Service and Operation Excellence - Society Cafe - Case Study Example

Introduction and overview

Society Cafe, Bath, is a lucrative private social enterprise that deals with the specific interest in coffee besides other foods and drinks. It hosts a variety of tourists and an array of traffic in the service industry. It is centrally located in the Bath, city of the United Kingdom. The firm was established in the year 2012. Figure 1 below shows the location of the firm in the map:

Figure 1: Map of location (Source: Google Maps)

This firm is owned by a group of former serial travelers, Adrian and Jane Campbell-Howard, who settled in the Bath city after a long feasibility study with a lot of vested interests in the coffee service industry in the continent. The company has a very spacious building in the middle of the city that attracts a variety of tourists and traffic from all over the entire continent today. It started operating in the late 2012 following the successful settlement of the composed travelers.

The venue has over the years employed a number of local citizens as well as special expertise in handling the progressive management concern.

However, it is jointly managed by the two founders as shown in figure 3 indicating the owners. They offer relatively cheap products that range from lower cost of up to $15 depending on the quality of the services and the coffee type.

Fig 2: The Society Cafe owner

Analysis of the Operational Challenges

Several scholars have established various models to discuss the challenges that companies face in their operations in the service industry. Zack et al (2009) asserts the tools for analyzing these challenges includes a model that focuses on the 4Vs that include volume, variety, visibility, and variation. The following is the 4V analysis of Society Café.

Figure 3 4V analysis of Society Café

Volume

The strength of the independent private coffee shops and other service providers to sustain their customers lies in their ability to offer outstanding products which are unique, self-identifying and creative to the local environment. Society cafe handles a variety of short-time ordered service dishes. This is because it deals with a myriad number of tourists and local citizens in the industry. Such history sees the staff members employ repetitive skills and production steps that ensures enough volume of the desired coffee qualities in the market as a result of high specialization in the coffee services.

Variation in demand

The variation in demand is high. The ultimate challenge in the coffee service industry is the seasonal variation in demand. Besides, the tourists are highly likely to move to other places over time. However, to keep to a relatively stable demand pool the Society cafe has managed to offer a highly creative and unique service environment. Their service bay is entangled in the myriad perceptions in the continuous market studies. The owners constantly survey the global industry to incorporate the trending variations in the coffee industry.

Variety

The firm offers a small base of services. It dwells much on the varieties of coffee products in the market and launches creativity and specialization as opposed to employing a huge product range in the industry. This has seen them grow tremendously with focus on the coffee specialization. However, the products include what customers describe as oodles of fascinating nooks combined with crannies together production of the most standardized coffee in the market. Lashley (2012) asserts that the immediate step to enhance sustainability is to be up to the effective standards.

The most astonishing feature of the cafe lies in the very, clearly designed features that makes every demarcation in the firm very visible as witnessed in the owners photos and the service bay and the parking yard photos (Figure 3)

Fig 4: Layout of the parking and customers' accommodation

Customers' objectives and challenges

Charged with the passion and desire to offer high quality coffee, very professional service in a creative environment, the Society Cafe is centrally placed in Bath. The Cafe's way of positioning utilities in channelling their resources to achieve their success objective is vested upon the customers' satisfaction. Several scholars argue that a myriad of factors may be used to analyze customers' objectives and challenges in the business arena. Oakland, J. S., (2014) argues that the performance of a business organization can be analyzed using the following aspects. These are based on the various surveys done by the researchers.

Quality

Oakland defines quality as the act of doing the right thing the right way in providing products that can meet their purpose with the specifications attached without compromising taste, aesthetic value and the reality feedback. The quality can be understood when we analyze the customers' expectations in the market arena. The customers in the market expects the goods offered to be of the highest rated quality, with a local sourcing considering the ethical values. They also expect that the firm will offer services that meet standard qualities in the market. Moreover, it is of common knowledge that the service-environment has the most comfortable situations.

Such quality parameters can be analyzed using the performance against the objective set by the firm. For instance, Society cafe is run by the desire to offer high quality coffee, with very high professional service bay in a creative environment. It provides a very lucrative environment that meets most of the tourists' expectations in the market. Their services and goods are of very high quality and of local origin. They source the products from locally roasted coffee and fresh bays in the market to satisfy the customers' demand of fresh local products.

Dependability

Society stands out to be a specialist in coffee products with a constant availability of interesting oodles of crannies and nooks with highly valued coffee in the Bath region. Nazali et al, (2009) asserts that dependability is the act of providing the goods and the services to the customers whenever they want them. This implies that the firm should ensure that they reduce time wastage that could result from the queuing and availing the products as stipulated in the firm brand logos. The customers also expect that the premises will be opened to reach as advertised with the promise that the stock is always available.

Over time, Society has been providing timely services and goods that meets the customers' expectation. Most of the customers served by this cafe include tourists. However, the firm has never established a specific strategy to help them handle an unexpected peak turnout that might arise. Definitely it is a condition that may cause delays with queues taking time to clear even with the newly established branch in 19 High street. This might see customers shy off from seeking their services in future.

Speed

Speed is the ability to do things quickly. This can help in the minimization of the time that is taken by the product to reach the customer after the customer places an order. Customer expectations are that the service on goods should be fast and the organization should be quick in their response to orders or queries.

Society Cafe has a relatively quick response to the stay-in customers. However, the delivery of goods to customers who send orders from away is still relatively slow since it relies on the nature of traffic. There are sometimes when the products fail to meet the quality expectations of the quality assessor. These products have to be discarded and new products prepared, causing some delays in the delivery of the products, usually coffee. This rarely occurs and the staffs are committed to making the necessary changes very quickly.

Whenever coffee has to be poured out due to quality issues, there are always additional costs per unit and the overall costs. However, the prices are usually constant and as a result, the company has to bear the losses. Society Café have an online social site where their customers can give their feedback. An analysis of the site revealed that only about 25% of their customers were either neutral or not satisfied with the services they were given.

Cost

This is the amount charged for the product or service. Customers expect high quality even if the price is high. They expect that the price should be competitive. The café orders for its stock once every week ensuring that the resources are always available. Since the Society is built on the reputation of coffee beans roasted at the Round Hill Roastery, they do not have the chance to go for cheaper alternatives. From the feedback given by customers, the prices offered by the café are reasonable. With regard to competition, the café has the opportunity to raise the prices.

Processes and Layouts

Process Assessment

In case there are resources that need transforming, the orders and purchases are made in large amounts at the same time, so that there are stages of repetition of process in every part of the operation. There are varied interactions with customers. Customers, however, have chances to choose the services they want. Even though the café deals majorly in coffee, it also offers food, cakes and drinks. Through daily activities, a structure for preparing these products has been formalized. The current menu directs the preparation of the purchased materials.

Process Analysis

The café makes a bulk order once every week, which is sufficient to serve its customers throughout the week. However, due to the recent increase in its weekend customers, the Society has considered making another order on Friday. The process repeats itself weekly and the orders are made to a similar supplier. Inventories of all delivered goods are taken in the kitchen. In case a customer has a special request, the resources are transformed to match the order. Waiters deliver the coffee, drinks and the food products from the kitchen to the ground floor and basement where the customers are.

Layout Analysis

The café has a functional layout as its floor layout. At the center in the front of the ground floor, there is the café. This makes it convenient for both stay-in and take away customers. The path leading to the counter from the point of entry is clear and direct. This ensures that the customers who want to quickly grab a coffee and continue with their journeys meet no obstacles on the way.

The staffs are at close range and therefore are available to assist any customers who request to be assisted or those who have concerns to be addressed. Since the kitchen is located downstairs in the delivery of food, especially the special orders, sometimes takes longer than necessary. There are many seats within the café and even outside. The outside seats are often utilized by customers who wish to take their coffee in the open air. More seats are in the basement. These add to the aesthetics of the café. In the basement, there is also a projector. It is a shady booth that is bathed in low lights. These additions make the environment appealing and comforting. However, the seats are too many and should be minimized so that some space is left for advertisement purposes.

Recommendations

Society Café is of a high quality and has the aim of enhancing the quality of service to the community. However, the café still has areas where it needs to improve. The areas that need addressing have been provided as four categories of recommendations.

Society Café is committed to the provision of an atmosphere that induces the feeling of being at home among their customers. However, this aim is only partially achieved since the café delivers goods of high quality. The staff should engage customers more in conversations, inquiring from customers on the taste of the food, whether the service was satisfying to them and whether there is something they would like done differently. This way, customers will feel free and at home. Collecting feedback from customers in person is proper since the staff will be able to determine from the customers’ facial expressions whether they really enjoyed the service and the product or not. This is important in showing the overall performance of the business. There are some customers who may say they enjoyed the service and liked the product just to please the staff but in actual sense, they are completely discouraged and have sworn never to come back. If these are noticed, the café can be able to make the necessary changes.

The café is very visible and its appearance is appealing. The venue capacity, the feel and the look of the interior of the café is visible to all customers. However, in case there is need for more space, it is not easy for customers to know that there is more space downstairs unless told. Proper signs should be put up to indicate the different sections of the café. With decorative signs, the outlook of the café will be enhanced while the signs will also serve as pointers for the customers.

The events that take place at the café need to be standardized. The café sometimes hosts some events. However, in most cases, the staff are not aware of the events or the times they are to take place, which brings unnecessary rearrangements of the basement to suit the event. While this is being done, other operations are hindered, leading to inefficiencies.

The layout should also be adjusted. The many seats on the ground floor and the basement should be reduced since most of the seats are never used by customers. The spaces saved can be used in putting up marketing materials and menu updates. The café can bring in some decorative materials to further boost the beauty of their facility. Recreational facilities in the garden can even increase the pleasure that the tourists, who are the major customers of the café, gain from the facility. A swimming pool would be a good idea. This can even help in diversifying the events that the café can be used for. The basement should also be decorated in a way that it can act as a conference hall whenever there is need. This can also bring more customers who will buy coffee and other food products as they continue with their conference.

For delivery of goods to customers who make orders from home or offices, the company should employ a delivery person and purchase a delivery van instead of relying on the staff who already have commitments at the café. Currently, in case there is need to deliver coffee to a customer in an office or at home, one of the staff has to stop what he or she is doing and walk with the coffee to the customer. There are always delays and the coffee reaches the customer when it has already lost some of its quality. With a van and someone who is specialized in delivery, these mistakes will not be noticed. This way, the company will be able to deliver the goods within the stipulated time and not inconvenience the customers.