Eggettes Restaurant in San Francisco - Essay Example

? Internship Final Paper: Eggettes Executive Summary Parameters of the report This was a case study of Eggettes restaurant located in San Francisco. The purpose was to understand the attributes that a worker in this internet cafe should posses so as to ensure customer satisfaction. In addition, the study aimed at identifying the manager’s or store owner’s practice in scheduling staff in the restaurant and how their off duty days are planned. Description of the problem The huge traffic of customers at Eggettes implies that employees should posses the necessary attributes to serve the customers satisfactorily. With various competitors also operating in the region, customer satisfaction becomes the only sure way to retain clients. This study was to determine which traits workers at Eggettes should portray. Similarly, planning for the workforce is an important aspect of ensuring smooth operation. The practice in scheduling employees for their off duties was therefore to be identified. Methodology The study involved qualitative analysis of the desired employees’ attributes and the practice in scheduling employees. As such, qualitative data was collected through observation and engagement with the respective employees, particularly the mixologist and the store owner. These data were then analyzed and then conclusions and recommendations were made. Summary of findings and conclusions Eggettes was found to operate in a competitive neighborhood with other similar restaurants in the region. As such, the store owner had the duty to ensure that the employees have attributes that would make them stand out from the rest. Among the traits that the study found important for employees in this restaurant include multitasking ability, good communication skills, listening skills and ability to maintain eye contact. The mixologist was particularly a key employee to posses these attributes due to direct engagement with the customers and having to undertake many duties at the same time. The “day off request book” was found to be an efficient tool in scheduling employees with the store owner taking advantage of flexibility of part time employees to come up with a schedule that would satisfy all employees. If no employee becomes available to work on an empty day, the store owner joins the rest of the employees in their duties. Recommendations Operating in a competitive environment, Eggettes should adopt strategies that would make it more competitive. As such, the restaurant should include delivery services in its operations so as to compete with other similar restaurants like Waffle. Introduction of waiter services would also ensure that service in the restaurant becomes faster and efficient especially for the mixologist who has to get orders from customers and make them their desired drinks on top of other duties performed concurrently. Being an internet cafe, the management should make use of this capacity to automate its employee scheduling. Employees should be able to book their off days online and the store owner works on it. This would make this operation more effective and simpler for the store owner. Section I – Introduction Eggettes is an average class fast food restaurant in San Francisco, 3136 Noriega Street in the Outer Sunset neighborhood hence providing ample parking to its customers which is offered free in front of the restaurant. It serves different kinds of Chinese fast foods and desserts and beverages including tea and coffee. The restaurant operates between 11 am and 10 pm from Sunday to Thursday and 11 am to 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. This internet cafe has the capacity and ability to handle group customers who could perhaps choose to have a biting in the restaurant as they hold their meetings. Though it does not offer delivery services, waiter service or allow for outdoor sitting, it has take-out services. The restaurant does not accept credit cards and does not allow for reservations (Eggettes 2009). But the restaurant offers various benefits to its customers including free Wi-Fi services which make the restaurant more competitive in the region. There is a flat screen television set in the restaurant to make sure that customers do not miss out on important programs or news while being attended to in the restaurant. More so, there is a wall of magazines where customers could flip through. Alternatively, one may choose to surf or snack on its computer stations. The management takes care of its physically challenged customers by having a provision for wheelchair accessibility. The ambience is casual with prohibition on alcoholic beverages while within the boundaries of the restaurant. Its location next to Polly Ann’s ice cream could be a strategy to target ice cream lovers for some real food in addition. In fact, at about 3 pm, the restaurant would usually be packed with middle school and elementary school children. However, if considered as a competitor, then Golden Island Cafe and Irving Cafe and Dessert, both in the Outer Sunset neighborhood offer significant competition. The restaurant is widely known because of its Hong Kong street-style snacks and waffles, particularly eggettes. Eggettes refers to snacks common with small snack shops and street vendors in Hong Kong where it is referred to as “gai daan tsai” in their native language meaning little chicken eggs (Mok, 2010). It would be easily recognized by its small egg-shaped balls attached alongside each other making up a golden cake. The inside of eggettes would be soft and fluffy while the outside would be crispy. Its making involves pouring of batter made of flour, sugar and eggs onto special iron griddles or frying pans with round wells where the batter settles. Traditionally, this would be heated on hot coals giving it a golden color. Trying to individually make these waffles could be disappointing, the reason why they remain the specialty of street vendors in Hong Kong. At Eggettes, San Fransisco, eggettes comes in various flavors including the original, fruit favored, honey dew, coconut and chocolate flavors. Each would cost about $3.50 (Eggettes, 2009). According to Mok (2010), Hong Kong on the other hand still maintains the original flavor. Most Eggettes’ customers would have the eggette of their flavor together with tapioca or lychee balls. Section II – Statement of the Problem From personal observation, Eggettes receives many different kinds of customers ranging from children to adults from various backgrounds. Those serving these customers could at times have to deal with heavy customer traffic which translates to a lot of work for them. Even with huge volumes of tasks, these workers have to serve these customers to their satisfaction. As such, I sought to find what skills these workers need to acquire to ensure that the restaurant continues to offer high standards of service to its clients. One of the most challenging tasks at Eggettes is to coordinate all the workers so that each of them have days off duty to rest and still make sure that operations in the restaurant do not halt. But Eggettes’ store owner had managed to achieve an almost perfect balance and all workers seemed contended with the duty roster. I therefore aimed at finding out what practices the store owner had adopted to be successful in this regard. Section III – Methodology The aim of this study was to find the qualities that would make Eggettes staff offer their customers satisfactory services and to also determine the practices by the store owner that ensured smooth operation in the restaurant even with workers taking their days off duty. To achieve these objectives, I had to conduct a qualitative research study from Eggettes’ website to find what values they uphold and their general business practices. Being an intern at the same restaurant, I observed the daily operations and would engage with employees and the store owner, making it possible for me to collect the data needed for this study. These data were then analyzed and recommendations made. Section IV – Findings Richards and Munsters (2010) point out at observation as an important approach in collecting data in the hospitality industry. My observation and engagement with the drink mixologist gave some significant findings. At Eggettes, the set standard indicates that a mixologist should be able to work on one drink per minute or less. The aim for this was to ensure that all customers who order for drinks do not wait for too long, say more than a minute, before being served their drink of choice. As such, a mixologist had to be fast and precise in the work. In addition, this worker had to ensure that the customer gets exactly what has been ordered for. According to Eggettes (2009), there were over 100 drinks in the restaurant which the mixologist was supposed to memorize as this was core in the employee’s duty. More so, even as the customers continue to be served, this worker was expected to keep track of the reserve of each drink and make orders in time to ensure that none runs out. This worker engages with customers on a one-on-one basis as they inquire about the drinks or even just seek to extend their greetings. Therefore, other than just getting to understand customer needs, mixologists have making of drinks as their main job. Therefore, listening skills should be considered as a key ingredient of a mixologist at Eggettes as this job involves giving the customer what they request for. Bearing in mind the over 100 different drinks being stocked in the restaurant, any misunderstanding of the order could cause a great variation in what would be delivered to the customer. Such jobs by their nature would have customers who would not be able to communicate precisely what they want. As such, communication skills becomes an important component of anybody working as a mixologist with the aim of understanding customer’s needs so as to deliver as expected. It is a task that involves many activities in one: getting to understand customer’s needs, choosing the drinks to mix, mixing, checking on stocks and serving customers within a minute. This would only be achieved to customers’ satisfaction if multitasking would be taken as a key component of a mixologist’s attribute. Eye contact would serve to assure customers that indeed one is attentive to their request despite the many other tasks in line. It calls for service beyond call of duty. While in the management training, the task of the store owner every month on scheduling staff proved to be tough. Every beginning of month, the store owner and I would come up with a schedule of how both permanent and casual staff would be on duty and how they would take their days off duty. The first step in coming up with a draft schedule was to check out for the available dates for each employee. This guides in coming up with a “set schedule” for the employees. The second part involved using the “day off request book” to get the details of employees’ preferred off days. The book was used by employees to book in the days they would wish to be off duty. Employees would normally put down their names against the dates they wish to be off duty. This would be kept in a folder, arranged according to dates and months to enable the store owner keep track of the schedule of every employee as each worker gets booked on different dates. This book proved to be quite an efficient tool as it indicated vividly which days have been booked and by which employee or co-worker hence avoid conflict in the days taken off duty and ensure the satisfaction of everyone in the restaurant. While planning such a schedule, part time workers would normally be considered first because they were taken to be more flexible than full time employees. As such, they could easily be moved to other dates other than what they had proposed. Similarly, it ensures that the number of part time laborers in the store met the job demands and thus saving the store owner extra spending on having to employ part time services of the full time employees. Otherwise, when there is a shortage of part time employees, full time employees could be asked to cover up in shifts. If there would be empty hours where no employee, whether full or part time would be available, the store owner takes up the duty to ensure the store keeps running. Section V – Conclusion Eggettes is a fast food in San Francisco widely known for its Hong Kong street snacks, particularly eggettes. Every employee at Eggettes has an important role to play in ensuring customer satisfaction now that the restaurant operates within a competitive environment. The drink mixologist plays an even important role in that other than directly dealing with the customers as they order for their choice of drink, the worker has to make the drinks in less than a minute and make sure that the drinks’ reserves do not run out. As such, listening skills, multitasking ability, good communication and ability to maintain eye contact should be attributes that such a person portrays. Eggettes has an effective way of managing its employees’ time. Using the “day off request book” enables the store owner plan effectively on how employees would take their days off duty. The flexibility of part time employees makes it important to handle them first when preparing the schedule, otherwise there would be times when even the store owner would have to step in to make sure that operations run smoothly in the restaurant. Section VI – Recommendations As the internet cafe seeks to be competitive in the region and ensure its customers’ satisfaction, it would have to adopt some of the competitive services offered by its rivals. Of particular concern would be delivery services. Neighboring fast food restaurants such as Waffles delivers its customers’ orders making it have more sales coming from those customers who do not have time to come to the restaurant or those that do not fancy visiting the restaurant. Even if the restaurant bears the cost of these deliveries, the benefit from increased sales would absorb such costs. More so, waiter services would go a long way in ensuring high customer service levels are attained. The tasks that a mixologist for instance has to accomplish are too much and in as much as such workers are meant to ensure customer satisfaction, fatigue could hinder them from fully accomplishing this. Waiter services could considerably reduce the one minute standard waiting period for customers. It would even attract more customers who seek to be served. Caution should be taken however to ensure that the waiters and those preparing orders like the mixologist understand each other so as not to disappoint customers with serving below their expectations. Finally, due to the availability of internet in the restaurant, the store owner should consider introducing a computerized duty scheduler. When an employee logs in and books a specific off duty date, the date automatically becomes unavailable to other employees. This should relay to the restaurant’s server and accessible to the store owner. It would thus be easier planning the monthly schedule of how employees would have their off duty days. References Eggettes (2009). Eggettes: Hong Kong Style Waffle. Retrieved 13 April 2012 from www.sfeggettes.com Mok, C. (2010, September 8). Gai daan tsai challenge: The quest for Hong Kong’s best egg waffle. CNN GO. Retrieved 14 April 2012 from www.cnngo.com Richards, G. & Munsters, W. (2010). Cultural Tourism Research Methods. Cambridge, MA: CAB International. Read More