Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis for Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House - Research Paper Example

Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis for Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House Executive Summary Parameter of the report Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House’s strength and weaknesses as perception of the front house manager’s point of view has been provided in the assignment. A detailed review of the needs of developments that are to be integrated within the system has been detailed for the business to set up its position in the San Francisco. This paper has described all about the problem areas that were faced by the restaurant during business, along with evaluation of problems and detailed recommendation for meeting the needs of the business. Description of the report & Methodology These weaknesses were analyzed through qualitative methodology with the use of secondary data. The secondary data has been collected from journals such as “Use of qualitative research in foodservice organizations: A review of challenges, strategies, and applications”, “Quality in Service Sector”, “Perception Gaps in customer expectations: Managers versus service providers and customers” and “A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research”. Following this, relevant theories have also been incorporated from books namely “Managing Service Marketing”, “Principles of Marketing”, “Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods” and “Strategic Management and Business Analysis”. Correspondingly, relevant data has also been collected from websites such as “Yelp Inc.” After identification of the different problem areas of restaurant, a qualitative method has been used for maintaining the effectiveness of the system and enhancing the business prominence in the new market. According to the past record of restaurant and secondary data sources, it stated that this particular restaurant has faced a cultural difference issue, along with selection of foods and analyzing the threat of other existing restaurants. Findings & Conclusion After analyzing these areas, paper was found proper problems in service, quality management, along with cultural differences. According to these situations, the findings were both development of the negative as well as positive aspects. Recommendation Technically, the restaurant has been able to configure properly its negative angles with maximum consciousness as well as tried to resolve it with the help of its existing strengths i.e. the unique cuisine that it have been providing to its consumers. Introduction Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House located in San Francisco. According to the name of this restaurant, it has been clear that it is based on the Vietnamese cuisine. The restaurant has its own blend of Asian flavors with various types of meats along with noodles. The restaurant has been developing its peripheral in San Francisco so that it can foster a greater chance of future prospects within the global edge. In this era of globalization, domestic people of San Francisco, has increased the acceptance of the restaurant and, in terms of its food and service quality, value chain managements along with its own atmosphere, which was much different from the native culture of US. Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House has faced many obstacles during business, in regards to specific food criteria, different taste criteria, services along with culture differences that are prevalent within the society. The important part of any front house manager is often related with customer services that are one of the most essential commitments for customer satisfaction by providing services from manager (Luk & Layton, 2002). Customer service include, a vast range of management, such as dealing with the customers, resolve the problem areas, handling discounts offers, adjustments in bills. Along with these criteria front house manger should interact with higher authority for future needs and create some innovative changes in business to sustain in market, as well as find new ways of improving the customer’s experiences. The shop has been facing steep competition from existing competitors in market and the most prominent among them is Pho Huynh Hiep 2 - Kevin’s Noodle House that provided with similar kind of Vietnamese cuisines. Thus, the soup shop may face a steep competition and may also loose popularity based on the similar kind of food that are provided by Pho Huynh Hiep 2 - Kevin’s Noodle House within the same locations (Yelp Inc., 2015). Throughout the paper to enhance an effectiveness of the overall process involved. Moreover, the paper focused on the strengths and weaknesses of Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House, along with its problem areas for which the resolving methods have been ascertained. Additionally, findings were highlighted for this particular restaurant along with some recommendation for future growth and sustainability (Luk & Layton, 2002). Statement of the Problem Area Several problems that were identified by the restaurant business are identified to be one of the most basic weaknesses of the business and have made it face one of the most challenging tasks in the global domain. Globalization was an influencing factor, which has incorporated in people’s daily life, in terms of their food habit, trades, along with other essential situations. The same thing was happened in other restaurant businesses as well which were planning to diversify their business across the globe. Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House has been an Asian restaurant chain, which has enhanced its businesses in San Francisco as well. First, it was most challenging situation that being in a foreign country for business. Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House ids presently dealing with Vietnamese, Chinese cuisines mostly, this has acted to be a completely new set of taste range for people within the domain and has added to the need of preferences for the local people. It was boomerang situation for the restaurant, some people loved to accept the wide range and variety of products that has been displayed by the new restaurant chain whereas some other rigid people were dead-against of these foreign cuisines (Bateson & Hoffman, 2000). According to these criteria and analyzing the viewpoint of front house manager, it has been evident that, the main weakness of Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House was its domain of food that has a very narrow diversification of menu and a very fixed range of food. In this perception, it was clear that, the restaurant was particularly able to attract only the Asian food lovers who have migrated from their native places in Asia. However, this pragmatic system of progression of business is identified to be having a very short-lived business life and likely to be creating an impact on the overall performance of the business. In the recent race, people are mostly conscious about their health and food habit that is again creating a diverse perception towards the restaurant business and hampering the overall business. This restaurant offered cheap but tasty food to its customers in the new market of San Francisco. Conversely, the lowered cost of the food products has been affecting the different aspects of consumers in San Francisco, which considered that this cheap food might not be reliable in terms of quality and health. This negative publication acted as a huge amount influence for the restaurant in terms of the quality of the food based on the perception of the consumers. This further affected the employment of Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House, as well as hampered customer’s trust. Customer’s satisfaction and employees along with managers were accountable for giving this service to the customers within the global arena (Yelp Inc., 2015). As a front house manager, it is a responsibility to hire staffs and train them as per the needs of their specific jobs. Consequently, it was even viewed that the staffs were not able to provide expected services to customers and the accountability of the same was quite reluctant in terms of the commitment of the employees. This was another problem criterion for future prospect of restaurant. Additionally, there was another huge issue of culture differences, which was faced by this Asian restaurant during the prospect of the business (Bateson & Hoffman, 2000). Cultural differences acts as huge barriers for retaining any positive operation for business organizations operating within the current domain. Most of the Asian countries are believed to be following a collective culture rather than individualistic culture like, Western countries this further hampered the operation. Another main difference that was identifiable among the masses were in terms of the social relationship that was prevalent as Asian culture was more formal than western as well as the cultural believe of hierarchy than equality hampered organizational operations (Bateson & Hoffman, 2000). These situations indicated a problematic condition, which had negative impact on Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House and its business along with future sustainability (Yelp Inc., 2015). According to these cultural differences, the services of restaurant was largely influenced and affected. Reviewing the criteria that are mentioned earlier, the front house management decided to consider these problem areas as ‘gap’ within services. Since the restaurant businesses, has been directly connected to the customers, these gaps were recognized as, Customer’s Expectation Versus Management’s Perception. This majorly resulted due to lack of marketing research alignment along with inadequate interaction with the higher authority and communication problem with the customers. Management Perception versus Service Delivery. Reflecting on insufficient assurance to the service quality as previously mentioned, along with unfeasibility, deficient task standardization and lack of goal setting was the another critical gap of this quality concept that has been prevalent within the system. Service Specification versus Service Delivery. Service delivery played an important role in terms of conflict in between the staffs of the restaurants, which were poorly fit in their jobs that largely reflected on the lack of apparent controls as well as lack of teamwork (Luk & Layton, 2002). Service Delivery versus External Communication. The lack of external communication further affected the business as it resulted in poor and insufficient communication with the customers and co-workers as well. Correspondingly, there were huge amount of discrepancy within customer’s expectations and the standard of services delivered. The services provided were typical results of the influences applied that majorly come from customers’ side. Additionally, the drawbacks of the service providers further created a dilemma to maintain the overall business and enhance prominence (Luk & Layton, 2002). The gap that was created by the discrepancy between customer expectations and employees resulted in diversification in the understanding of customer’s expectations by the people who were indulged in front house managements and front line service provider of restaurant (Luk & Layton, 2002). These criteria were clearly understood with the help of these gaps and following diagram, Figure: Service Gaps (Luk & Layton, 2012) To mitigate the impact of the problem areas the management of Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House, must go through the analysis in depth along with some resolving criteria. Methodology Methodology of any research, lead an essential role in collecting data as well as information that would help in developing the overall objective of the research. The methodology helps in formulating an exact plan that help in collecting data, analyze, along with incorporate the findings for the fruitful purpose for attaining the desired research objectives. To enhance the credibility of the research and developing resolving criteria a qualitative method has been used as a methodology with the integration of secondary data sources (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998). To increase the relevance of the data sample has been ascertained from the secondary data by taking assistance from the peer-reviewed articles, scholarly articles, company overview and journals for enhancing the effectiveness of the research methodology. The data has been duly collected from the consumer reviews that have been attained through Yelp websites the ratings reflects on the positions of the websites and the different reviews attained for the soups shops. The data collected reflects on the fact that the Qualitative method has been conducted upon the foodservice operation along with service provider staffs through the report of restaurant’s previous years. As per restaurant’s report of it past services, it was clear that selection and recruitment procedures has been developed a huge responsibility towards the future (Arendt, Roberts, Strohbehn, Ellis & Paez, 2012). To meet with the diverse needs the front line management was considered accountable for the selection as well as recruitment of new staffs. They were also responsible for choosing future staffs of restaurant as well as train them to meet with the needs of progression in the new market. The literary sources such as library books, electronic books and other internet sites have been used for the data collections. Considerably, the collected data were analyzed with the help of the different available statistical programs to validate the same and enhance the effectiveness of the system (Arendt, & et. al., 2012). Findings During the phase of the modern age, new generation has evidenced that restaurant business was growing globally day-by-day. This business involved mostly two parties, service taker or customers and service provider or front house staffs and managers. In this perception, customer expectations were based on the personal needs, word of mouth recommendations, or their individuals past restaurant service experiences. These recommendations and experiences have an influence on the perception of the people affecting the sustainability. The customers today are always concerned about the quality of service as well as quality of food, in contrast. However, sustainability in terms of restaurants was related to the customer services along with their acceptability of the quality that is being provided to the consumers at large. Diversifying in the foreign market had been a challenging task for the companies and has often created immense challenge to retain a successful business (Luk & Layton, 2002). Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House dealing with the Vietnamese, Chinese cuisines mostly has been new to all the local people in the new market. Some local people loved the range of diet that was provided by the cuisine increasing the credibility of the food served by the company. However, the company even faced a huge amount of challenge based on the rigid people were dead-against of these foreign cuisines and was less flexible to meet with the increased diversified food (Williamson & Cooke, Jenkins & Moreton, 2003). According to this condition, it was evident that, the main weakness of Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House was its choice of field of foods, specifically, narrow diversification of Asian food options. In this perception, it was clear that, the restaurant was able to attract only the Asian food lovers and people who have migrated from the Asian countries. It might helpful for the restaurant business purpose for now, but not the future sustainability as well as growth. Another positive area was raised, many Indians, Vietnamese, Pakistanis, Chinese people who migrated in San Francisco for their jobs or studies, were all fond of these types of foods. The cheap rate of the food in comparison to other restaurants increased consumers for Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House and enhanced its market prominence. Local people were connected with this Noddle house and the popularity was spread majorly through the ‘word-of-mouth’ communication, which was a positive sign for the restaurant (Kotler & Armstrong, 2009). According to this recent race, people were conscious about their health and food habits. This restaurant offered cheap but tasty food to its customers. Local people of San Francisco have however considered the cheap rate of food was not completely reliable for maintaining quality and enhancing health. The cheap rates of the food products that were offered by the restaurant acted as harm for the restaurant’s goodwill as well. Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House was not that posh restaurant like other restaurant in San Francisco; it was affected sometimes in a negative manner. Foods such as cheese burgers and other foods having high fatty acids are noted to be having a higher level of risk on the people. However, as per general view, cheap rate was able to attract low-income people as well as medium income people as well (Yelp Inc., 2015 ;Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1985). These low and medium earning people were interested in cheap rate foods rather than the high rate posh restaurant’s foods. Additionally, there was another huge issue from the culture differences in between Western culture and Asian culture, which Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House faced during the initial start up phase of the business in San Francisco. Cultural differences were huge barriers for retaining any business organization. Most of the Asian countries were believe in the collective culture rather than individualistic culture like, Western countries. Another main difference was a form of social relationship, Asian culture was more formal than western as well as Asian believes more in hierarchy than equality. This was such a critical condition for this Asian restaurant, which had negative impact on Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House and its business along with future sustainability (Lewis, 1989). In conception of this practical situations, as per front house management’s concern, management decided to consider these problem areas of services as ‘gap’. Since the restaurant businesses, has been directly connected to the customers, these gaps were recognized as per their expectations, understanding of managements, communication problems, service quality as per customer’s satisfaction. Additionally, lack of marketing research about the existing restaurants in San Francisco, and side-by-side, the poor communication with the higher authority of Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House may has introduced with huge critical condition as well as another communication problem was with the customers. As previously, mentioned, insufficient commitment to the service quality along with unfeasibility, deficient task standardization and lack of goal setting was another critical gap of this service quality concept. Conflict between staffs of the restaurants, led to the lack of controls as well as influenced the overall prominence of the business. Poor and insufficient communication with the customers and co-workers created confused state of situation, which resulted as a negative aspect for Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House. The drawbacks of the service providers, in this perception was completely aligned with customer expectations which were fundamentally based on the personal needs, word of mouth recommendations from the existing group of consumers (Bateson & Hoffman,2000). These recommendations and experiences have great views in terms of sustainability within competitive restaurant market. The following figure indicate towards the interaction between service quality and customer satisfaction, Figure: Service Quality & Customer Satisfaction (Bateson & Hoffman,2000) Another negative situation has been observde to be the inconsistency between the customer’s expectations and employees’ perception that resulted in differentiation towards understanding of customer’s of the people who were dealing in the front line service provider of restaurant. To increase the prominence of the services the frontline managers needs to formulate an effective plan to meet with the diverse needs of the company and ensure effective domain (Bateson & Hoffman,2000). For resolving these problem areas, Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House has organized its strength in a positive way to ensure the future prospects of the restaurant in San Francisco, with the help of preparing a strong bonding to the existing customer, for marketing strategy. Word-of-mouth and electronic word-of-mouth communication were helpful for the restaurant’s goodwill along with its gratitude. Additionally, it has to be managed that the quality and variety of cuisines. This could be duly interpreted as the relevant sources that are available on rating websites, which reflects on the spread of personal experiences of consumers through the form of reviews (Yelp Inc., 2015). Management has to be more conscious about selected staffs for the future service as well as the quality of food provided by the restaurant. In this way, the restaurant has to be able to create a great sustainable path for its future (Lewis, 1989). Conclusion Through this discussion, it was clear that, an Asian restaurant could be able to generate a maintainable goodwill in the foreign market with the help of great service quality with a rich cultural aspect along with quality food in a low range. The restaurant has faced different negative aspects, such as, cultural differences issues, specific field of foods, threats of other restaurants in same field of foods along with other issues, which has been analyzed with the help of different secondary sources and qualitative methodology. From analysis, both the negative and positive types of findings came out with the diverse needs of the social underpinnings. Recommendation For resolving these problem areas, Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House must have organized its strength as a positive way to the future prospect of restaurant in San Francisco. The different approaches that were aligned with the different needs were noted to be having both positive and negative approaches of the system. Being of Asian origin, the restaurant has been able to prepare a strong bonding between the existing customer that was also helpful for formulating proper marketing strategy as well as recognition policy. This was a great strength of restaurant, which must have been worked to cover its negative points along with enhanced its generosity among the local people. Word-of-mouth communication and electronic word-of-mouth communication both were helpful for enhancing restaurant’s goodwill along with its gratitude. Additionally, it was already if the cheap price for the foods, along with that, it has to be managed that quality of foods and variety of cuisines were noted to be enhancing the overall transparency of the system. Variety of foods must be needed for attracting the attention of customers, irrespective of the region from which they originate. The company has even thought of adding the garlic noodles into their cuisines to develop the prominence and enhance the effectiveness of its consumer preferences. Management has to be more conscious about the selection and recruitment system that are prevalent within the system for ensuring future service quality along with goodwill of restaurant. Technically, the restaurant has been able to create a great sustainable path for its future along with dedication towards maintaining the quality of service, which will be enhancing consumer satisfaction along with the market prominence of the company. References Arendt, S. W., Roberts, K. R., Strohbehn, C., Ellis, J., & Paez, P. (2012). Use of qualitative research in foodservice organizations: A review of challenges, strategies, and applications. Apparel, Events and Hospitality Management Publications and Papers, 4-23. Bateson, J & Hoffman, K. (2000). Managing Service Marketing. Boston: Dryden press. Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2009). Principles of Marketing. UK: Prentice Hall. Lewis, B. R. (1989). Quality in Service Sector. International Journal of Brand Marketing, 7(5), 4-12. Luk, T. K., & Layton, R. (2002). Perception Gaps in customer expectations: Managers versus service providers and customers. The Service Industries Journal, 22(2), 109-128. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A. & Berry, L. L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49(4), 41-50. Taylor, S. J. & Bogdan, R. (1998). Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Williamson, D. & Cooke, P., Jenkins, W. & Moreton, K. M. (2003). Strategic Management and Business Analysis. United Kingdom: Butterworth-Heinemann. Yelp Inc. (2015). Pho Huynh Hiep 2 - Kevin’s Noodle House. Retrieved from: http://www.yelp.com/biz/pho-huynh-hiep-2-kevins-noodle-house-san-francisco Yelp Inc. (2015). Pho Phu Quoc Beef Noodle House. Retrieved from: http://www.yelp.com/biz/pho-phu-quoc-ppq-beef-noodle-house-restaurant-san-francisco Read More