The Relationship Between the Buyer and Seller of Services - Research Paper Example

Evaluation This evaluation covers what Nandos offer and the service delivery process utilized. This will identify areas that the restaurant is doing well and areas that needs to be improved to make Nandos more competitive in the restaurant business. Nandos deliver many different aspects of service that makes it above the regular service of fast-food restaurant; customers will get various services hence their varied needs satisfied. The organization has reduced prices compared to a full service restaurant. In return, Nandos have competitive advantage over its competitors because customers always look for good quality services and fair prices. This will improve the revenue of the organization. It’s fast casual set up already offers a unique service delivery compared with other fast-food restaurants, customers prefer restaurants where they feel relaxed and free. Customers will prefer Nandos because of its unique setting especially considering most clients want change from their official normal duties at work. They also have more contact points with their customers as the customers eat the food. This enables customers to feel free and make enquiries. This enables the staff to inform customers about services offered at the organization, especially that the clients are not aware of its existence. Although Nandos had been known for unusual and unconventional advertisements, it labours to fulfil a promise of optimum dining experience satisfaction through a satisfying customer’s experiential aspect inside their restaurants. Their labour is not in vain, it is a strategy that will help spread positive message about the restaurant. Customers who get quality services and their needs well met always speak positively about the restaurant. This will bring about increment of the number of customers hence higher profits. Their vision includes promotion of an internal culture where personnel adhere to the “same values of pride, passion, courage and integrity, spreading the fire and developing a culture unique to Nandos” (Nandos.com). Through this, Nandos is made unique from other restaurants; they will have their own tradition of offering services. As a result, customers are attracted because everyone likes to be associated with uniqueness. Therefore, in Nandos, clients find satisfaction they want. They traced their servuction model towards building a people-centric organizational culture with the trust that it promotes and retains excellent employees who will deliver the exemplary service to their customers. This in itself attracts more clients because they will feel secure within in the premise. The reliability and responsiveness of the staff, good communication and good understanding of the customers brings about trust. The clients will remain loyal to the restaurant because of trust developed earlier because they perceive that their expectation are met in Nandos unlike seeking the same service in other restaurant. Unlike in the other organizations, which focused their service models on the scripts provided by the customers, Nandos built their blueprint through focusing on their employees’ satisfaction first and later on their customers’ requirements. According to Reid and Bojanic (2006), for an organization to be successful in marketing its services and goods, they should involve employees in making decisions. Employees are well conversant with the organization hence should be involved in all aspects of the organization including making of decisions. When employees’ needs are satisfied, they become motivated. Hence, they will be in a position to receive the clients warmly and offer prompt services to them. Employees will also communicate well with the customers, which bring about good understanding of different customers in the organization. They believed that their internal customers are the best emissaries of the quality of their foods on their way to delivering their objectives. They used the internal marketing approach that specifies that satisfied employees result to satisfied external customers. This improves the profits of the organization, especially when employees have positive attitude towards the organization. Their initial focus is on the uniqueness of their products. They developed their product around the peri-peri flavour to make them different from those offered by other restaurants. This will help to market the restaurants food as the first experience in the restaurants will always remain in customers minds. In addition, they will also speak positively about the quality of food served. They also promoted the health benefits of their products establishing the healthy practices in processing their products. The way the chicken are cooked and the potential health benefits of the ingredients have been at the core of their promise to their customers (Nandos.com).Nowadays customers are careful on what they consume and most people are selective on where they buy their foods. Customers will find Nandos to be the appropriate place since they are keen in establishing health processing in their products. Therefore, Nandos receives more customers. More customers imply increased sales that translate to better profits. Consequently, the organization will have adequate resources to conduct research on better ways of processing food. Another aspect of their quest for closing the gap between customer’s expectation and perception is the unique feature of the customer’s ability to customize the product. It also worked on the unique ambiance of each outlet that speaks of warmth, friendliness and informal comfort that they claim to be the same in all their outlets worldwide (Nandos.com). This aspect differentiates them from their competitors. This helps create loyalty and customers will always seek services from Nandos in different countries whenever they travel. This is a boost to the whole organization. Finally, Nandos are able delivers their promise. This is evident by the satisfied clients who remain loyal to the organization. They promote culture within the organization that has become their own brand of service. Customers in each dining encounter in a Nandos restaurant experience this. A service quality management strategy and system According to Clark (1989), managing service quality requires an integrated approach. It is essential for Nandos as an organization to have top management commitment, strong operating systems, human resources management, and understanding and measuring customer needs in order to be in a position to offer quality services. According to Hoque (2002), the organization should consider training the staff on customer care training. This will enable staff handling customers to have a foundation for understanding customer experience and expectation. The staff will know what quality service is and how it is defined. According to Besterfield et al (1999), Training enables the staff to be able to design and deliver superior customer service. Staff will also be a position to know customers voice, recognize easily when things have gone wrong. They will also be able to learn art of relationship management as well as how to prevent customer related problems. In addition, staff will learn how to apply standard practices. Best standard practices are very effective in problem resolution and prevention action planning. Nandos being in the food industry requires continuous improvement in quality for its survival. This is because customers purchase competitors services constantly and any decline in quality will lead to decline in gross profits.  There are several areas that the restaurant will have to focus on for quality improvement .This include menu offerings, hospitality, service, cleanliness, and over all food quality. According to Mouradian (2002), quality and quantity management has no specific definition. However, most agree that it involves integration of all functions of a business to be able to achieve high quality of products through improving efforts of all employees continuously. According to Goetsch and Davis (2001), quality revolves around the concept of being able to meet and exceed expectation of customers in products and services they get from an organization. According to Bou and Beltran (2005), the process to achieve high quality is ever changing or continuous hence quality management involves stressing the ideas of constantly working to attain quality that is improved. Every aspect of the company is involved. This includes processes, environment and even people. In an organization, the whole workforce has to be involved. This starts from the CEO downwards to the line worker; all must be involved in commitment shared in order to improve quality. According to Ross and Perry (1999), quality and total quality management can be stated as directing the whole process to be able to attain excellent services. This differs from other techniques of management in the attitude towards services and even the workers. According to Enz (2009), in the older management methods, focus was on the volume of production and the cost of services. Control of services was done using a detection method, solving of problems was through management and the roles of management was defined as planning, assigning work, and controlling of production. Quality management contrast with this in that, it focuses on the customer and be able to meet customer’s needs adequately. According to Masters (1996), controlling of quality involves prevention and quality is built in every stage. Teams solve problems and the quality of the services is the responsibility of every individual. According to Koontz and Weihrich (2006), the main role of management is to coach, mentor, delegate, and even facilitate. The major quality management principles involve quality, teamwork, and even proactive management philosophies for improvement of processes. According to Juran (1989), the word quality is applicable to almost every discipline because of its wide use. Its meaning is the relative goodness of something. In the case of restaurant food service, speed, accuracy, quickness, excellence, and even efficiency has to be observed and at the same time, quality has to be maintained. It is subjective and not objective. According to Evans (2007), the points of view of quality involve; product based where quality is considered in terms of quantities that are measurable. Secondly, is the user based, here quality is determined by those who access the services. It is where quality is in the eyes of the beholder. Thirdly is the manufacturing based, where specification is used to assess the quality of service. Fourthly, is the value based, the customer does comparison between price and quality. Most customers prefer lower priced services; however, they can go for services that are highly priced if only they find the quality they desire. According to Hoyer and Hoyer, (2001) Service quality is measured by how well the level delivered by the organization matches customers expectation. According to Saad and Siha, (2000), delivering quality services means being able to conform to a customer expectation on basis that is consistent. According to Jablonski (1992), quality is referred to as the totality a certain product or service’s features and characteristics that bear its ability to satisfy given needs. According to the servuction model, service involves presentation of non-living things. Services unlike goods are not evaluated objectively since they are intangible. However, consumers look for tangible cues to act as base in evaluating the service performance. The various cues include; inanimate environment, these involves furniture, flooring, lighting, music, odours, and wall hangings. Customers will enjoy services offered in the restaurant if it has comfortable furniture, well-carpeted floors, good lighting in the premises, enjoyable music and good odours in the rooms and even attractive wall hangings. Secondly, is contact personnel that involve receptionist, and waiter. Nandos restaurant will be able to retain their customers and even attract more by receiving them well, in addition waiters should offer quality services which satisfies the customers. Thirdly are other customers. Customers in evaluating performance consider the types and behaviour of those in the restaurant. This enables them make a conclusion of what kind restaurant Nandos is. However, measuring quality is difficult because service is intangible and multi-faceted. Service has two parts that include; process –functional quality and output-technical quality. In perceived quality customers compare their perceptions of service delivery and the actual outcome; this is the actual service offered to them against desired service. Hence, service quality can be described as the perception minus expectation of a customer. There are several service quality models, these include Gap model. This model involves measuring service attributes from exploratory qualitative investigations into the determinants of service quality. It was recognized as being the first study of service quality measurement. Authors have acknowledged conceptual difficulties concerning the definition of quality in services. This conceptual model of service quality identified five gaps. The first gap is between consumer expectation and management perception. The organization management assumes they are aware of what the customer wants, but delivers what customers do not expect. The second gap is between management perception and service quality specification. The quality specifications in this gap are not set, not well clarified or difficult to achieve. Gap 3 is between service quality specification and service delivery. It involves poor management in human, mechanical, or support goods. Gap 4 is between service delivery and external communications. Here communications increase expectations among customers that are not accomplished by the organization. Gap 5 is between perceived service and expected service. In this gap the services delivered to customers does not match up with their initial expectations. According to Parasuraman et al (1985), service quality has three underlying themes: first is that it is more difficult to evaluate than goods quality this because goods are intangible unlike goods that can be seen and touched. Secondly is that it the result of the comparison between customers’ expectation (E) and actual service performance (P), that is, quality is equal to performance minus expectation. Thirdly is, its evaluations are made based on both the outcome of service and process of service delivery. The second model is servqual model. According to Parasuraman et al (1988), Servqual has several dimensions that include tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, credibility, security, access, communication and understanding of customers. Tangibles involve appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, printed and visual materials. When considering tangibles the following questions have to be considered. Are facilities good-looking? Is the dressing code of staff appropriate? Can customers understand easily written materials? Does technology of the restaurant look modern? Secondly is reliability. Reliability is whereby the organization has the ability to perform promised service dependably and accurately. In considering reliability the following questions is taken into consideration, if a response is promised to customers in a certain time is it fulfilled as required? Are specifications of client followed exactly as per the requirements? Does the organization give out statements or reports that do not have errors? Do the organization try to be perfect by performing services right the first time? Is level of service similar at a given time for all members of staff? Thirdly is responsiveness. It involves willingness to help customers through provision of prompt services. In considering responsiveness, the following questions has to be considered, when a problem occurs does organization respond quickly as expected by customers? Are staff always willing to answer client questions adequately? Are specific times for service accomplishments given to the client? Are customers situations handled with proper care and seriousness? Fourthly is competence, it is possession of required skill and knowledge to perform service. The following will be considered in the organization, is staff in a position to provide service using proper skills? Are materials provided to clients in the organization appropriate and up to date as desired by clients? Is the staff well trained to use the technology quickly and skilfully? Does staff appear to have a clue of what they are doing? The fifth point is courtesy. It involves politeness, respect, consideration, and friendliness of contact personnel in the organization. The following will be considered, do the staff conduct themselves in a pleasant manner? Do the staff listen keenly when client ask questions? Are those answering telephone calls considerate and using polite language? Does staff observe consideration in the property belonging to clients and clients values? The sixth point is credibility. This is trustworthiness, believability, and honesty of the service provider. Under credibility, the following will be considered; does the organization possess appropriate reputation? Are clients pressurised by the staff members? Does staff give responses that are accurate and consistent with other reliable sources to the customers? Does the organization guarantee its services? The seventh point is security. Security is being free from danger or doubt. Under security the following will be taken into consideration, is there safety in entering the premise and using the equipment? Do documents and other information provided by the client remain safe? Are clients assured their records are safe from being accessed by unauthorised persons? Can the client remain confident considering that service provided by the organization was correctly done? The eighth point is access. This involves approachability and ease of contact. In considering accessibility in the restaurant, the following has to be considered, how easy is it to be able to talk or inquire something from the right member of staff when a customer has a problem that require clarification? Is it possible to reach the appropriate staff face to face? By telephone or by email? Are service access points conveniently located? The ninth point is communication. Communication involves being able to pay attention to the customers and recognize their comments and in addition making sure customers are well informed in a language they understand best. The organization has to put the following into consideration when considering communication, does staff listen keenly to customers’ problems and do they demonstrate understanding and concern when the customer contacts service point? Does staff explain clearly to clients the various options available to a particular question? Does staff avoid using technical jargon when communicating or demonstrating something to clients? Does staff member contact customers at an appropriate time if a scheduled appointment is missed? The final point is understanding the customer. The organization makes an effort to understand their customers and their various needs. In considering understanding of customers, the following points are keenly analysed, do the staff recognize who their frequent customers are and do they address them by name? Does staff try to determine the specific objectives of customers? Is the level of service consistent with what client requires and can afford? Are service providers flexible enough to accommodate to clients schedule? Conclusion In conclusion, services are different from goods in various ways; the most obvious is that they are intangible. According to Lowson (2002), Services are generally produced and its marketing done simultaneously, hence the two processes cannot be separated. In services, customers are involved in the production and processing. Quality of services varies as compared to those of goods. Services are perishable. This implies that if services are not used immediately when offered, it cannot be reused at all. Distribution channels differ than those for goods. Finally, the relationship between the buyer and seller of services is considered in terms of a client relationship, which is personalised and ongoing. References Besterfield, D, Michna, G, & Besterfield-Sacre, M 1999, Total Quality Management. 2nd ed, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River. Bou, J & Beltran, I 2005, ‘Total Quality Management, High-Commitment Human Resource Strategy and Firm Performance: An Empirical Study’, Total Quality Management, Vol. 16, no. 1 pp. 71–86. Clark, G 1989, ‘managing the? Intangibles? Of service quality’, Journal of training for quality, Vol.19, no. 6, pp.36-37. Enz, C 2009, Hospitality Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, 2nd ed, John Wiley and Sons, USA. Evans, J 2007, Quality and Performance Excellence: Management, Organization, and Strategy, 5th ed, Cengage Learning. Goetsch, D & Davis, S 2001, Total Quality Handbook, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River. Hoque, K 2002, Human resource management in the hotel industry: strategy, innovation, and performance, Routledge, London. Hoyer, R& Hoyer, B 2001,‘What Is Quality? Learn How Each of the Eight Well-Known Gurus Answers This Question’, Quality Progress, Vol. 34, no. 7 pp. 52–62. Jablonski, R 1992, Implementing TQM, 2nd ed, Technical Management Consortium, Albuquerque. Jones, P & Merricks P 1994, The management of foodservice operations, Cengage Learning, New York. Juran, J 1989, Leadership for Quality, Free Press, New York. Koontz, H & Weihrich, H 2006, Essentials of Management, 7th ed. McGraw-Hill, Ney York. Lowson, R 2002, Strategic operations management: the new competitive advantage, Routledge, London. Masters, R 1996, ‘Overcoming the Barriers to TQM's Success,’ Quality Progress, Vol. 29, no. 5 pp. 53–55. Mouradian, G 2002, the Quality Revolution, University of Press of America, New York. Parsuraman, A, Zeithaml, V & Berry, L 1985, ‘A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research’, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, pp. 41-50. Parsuraman, A, Zeithaml, V & Berry, L 1988, ‘SERVQUAL: A Multiple Item Scale For Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality’, Journal of Retailing, Vol.64, no.1, pp. 12-40. Reid, R &Bojanic, D 2006, Hospitality marketing management, 4th ed., John Wiley and Sons, USA. Ross, J & Perry, S 1999, Total Quality Management: Text, Cases and Readings, 3rd ed. St. Lucie Press, Boca Raton. Saad, H & Siha, S 2000, ‘Managing Quality: Critical Links and a Contingency Model’, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol.20, no. 10, pp. 1146–1163. Nandos.com. Nandos, Available from http://www.nandos.com. Accessed on 27 April 2010 Read More