Customer Service in the Blackshop Restaurant - Case Study Example

Customer Service in the Blackshop Restaurant Customer service is a very important aspect of modern business and organizations the world over are marketing their products with the customer in mind. Businesses are doing all it takes present themselves to the market as customer centered and offer just what the customer are looking for. This requires operations, products and customer service standards are set to align with the tests, preferences and trends among the consumers. One of the strengths of the Cerny Hospitality group was its emphasis on a human touch in their services as well as value for employees which translated in great customer experience.

Faced with the challenge of abandoning the manual system of managing reservations for the electronic one Alec Cerny had quite a tough decision to make. The CHG was handling a good number of customers on a daily basis and in terms of operational efficiency this required a very sophisticated system of managing reservations. The main problem to be tackled by the management at HCG was having a very efficient way of managing reservations in order not to lose customers while at the same time avoiding piling of pressure on available resources.

The Backshop restaurant and affiliates were still using the manual way for making reservations where customer could make phone calls and negotiate check in time and table choices with managers. One disadvantage of the manual system was that the information captured was in consistent and was not easily transferable from day to day. Its transferability required extra labor and as such often was not done. another disadvantage arose especially when there were many customers calling in that anyone could step in and assist the managers; staff taking the reservations sometimes could bow to the pressure of customer when fixing check in times causing bottlenecks to the bar& kitchen and limiting the restaurants ability to turn the tables an extra time.

Procuring the reservations management software from OpenTable would assure consistency in customer information captured. Going electronic also meant keeping up to date with trends in business and customer service management as the future lies in technology. More people will do their things online in the future and as such it a worthy course. The system will assist the restaurant save on time, cut costs, improve service, increase efficiency and ultimately attract repeat customers. The software also presents a unique opportunity to develop a good customer database, and allow sharing information between the restaurants.

The OpenTable website allows customers to reserve electronically and is connected with the client restaurants’ systems foe real time feeds. Restaurants using the OpenTable system also have a chance to tap into the many active concierges who make reservations through OTConcierge.com. Blackshop will also have the opportunity to benefit from referrals and the loyalty reward rebate system by OpenTable as well as come up with own loyalty program to entice customers. In conclusion therefore Cerny was faced with a major problem of deciding whether to retain the old manual system of managing reservations or procuring the electronic software from OpenTable.

it was difficult for him as the CHG emphasized in a human tough in every service offered and hence any system offered was supposed to support that. The manual system presented bottlenecks in terms of consistency in customer information capture via phone calls and the software by OpenTable promised to end the challenges. I therefore would recommend the that Blackshop procures the electronic system for most people in future will do their reservations online, the system allows improvement in service, efficiency and development of accurate databases permitting greater customer recognition.

References.1. Karim A. Moolani and Michelle Peng. (2009). Blackshop Restaurant. Richard Ivey School of Business.