingfor Hospitality and Tourism. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Printice Hall Publishers. Lawson, F. (1997) Hotels & Resorts: Planning, Design and Refurbishment. London: Buttetworth Heinemann Publishers. Markovic, S. 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