Evaluation of Customer Service at Sodexo - Case Study Example

Evaluation Service at Sodexo INTRODUCTION This report assesses the service provided by Sodexo, a supplier of catering services to corporate organisations in the UK.. It will evaluate the service provided using the theories associated with crafting the service environment and improving service quality and productivity, identifying areas where improvements could be made. The report will conclude with a series of recommendations to effect the improvements identified. SODEXO Sodexo provide in-house catering and outlets for purchase of sandwiches, drinks and other snack-type foods for large organisations. Outlets vary in size and complexity with some providing hot meals while others only provide cold provisions. An atmosphere conducive to purchasing is required, allowing time to browse and a quick checkout service. A full range of appropriate foodstuffs needs to be available to cater for all tastes and cultural requirements. There are usually peaks and troughs in customers, with most requiring service at lunchtimes and morning/afternoon breaks. At these times, there needs to be a smooth service for customers allowing fast purchase of the desired items without having to queue for extended periods. MAPPING THE SERVICE: THE SODEXO SERVICE BLUEPRINT There are many ways to show a service and its supporting elements. This report uses the service blueprint (Shostak, 1984). Although the service appears simple, there are several things going on at once, which are more easily seen in a service blueprint. The following blueprint is based on the distinctions described by Bitner et al (2008). CRAFTING THE SERVICE ENVIRONMENT This part of customer service operations falls within the tangibles area of the dimensions of service quality and both the physical evidence and backstage activities of the service blueprint. For Sodexo, it includes the layout of the outlet, the placement of things like the drinks machines, chillers and cold cabinets, and the overall look of the outlet. Customers expect a food outlet to be clean and comply with relevant health and safety legislation to ensure that they do not suffer from such things as food poisoning (Tester et al, 2010). In addition, any food spills should be cleaned up immediately to ensure no-one slips over. General hygiene is also a tangible aspect of service quality, even though it is not a physical item. The Sodexo staff do try to keep the catering area clean, but there are occasions when food spills are not cleared up as quickly as they could be, and this could affect consumer confidence when purchasing items for consumption. The delay in cleaning up spillage can be caused by too few staff being available to cover both the till and keep the area clean and tidy at the same time. The time of day at which spillages occur can also cause problems. If the spillage occurs at lunch time, it is difficult for staff to get to the area to clean up because there are a large number of customers who need to be served. If the outlet is quiet with only one or two customers, the customers can be served quickly and the mess cleaned up almost immediately. Also, keeping the shelves stocked with products for sale is important, especially over the lunchtime period when the number of customers is high. Customers may not be able to find anything they like to eat, and go elsewhere to buy their food. If this happens too many times, the outlet will gain a reputation for being poorly stocked or having a poor selection of food available for purchase, resulting in lost customers. So one of the areas for improvement is making sure that there are enough staff available to both serve customers and keep the environment clean, tidy and well stocked. The availability of stock falls within the reliability dimension of service quality. Sodexo are supplied with fresh stocks on a daily basis, due to their perishability, and stock levels must be tightly controlled to avoid waste at the end of the day. This type of system would qualify as a just-in-time system (Waters, 2002) as fresh sandwiches are made and supplied each morning, ready for the day’s customers. There might be issues for supply if the sandwich maker does not receive the relevant ingredients in time, or have enough in stock, to make up the sandwiches required by Sodexo for their customers. There might also be problems with changing the order to include some unusual fillings that do not appeal to customers, despite their requirement for a variety of offerings. This is part of the supply chain for the outlet (Slack et al, 2009) which must be managed by Sodexo for all the outlets it has, not just the single outlet being assessed. What is good for the whole of Sodexo might not be good for this particular outlet. So Sodexo need to manage the supply chain to make sure that each outlet gets what it needs without compromising customer choice or generating excessive waste at the end of the day. This means that the outlet staff need to keep their head office up to date with the sales figures showing what sells and what does not, so that head office can make sure that, as far as possible, they supply what the outlet needs. The second recommendation is that staff should provide daily sales information to head office to monitor changes in customer tastes as well as how many customers use the outlet and how much is purchased, to keep stocks at the optimum level to keep customers happy while keeping costs down. The final aspect of the service environment to be considered is the staff. Although the staff are people, they are also a tangible representation of Sodexo, and can make a big difference to how the outlet is perceived and how profitable it is. The person in charge is key to the atmosphere at the outlet (Yang 2008). If their attitude or approach is anything less than positive and supportive, the staff will not provide the best service that they can. Yang identifies verbal and psychological violence, unsafe work practices and theft or destruction of organisational assets or property as harmful behaviours that cause psychological and emotional harm for others (ibid, p.29). So it is important that the supervisors and managers are positive about their work and the organisation, comply with the codes of practice, policies and procedures and treat their staff with respect to make sure this filters through all levels, ensuring that staff treat the customers with respect and provide a good service. The recommendation is that staff make a personal commitment to treat everyone with respect and that such behaviour is monitored and, if necessary, corrected. IMPROVING SERVICE QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY This area falls across the whole of the service blueprint, as everything that forms part of the service will feed into service quality. Improving one aspect should help to improve others, as well as highlighting where further improvements are needed. Following the recent recession, the popularity of in-house catering services has not increased, but the nature of the exchange with the customer has changed (Stamford 2010). Providers have found a need to vary their service offerings with customers look for value, and not necessarily cheap. Being able to see the individual components of a meal as individually priced items is one way of doing this and this is something Sodexo has done to meet customer needs. Sodexo have also bundled some of their offerings in a “meal deal” offering better value for the customer as well as providing greater predictability for the individual components and ingredients, making stock control easier. Something that Stamford also identified was the need to recognise that what might appear to be a captive market still has options to obtain food and beverages elsewhere. For some outlets, there may be fewer customers following downsizing, as well as fewer staff available to serve them. The in-house option for food and refreshments should be better value for the customer, but sometimes is perceived as being expensive, resulting in either purchasing from somewhere else or bringing in food from home. Some outlets are subsidised by employers but this does not necessarily make them cheaper or better value than alternatives outside the building. Sometimes, customers are looking for convenience and purchase from the outlet occasionally, perceiving this convenience comes at an increased cost to them. Sodexo can change how customers perceive their outlets by ensuring that they buy their supplies cost-effectively. This can be difficult with a just-in-time approach, even more so when dealing with fresh foodstuffs that deteriorate quickly. Having a pricing policy set out to compare the costs of ingredients and other products, the selling price of the products and what other non-Sodexo outlets are charging would allow Sodexo to fine tune prices to make them a few pence cheaper than the nearest competition and encourage more of the building occupants to frequent the outlet as normal practice, increasing the amount sold which would cover the small reduction in profits. The recommendation is to monitor local prices and compare them regularly with the prices charged by Sodexo and the prices paid for the stocks to make sure that the customer sees that Sodexo offers the best value for money and continues to purchase from them. When buying food in McDonalds, the assistant always asks if the customer “wants fries with that”, unless fries have already been ordered. Customers can find this irritating, but the intention is to increase the value of the purchase and therefore profits. If Sodexo started to do this, they would probably lose customers very quickly. However, they can take advantage of the observations recorded by Stamford (2010) concerning a change in buying habits of consumers when purchasing food and refreshments. Stamford reports that, despite shopping for value, customers are still allowing themselves small, expensive treats. Sodexo can provide branded luxury items at point-of-purchase to cater for this development, encouraging customers to purchase something small that makes them feel good, while maintaining a high profit margin on the items sold (which would also help with covering the costs of adjusting the main offering, described above). The recommendation is for Sodexo to identify several small items with high profit margins that can be placed at point-of-purchase to encourage customers to treat themselves occasionally. Customers continue to try to eat healthily, especially when purchasing convenience food. Regulations compel food suppliers to include nutritional information on the packaging, providing details of fats, sugars, proteins and vitamins contained by the item. Some sandwich makers provide low calorie versions of their products to cater for this market. For unpackaged foods, judging the nutritional content of a meal is something consumers find difficult to do. If they have this information, they make a more informed decision biased in favour of healthy eating (Heintz Tangari et al 2010). Sodexo can help its customers do the same by providing calorie counts for those items not pre-packaged by supplied on plates. The recommendation is to provide a board in a prominent place with the calorie values of all the individual components of fresh meals to help customers make more healthy choices. In addition to considering the customer, Sodexo should also consider their suppliers and deal only with those that add value for them (Swift 2009). Just as Sodexo needs to keep its consumers happy, those who supply Sodexo with resources also need to keep Sodexo happy to retain business and ensure survival in the current difficult economic climate. If Sodexo uses suppliers who provide additional benefits, both financial and non-financial, it gives them room for manoeuvre when pricing their offerings, allowing them to ensure the best value for the customer while maintaining profit margins and overall profitability. If the business is profitable and successful, staff will be reassured that their jobs are secure, and focus on doing the best job they can in providing the best customer service possible. The recommendation for Sodexo is to review its suppliers to ensure it is getting the best value possible and sharing this value with customers and staff through value-for-money offerings and job security. CONCLUSION In reality, it is difficult to separate service quality and productivity from the service environment as one can and does affect the other. Improvements in one area should therefore create improvement in the other. Having the correct number of staff to keep the outlet functioning properly, monitoring stock levels to keep them at their optimum level to maximise sales, ensuring staff have the right approach to serving customers, monitoring prices to keep the offering competitive and increase sales, provide small luxury treats for customers to purchase with their other items, provide information on calorie counts for non-packaged items and dealing only with suppliers who add value for Sodexo should improve the overall provision of products and services of each outlet. This allows Sodexo to improve its reputation with customers, increasing its sales and profits to ensure it survives and prospers in the current uncertain environment. (2,151 words, excluding diagram and references) REFERENCES Heintz Tangari, A., Burton, S., Howlett, E., Cho, Y-N., and Thyroff, A. (2010) ‘Weighing in on Fast Food Consumption: The Effects of mean and Calorie Disclosures on Consumer Fast Food Evaluations’ The Journal of Consumer Affairs Vol. 44, No. 3, pp.431-462 Bitner, M. J., Ostrom, A. L. and Morgan, F. N. (2008) ‘Service Blueprinting: A Practical Technique for Service Innovation’ California Management Review Vol. 50, No. 3, pp.66-94 Shostak, G. L. (1984) ‘Designing Services That Deliver’ Harvard Business Review, January/February, pp. 133-139 Slack, N., Chambers, S., Johnston, R. and Betts, A. (2009) Operations and Process Management: Principles and Practice for Strategic Impact (2nd edn.) FT Prentice Hall, Harlow Stamford, J. 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