Hospitality Services Management: Service Ordering Technology - Case Study Example

Hospitality Services Management: Service Ordering Technology Name Institution Introduction The hospitality industry has gone through significant transformations in the past five years. The shifts in consumer preferences, patterns of consumption, and technological developments have brought significant transformations in the industry’s business landscape (Chavan et al., 2015). Technological advancement has been hailed as a means of coping with these shifts (Hemmington, 2007). Accordingly, innovation is crucial for establishing new business models or reviving the old ones (Walker, 2012). Most current technological advances have not been with the kitchen machinery, unless they are interfaced with the customer service. The most innovative shifts in this area include the installation and implementation of handheld tablets for the waiters and in-room tablets for the customer, which are programmed with dedicated ordering software. These have appreciably eliminated errors that resulted when the kitchen staff (Chef and Maitre D’) misread a waiter’s handwriting. One of the hotels that have leveraged technology to report improved sales, greater efficiency, and customer service is The Lanesborough. This paper examines a situation in the hotel where the managers, Chef and Maitre D’ and employees work side by side to ensure service is delivered as expected (Crave, 2015). Hotel and technology description The Lanesborough is a five-star hotel situated in Knightsbridge, central London, England. The hotel uses in-room tablets and table tablets (Lanesborough, 2015). The entire ninety-three rooms and suites at hotel have been installed with the in-room tablet. The Lanesborough’s eating area also has guest-facing tablets placed at strategic points where customers have an option of placing orders (Crave, 2015). The cloud-based tablet solutions have enabled The Lanesborough to witness instant restaurant ordering and in-room ordering, as well as efficient check-in and check-out through the digital menus and directories. The tablet also enables the hotel to make in-room advertising. Additional features include a call button for personal butler service, Bluetooth speakers, wireless, keyboards, as well as printing capabilities (See Figure 1) (Crave, 2015). Figure 1: The Lanesborough in-room/restaurant tablet schematic model (Bhargave et al, 2013). The in-room tablet is integrated technology that assists the hotel’s management by allowing customers to directly make orders while inside their rooms. The data is later relayed to the Chef, Maitre D’ and kitchen supervisor, who co-ordinate the associated tasks to ensure the customers are served accordingly and in time (Bhargave et al., 2013). The technology covers how the waiters and chefs coordinate their efforts. When a customer places an order, the vendor stations take data from the touch-screen commands, which relay the orders to the chefs, after the orders are printed at the kitchen supervisor’s desk in the kitchen. The supervisor then coordinates the tasks between the chef and the Maitre D’, to ensure food is prepared and orders are delivered in time (Sarkar et al., 2014). The supervisor often knows that some dishes are unavailable even placed the orders are placed. The technology allows the supervisor to change and delete the orders placed by the customers in real-time. The supervisor ensures the chefs prepare the dishes in the right sequence before they confirm to the system that the food is being prepared. Once the Maitre D’ sees and indicated that food has been prepared at his terminal, he collects it and delivers it to the customer. Once the customers finish the meal, the Maitre D’ will use the system to print a bill, by entering the details of the service. The system allows the customer to comment on the service (Talib, 2005). The hotel’s executive management, once they log into the system, can monitor the number of customers served by each Maitre D’, and the amount of sales made. At the same time, the management keeps track of the comments to ensure customers are served according to the expected standards Chavan et al. (2015). The other technological advancement is the handheld devices use at the hotel’s eating areas.” They work in an almost similar fashion to the in-room tablets, except that the Maitre D’ walks to the customer’s table with the handheld device, rather than a notepad. The Maitre D’ then enters order details on the touch-screen, which is relayed to the Chef at the kitchen in real-time to process the order (Bhargave et al., 2013). At the same time, the supervisor’s POS system receives the details for later billing. The tablets use Wi-FI (Vinodhini et al., 2014). Hence, the technology has transformed the hotel and has changed a range of concepts, such as the traditional techniques of ordering food to managing how the kitchen is run to ensure customers are served efficiently. The areas of innovation Managing orders In order management, the technology has significant functions. First, the customers use the tablet in the restaurant to place orders. The tablet has a simple menu screen that shows details of the food and how much it costs. The Q Maitre D’ may, as well place the orders (Bhargave et al., 2013). The orders are then relayed to the kitchen through the computer system for the chef and the kitchen supervisor or manager to access the data. This helps coordinate activities between the chef and the Maitre D’, as well as eliminate miscommunications among them. Money Management Once the details of the order are entered to the computer system, which also handles the accounting functions, the history of the order is processed to issue the total bill. Touch screens are a quick and efficient method for managing information. This also means that the management can track the sales during the day, or simultaneously to get an insight on the Inventory management The technology also assists in controlling and monitoring of inventory since the orders taken and money billed are handled using a central computer system, which also integrates inventory management into the system. This implies that the management can track the amount of sales during the day and know whether to replenish or restock certain items in the store, to ensure that there is no deficit in food service. This saves the hotel’s management the disgrace of explaining to customers that certain foods are out of stock. Hence, the restaurant is able to meet market demands flexibly. Major milestones from using the technology With the technology, The Lanesborough experiences added efficiency and accuracy. The use of in-room and handheld tablets have ensured maximal and efficient co-ordination of tasks between the management, the Chef, and the Maitre D’. The data entered into the system through the tablet touchscreen is relayed to the Chef accurately, and may be changed in real-time to reflect what is available. The Chefs also prepared accurate orders, which ensures that the Maitre D’ make the correct service. Hence, it limits the amount of customer complaints due to wrong deliveries. It also limits the costs associated with making the wrong deliveries, such as preparing foods that the customers will reject due to miscommunication. The high level of accuracy translates into overall reduction in the levels of inventory losses, and pilferage by staff, as everything is accounted for. Additionally, the technology has allowed the hotel is more flexible to the demands of the customers. For instance, the management can ask the kitchen supervisor to change the price and name of the foods in the menu directly, or even issue statement. The management can also restock or modify the stock composition based on the number of orders placed or customer comments. Again, whenever there is a customer complaint, it can be fixed on the go, as the manager is alerted on any inconsistency in service. This allows the management to work hand in hand with the Chef and the Maitre D’ to ensure the quality of the service is up to the mark. The training time is reduced, as the waiters do not have to be reminded of the menu prices or to master the food catalogue. As a result, less money is spent on training the staff. Hence, rather than concentrate on how to handle customers at the tables, the restaurant concentrates on training them on how to make faster and efficient deliveries. The technology has also promoted effective communication between the management, Chef and the Maitre D’. As a result, it has improved the quality of coordination. The technology can send commands to nearly 10 kitchen remote printers, and the beverages areas. The information relayed to the printers is used as rightly communicated to the kitchen (Bhargave et al., 2013). Ultimately, the Lanesborough benefits from improved customers service, better reputation and improved profitability. While Lanesborough is yet to calculate the return on investment (ROI) from implementing the technology, the management expects that the technology will turn around profits during the next five years. At any rate, Lanesborough has been valued fairly by Macroaxis, a research firm. The company projected the value of the hotel’s REIT through analysis of its Current Valuation of 246.73 million, Profit Margin of 159.42 percent) and Return On Equity of 65.50 percent. It is, therefore, a highly profitable company (Macroaxis, 2015). Conclusion The Lanesborough’s food service employees have started to rely extensively on technology and software programmes to order supplies, manage inventories, perform accounts, and ultimately place customer food orders. Previously, making error was typical as the kitchen staff had to read the servers’ handwritten orders, which were often written in a hurry or in shorthand, hence indelible. The application of computers has radically minimised the incidences of human error, and had contributed to more comprehensible communication among the customer service, Chef, Maitre D’, other food production staff, who have to co-ordinate their individual activities and work as a team to ensure high quality service is delivered to customers. References Bhargave, A., Jadhav, N., Joshi, A., Oke, P. & Lahane, S. (2013). Digital Ordering System for Restaurant Using Android. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 3(4), 1-7 Chavan, V., Jadhav, P., Korade, S. & Teli, P. (2015). Implementing Customizable Online Food Ordering System Using Web Based Application. International Journal of Innovative Science, Engineering & Technology 2(4), 722-727 Crave. (18 Sep 2015). Crave provides tablets to the prestigious Lanesborough London. Retrieved: Dombek, C. (2015). More upmarket hotels adding in-room tablets. Retrieved: Hemmington, N. (2007). From Service to Experience: Understanding and Defining the Hospitality Business. The Service Industries Journal, 27(6), 747–755 Lanesborough, The (2015). The Lanesborough. Retrieved: Macroaxis. (2015). Lanesborough Valuation. Retrieved: Sarkar, S., Shinde, R., Thakare, P., Dhome, N. & Bhakare, K. (2014). Integration of Touch Technology in Restaurants using Android. International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing 3(2), 721-728 Talib, N. (2005). Executive Restaurant Order System. Retrieved: Vinodhini, B., Abinaya, K., Roja, R. & Rajeshwari, M. (2014). Wireless Two-way Restaurant Ordering System via Touch Screen. The International Journal Of Engineering And Science (IJES) 3(7), 1-5 Walker, J. (2012). Introduction to Hospitality. New York: Prentice Hall Read More