Service Concept at McDonald's UK - Case Study Example

Service Concept at McDonalds UK Name Class Unit Executive summary This report is based on McDonalds UK service concept. MacDonalds is one of the most successful fast food chains known for their excellent services. The report starts by describing in details the current service concept used by McDonalds. McDonald’s service concept is based on providing high quality and fresh food conveniently and in a short time. This is implemented through the fast food chain operations which are aimed at attaining high quality and fresh fast food delivered in a short time while maintaining cleanliness. The operations that help in implementing service concept at McDonalds are; service operations, procurement, production, quality maintenance, customer service and technology. The service delivery system ensures that customers are able to receive the whole service package at McDonalds. The report recommends that to improve the concept and delivery system, McDonalds can reduce queue at drive through by introducing parallel lines and use efficient service production. Technology use through automaton and ensuring that their service design is not copied by the competitors can also help a lot. There is also need for McDonalds to use a healthy menu to enhance their service concept. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 3 Service concept at McDonalds 4 Contribution of operations at McDonalds to the service concept 6 Service operations 7 Procurement at McDonalds and service concept 8 Production and quality maintenance 9 Customer service 9 Technology 10 Assessment of the operations implementation of the service concept 10 Recommendations 12 How both the concept and the delivery system might be improved. 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction To ensure that there is high level of customer satisfaction, a service organisation is expected to ensure that all service elements are able to meet the organisational goals. This makes it vital for the organisation to set their service concept (Goldstein et al., 2002). A service concept is used in the design of services and is defined as the way in which an organisation likes to have their services perceived by their customers, workers and other stakeholders (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1992). These are things that add value to the customer. McDonalds is one of the most successful fast food chains globally. The fast food giant has been able to foster a service concept that is well regarded by all stakeholders. The fast food service concept is based on aiming to provide high quality and fresh food conveniently and in a short time. McDonalds also aims at giving their customers a standard service where there is no difference in food offered at varying outlets. This report is based on the service concept at McDonalds UK. This will involve describing the service concept for McDonalds UK, explaining the operations of the organisation and how they contribute to the service concept. Assessment if how well the operations implement the service concept is well explained using a diagram. Lastly, the report suggests how both the concept and delivery system might be improved. Service concept at McDonalds Through use of a service process, it is possible for an organisation to define its service functioning and ways in which its services are perceived by the customers. The process has both inputs and outputs where value is added to the customers in the outputs. McDonalds has been able to change their service concept with an aim of enhancing the customer experience (Business Insider, 2012). McDonalds prides themselves as the fast food chain offering the best services in the industry. This is through offering the best quality of services and maintaining cleanliness in all restaurants. The restaurant keeps on ensuring that they monitor and act on the customer feedback. Earlier, McDonalds utilised the Fordism technique in coming up with the service process (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1992). This was utilised in several of their assembly lines where burgers were made and stored awaiting the customer orders. Through this process, the kitchen employees passed the order to the front employees who then passed it to the customers. This process ensured that McDonalds UK delivered the order to the customer in minimal time. The process led to wastage and the product freshness was compromised. This led to adoption of a new service process. The new service process is aimed at maintaining short cooking time through allowing the assembly base line cooking. The restaurant utilises the high capacity method in their service delivery for the burgers. Under the new service process, an employee is supposed to maintain inventory a certain level based on the present demands. The new method is based on made to stock process where there is minimal cooking time and an inventory which is maintained at both peak and off peak times. This has allowed McDonalds to minimise their waste, enhance freshness and serve customers in a fast and convenient manner. The method has worked very well for McDonalds to deliver service to their customers (Business Insider, 2012). McDonald’s service delivery can be explained through different theories. The restaurant has a “runner’s service process” where employees are expected to perform repetitive and standard actions with an aim of attaining high standards. This is also used by the managers to forecast their demands with high level of precision. The use of recurring actions has made it possible for McDonalds to train their employees to work in a fast manner and keep up with the service concept of the fast food industry (Business Insider, 2012). McDonald’s service can be described as commodity process. This is where the volume produced per unit is high and there is low process variety. The main advantage offered by this method is ability of the organisation to offer quality services through service employees (Shaw and Ivens, 2002). This has also made it possible for McDonalds to have standardised services in their various outlets. At McDonalds, customers interact with only two types of employees. These are the employees taking their orders and the ones handing out their orders. Employee who works in food preparation ensures of high quality and estimates the demand and stock. They also ensure that there is a smooth flow in service delivery. The front and back staff works together to ensure that there is adequate stocking at all times (Business Insider, 2012). McDonald’s front staffs are well trained in service delivery. They are well versed with customer service since their job involves direct interactions with customers. The employees take measures to ensure that customers are well catered for and eliminate all instances of dissatisfactions. All customer complaints are taken seriously by the management and acted upon. The restaurant customer service number is always on the display at all outlets. At the restaurant, customers are encouraged to voice their complaints so that the management can resolve them (McDonalds UK, 2016). Contribution of operations at McDonalds to the service concept McDonalds concentrates on speed, quality and satisfaction for their customers. To attain this, the restaurant has made sure that their operations are well managed to meet the quality concept. Operations play a major role in design and implementation of the service concept. Service operations The service operations involve both employees and customers. There exists a relationship between the employees behaviour, their level of motivation, capabilities, commitment and customer‘s opinion on the service quality. The relationship is also in the level of customer satisfaction. The human resources are a major determinant of the organisation growth and productivity. When the employees are satisfied, it becomes possible to have satisfied customers (Brown et al., 2013). To ensure employees satisfaction, McDonalds have designed their job appropriately, selected the right employees, trained them and used the right rewarding system. This is based on the internal service quality model. McDonalds ensures that the employee is given the right job and there is minimised role conflict through removal of ambiguity and increasing clarity in every role. The employee selection procedure includes interviews, written tests, and personality tests to ensure the right employee is hired. There are also job evaluations aimed at ensuring that the employee is able to satisfy the customer (McDonalds, 2008). Motivation is very vital in ensuring that the employee is committed in their work. Research shows that low motivation can lead to a reduction in employee loyalty and increase the chances to quit. McDonalds have been providing their workers with monetary pay and bonus to motivate them. There is also use of non-monetary motivators such as company car programme and recognition (Business Insider, 2012). Due to the nature of the fast food industry, employees face a lot of pressure. This made McDonalds to come up with a strict maximum serving time of 2.5 minutes for every customer. Employees are expected to follow rigid preparation process to ensure standardisation of their products (Business Insider, 2012). They are also under pressure from the customer to serve the right order at the right time. This leads to high pressures which can damage motivation, increase employee turnover and absenteeism. To counter this and maintain service quality, McDonalds came up with strategies such as flexible working hours and motivation schemes (McDonalds, 2008). Training and development helps employees in quality service delivery (Johnston, 1995). They also help in enhancing the level of motivation in an organisation. McDonalds have invested heavily on employee training. This includes job rotation where employees are rotated on varying tasks. Employees who encounter customers have to undergo intensive customer service training. McDonalds also has a university where their corporate staffs are trained. This focuses on the back office issues such as quality in product sourcing and leadership skills (McDonalds, 2008). Happy employees lead to the firm having happy customers (Johnston, 1995). McDonalds have been having high levels of customer satisfaction. Research shows that McDonald’s customers are highly satisfied with the customer service. McDonalds also strives hard to ensure that they maintain loyal customers through excellent service delivery (McDonalds UK, 2016). Long waiting queue is a major cause of dissatisfaction in the drive through systems. McDonalds have been facing challenge in ensuring that there are no long queues in the drive through (Business Insider, 2012). Procurement at McDonalds and service concept McDonalds are expected to maintain their inventory levels at level determined by the demand. The main aim is to reduce the cost of the inventory while at the same time meeting the service concept. In any business, reducing the cost of inventory is important. The fast food chain also ensures that the produce given to customers is fresh through inventory management. To attain this, McDonalds managers are expected to carry out a stock count at the end of each day and note its levels as well as what has to be ordered. The method also helps in checking the sales that have been performed by the restaurant. Another strategy employed by McDonalds is first in first out. The products that have arrived earlier are used before the later ones. This has ensured that the products offered to the customers are fresh and also minimise wastage due to spoilage (McDonalds, 2008). Production and quality maintenance The quality of the service offered to the customer is affected by production. This requires a holistic approach where service development is not separated from the service production (Hope and Muhlemann, 1997). The production department converts the raw materials to the final products presented to their customers. To ensure quality service delivery, the fast food chain is expected to follow a protocol that maintains standard and quality. All ingredients are labelled which ensures that the expiry dates for products used is visible. This ensures that the quality of the services is maintained. This helps in serving the customers products of high quality hence supporting the quality service delivery. McDonalds introduced the mystery shopper program to improve on service delivery. Through this program, a member from the company headquarters visits as a normal customers to check on the restaurant service quality. This involves looking at the service aspects such as cleanliness and guest experience (Business Insider, 2012). Customer service Customer service is the base of an organisation aiming to enhance their service concept. The aim of the customer service is to make the services unique through excellent customer services (Haksever et al., 2000). New recruits at McDonalds are well trained on customer service. When the customer is comfortable and happy with the service, they are likely to come back (Armistead and Clark, 1992). Customer service department ensures that customers are satisfied when they leave. Technology Technology plays a major part in service delivery. This is especially when utilised appropriately and accurately. At McDonalds, use of technology has played a major role in service delivery. Each of the customers is able to give their feedback through use of internet or phone. McDonalds have been offering free internet to their customers. Also through use of technology, it has become easy for the customers to receive accurate and timely response to their queries (McDonalds UK, 2016). Assessment of the operations implementation of the service concept To implement the service concept, a service delivery system is used. The service delivery system refers to the manner in which the service package is given to the customer (Shaw and Ivens, 2002). This is a process in which the customer is involved and also the product is created and delivered to the customers. The whole service package that is implemented includes; physical items, sensual benefits and psychological benefits (Clark, Johnston and Shulver, 2000). Operations at McDonalds help a lot in implementing the service concept in a single source. This can be explained through the diagram below. The service concept is implemented through a parallel design which makes it possible to have formal testing with the customers and front line employees who are well experienced (Clark, Johnston and Shulver, 2000). This also allows the cross functional alignment which is very vital in maintaining customer experience (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2000). Recommendations How both the concept and the delivery system might be improved. MacDonalds have a well-designed service concept which is integrated to the organisation processes. This has helped the fast food chain to attain their goal of providing the customers with quality and fresh food in a fast and convenient manner. The fast food chain has been able to attain this through their operations and effective use of their human resources. Despite this, McDonalds can improve on their service concept to increase the levels of customer satisfaction. This is through reducing the queue in the drive through which leads to dissatisfaction among the customers. This can be attained by increasing the number of serving windows and upgrade on their drive through. The fast food chain can also introduce parallel lines and efficient service production methods to reduce queues. Use of technology can greatly help in increasing the level of customer satisfaction hence improve the service concept (Davis and Heinke, 2003). This is through use of automation where possible to increase speed of services. The restaurant must maintain their customer and service orientation. This is through providing a wide range of services to a set of customers. Through use of technology, instances of workers being over workers will reduce. It is important to note that when workers are overworked, there is deterioration in service quality (Clark, Johnston and Shulver, 2000). This is through unfriendly employees, long queue and low food quality. When the customer satisfaction drops, they may start looking for other alternatives. To ensure that the service concept is not compromised, the fast food chain must embody a complex set of values. This involves including the health benefits in their service concept design. The fast food chain has been receiving negative reviews due to health concerns. This may require McDonalds to enhance their menu to ensure that it is perceived healthy by the customers. There is need for McDonalds’ to ensure that their service design is not copied by the competitors. This is through ensuring that their service design major features are unique (Chase and Stewart, 1994). Conclusion To sum up, McDonalds UK has been able to design a practical service concept that has helped in attaining their goals. The service concept for McDonalds is aimed at offering the best quality of services in the fast food industry and maintaining cleanliness in all restaurants. This has been attained through the restaurant operations processes which contribute to the functioning of the service concept. McDonalds have been able to attain their service concept through service operations, procurement, production, quality management, customer service and technology. the service delivery system is well integrated with the restaurant operations as explained in the diagram. To improve the concept and delivery system, McDonalds can reduce queue at drive through by introducing parallel lines and use efficient service production. McDonalds can also increase technology use through automaton and ensure that their service design is not copied by the competitors. There is also need for McDonalds to use a healthy menu to enhance their service concept. References Armistead, G.G. and Clark G.R. 1992, Customer Service and Support, Financial Times/Pitman Publishing, London. Brown, S., Blackmon, K., Cousins, P. and Maylor, H., 2013. Operations management: policy, practice and performance improvement. Routledge. Business Insider. 2012. 15 Facts About McDonald's That Will Blow Your Mind. Retrieved 13th January 2016 from: http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-mcdonalds-blow-your- mind 201111?op=1 Chase, R.B. and Stewart, D.M. 1994 “Make Your Service Failsafe”, Sloan Management Review, (Spring) pp. 35-44. Clark, G., Johnston, R. and Shulver, M. 2000 “Exploiting the Service Concept for Service Design and Development” in Fitzsimmons J. and Fitzsimmons M. (eds.), New Service Design, Sage Publications, pp 71-91. Davis M.M. and Heinke J. 2003, Managing Services: Using Technology to Create Value, McGraw-Hill, Boston, Mass. Fitzsimmons J. and Fitzsimmons M. (eds.) 2000, New Service Design. Sage Publications, California. Goldstein, S.M., Johnston, R., Duffy, J. and Rao, J., 2002. “The service concept: the missing link in service design research?.” Journal of Operations management, 20(2), pp.121-134. Haksever, C., Render, B., Russell, R., Murdick, R. 2000, Service Management and Operations Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Hope, C., and Muhlemann, A. 1997, Service Operations Management: Strategy, Design and Delivery. Prentice-Hall London. Johnston, R., 1995 “The Zone of Tolerance: Exploring the relationship between service transactions and satisfaction with the overall service”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, vol.6, no.2, pp.46-61. McDonalds UK, 2016, What makes McDonalds, Retrieved 13th January 2016 from https://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome.html McDonalds, 2008, Customer Services at McDonald’s, Retrieved 13th January 2016 from: https://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/content/dam/McDonaldsUK/People/Schools-and- students/mcd_customer_services.pdf Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Berry, L.L., 1992 “A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Implications for Future Research”, Journal of Marketing, vol.49, Fall, pp.41-50. Shaw C. and Ivens J. 2002, Building Great Customer Experiences, Palgrave, Basingstoke. Read More