Hospitality Management of Italian Restaurant - Case Study Example

Jamie’s Italian Restaurant Name Date Course Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1. 0 Executive summary 3 2.0 Introduction 3 3.0 Discussion 4 3.1 Nature of hospitality 4 3.2 Initial impression 5 3.3 Application of emotional labor 5 4.0 Recommendations 8 5.0 Conclusion 8 6.0 References 10 7.0 Bibliography 11 1. 0 Executive summary Jamie’s Italian restaurant is a popular restaurant located in Adelaide. The restaurant prepares Italian Cuisines as well as the local food. The customers can also place their order at the restaurant through the website of the company. The initial perception of the restaurant was based on the customer reviews and the information available at the website of the restaurant. Emotional labor concepts are used at the restaurant. The customers are usually welcomed and greeted with a smile when they visit the restaurant. The employees are friendly and they interact with the customers freely and hence making them feel comfortable. Any complaints by the customers are usually addressed immediately with an apology. However, the restaurant has a few weaknesses and a small number of customers do not seem to understand the importance of the emotional labor. It is also recommended that the employees should be motivated as emotional labor concepts may burnout over time. The employees also require some training in order to maintain the emotional labor concepts. The restaurant provides high quality services to the customers which due to the emotional labor concepts. 2.0 Introduction Adelaide in South Australia hosts a number of restaurants that provide high quality services to the customers. Jamie’s Italian is a restaurant that is located in 2 King William Street and it is known for its high quality services (Jamie’s Italian, 2014). The restaurant is Italian and it is famous for its Italian dishes. The restaurant also cooks a variety of meals that is common among the local people in Australia. The food is usually decent and the staff members at the restaurant are always ready to assists the customers. Seafood is also cooked at the restaurant which is popular among most of the local people. The restaurant serves different drinks including alcohol. However, the restaurant is also known for its expensive prices in terms of the food. The overall food experience at the restaurant is however good. Emotional labor involves the emotions that the employees are supposed to display when dealing with the customers (Sohn & Lee, 2012). This is important in terms of ensuring that the employees feel comfortable and are also satisfied with the services offered. The concept of emotional labor is important for the restaurant staff for the purposes of ensuring that they provide quality services to the customers. The paper is thus a report about Jamie’s Italian restaurant in relation to the emotional labor. 3.0 Discussion 3.1 Nature of hospitality The restaurant offers a variety of food which is of high quality. It involves both the local cuisines and the Italian Cuisines. The food is decent and it enables the customers to enjoy the unique taste of the Italian Cuisines. The restaurant has a website that allows the customers to place their order in advance. The orders at the websites are usually taken after every 15 minutes. This is for ensuring that the customers can find their food ready once they arrive at the restaurant. On the other hand, the restaurant usually opens from 11:30am to 11:00pm (Jamie’s Italian, 2014). This ensures that the customers can take lunch or dinner at the restaurant. The staff members of the restaurant have also been trained on how to handle the customers. The restaurant has a bar where the alcoholic drinks are available for the customers. The customers can also relax at the bar with drinks while waiting for their orders. 3.2 Initial impression On a personal level, the initial impression of the restaurant was based on the information obtained from the restaurant of the company. The website indicated that the restaurant offers high quality services and the Italian cuisines. On the other hand, the information about the food was based on the menu that had been provided at the website of the company. The customer review also formed the basis for the initial impression with regards to the restaurant. Some of the customer review was quite negative and it indicated that the restaurant was too expensive and some of the food was also missing from the menu. Other reviews suggested that the pasta cooked at the restaurant is of low quality and the customers have to wait for long before being served. However, most of the customer review indicated that the restaurant cooks high quality food. The initial impression was that the services of the restaurant are far. However, after visiting the restaurant, I discovered that the staff treated the customers well and the food was also great. However, some areas need to be improved to enhance the experience of the customers. 3.3 Application of emotional labor Most of the employees were friendly towards the customers and they greeted the customers with a smile. According to the emotional labor theory, the worker is supposed to produce an emotional state in another person (Walsh & Bartikowski, 2013). This as evident in the restaurant as the warm smile and friendly approach that was used y most of the employees was useful in enabling the customers to feel that they are welcomed. The waiters at restaurant were also friendly and interactive when taking the orders of the customers. This is useful in creating a free and friendly environment with the customers. Some of the waiters were also happy to assist the customers to select different types of cuisine. This is considering that some of the customers were not familiar with some of the Italian cuisines that wee served at the restaurant. At the restaurant, most of the employees appeared to be cheerful when dealing with the customers. Each detail of the customer was taken serious and with a friendly nature. This is an indication that the organizational; culture of the restaurant considers the concepts of emotional labor. In some instances, the staff members seemed to have misunderstandings among themselves with regards to the orders of the customers. The supervisors were tough on the employees in some of the instances. Although this seem disappointing to the employees, they were still friendly to the customers and were always smiling when greeting and taking the orders of the customers. The mood or temperament of the employees therefore had no effect on their interaction with the customers. Both the male and female employees of the restaurant were friendly to the customers. According to the theory of emotional labor, gender may affect the emotional labor. The women may have difficulties dealing with their moods which may affect the emotional labor (Jung & Yoon, 2014). However, at the restaurant, the female employees did not display any negative moods and were friendly to the customers. The level of interaction between the employees and the customers was also high at the restaurant. The waiters engaged in friendly talks with the customers while welcoming them and while taking their orders. This played an essential roe in ensuring that the customers are free to place their orders. Some of the waiters also made jokes with the customers and hence impacting positively on the service delivery. The children were also treated well by the employees of the restaurant which makes it ideal for a family to visit the restaurant. The members of staff at the restaurant were polite to the customers and were quick to attend to the customers whenever they were called. Most of the waiters also intruded their names to the customers which made it easy communicate to them whenever they were requires. The waiters also served the food to the customers with a smile. The waiters were always around after serving the customer to check on them in order to determine whether they required anything. The quality of services at the restaurant was good due to the friendly nature of the employees. The employees were also friendly to the customers when they were leaving the restaurant. This plays an essential role in ensuring that the customers can always return to the restaurant. The cashier also greeted the customers with a smile when they were paying their bills. In some instances, the customers were not satisfied as some felt that they had waited for too long before they were served their food. The employees always explained to the customers in a friendly way the reasons for the delays. The complaints of the customers were also handled in a friendly way with the employees smiling at the customers. There were not attempts by the employees to enter into argument with the customers which impacted positively on solving the complaints brought forward by the customers. A positive customer feeling is usually generated when emotional labor concepts are applied by the restaurant employees (Wang, et al, 2011). An apology was always given to the customers whenever they felt that there were any delays or misunderstanding. Making an eye contact with the customers is also important according to the emotional labor theory. This was also applied whenever the customers were speaking to the employees. However, despite the good quality of services offered by the employees, a few staff members were slow in responding to the customers. Other staff members also ignored the customers and hence creating a bad impression. However the incidences were quite few and the overall provision of services by the employees was good. The good quality of services had a positive impact on the customer experience at the restaurant. 4.0 Recommendations Although the employees of the company provide a high quality services, it is recommended that more should be done in order to enhance the quality of services at the restaurant. It is recommended that the restaurant should ensure that the employees undergo training from time to time with regards to the issues of emotional labor. The organizational culture of the company should create an enabling environment for promoting emotional labor among all the employees regardless of their gender. It is also recommended that the employees should be motivated for the purposes of ensuring that they fully embrace the concepts of emotional labor. The motivation of the employees should be carried out through the use of different means including rewards. The financial as well as non financial means should be used for the purpose of rewarding the employees. This is due to the difficulties that the employees may face incase they are encountering problems at the work place. A mechanism should also be put in place at the restaurant to ensure that the employees are able to relieve stress which may hinder emotional labor. It is also recommended that the job satisfaction of rates of the employees should be reviewed fro time to time. This is because the lack of job satisfaction impacts negatively on the emotional labor. It is also recommended that measures should be put in place to avoid any burnout. This is considering that the emotional labor usually encounter burn out after sometimes and hence impacting negatively on the delivery of services to the customers. 5.0 Conclusion In conclusion, it is evident that the restaurant offers a variety of food and drinks to the customers. The restaurant has a good reputation in terms of the services provided to the customers. This is based on the review from different customers who have visited the restaurant. It is also evident that the restaurant values its customers and it has pout in place measures to ensure that the customers are satisfied. The concepts of emotional labor have been embraced at the restaurant. It is evident that the customers are treated well by the employees of the restaurant. The level of interaction between the employees of the restaurant and the customers is high. The organizational culture of the restaurant is friendly to the customers and it promotes emotional labor. It is also evident that the experience of the customers is enhanced by the emotional labor. The employees are also keen on ensuring that a good relationship is maintained with the customers. It is also evident that the image of the restaurant is good due to the emotional labor concepts. This is despite some negative experience of some of the customers with regards to the food at the restaurant. The perception of the restaurant also changed after the visit and it was a memorable experience due to the high quality of services. 6.0 References Jamie’s Italian, 2014, Adelaide, Retrieved on 31 October 2014 from, . Sohn, H, & Lee, T, 2012, Relationship between HEXACO personality factors and emotional labor of service providers in the tourism industry, Tourism Management, 33(1), 116-125. Walsh, G, & Bartikowski, B, 2013, Employee emotional labor and quitting intentions: moderating effects of gender and age, European Journal of Marketing, 47(8), 1213-1237. Jung, H, & Yoon, H, 2014, Antecedents and consequences of employees’ job stress in a foodservice industry: Focused on emotional labor and turnover intent, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 38, 84-88. Wang, G, et al, 2011, Synthesizing What We Know and Looking Ahead: A Meta-Analytical Review of 30 Years of Emotional Labor Research, Research on Emotion in Organizations, 7, 15-43. 7.0 Bibliography Photos of the food at the restaurant 1. Read More