Visit to Zilver Seafood Restaurant - Assignment Example

Tutorial Report on Visit to Zilver Seafood Restaurant Executive Summary The success of the restaurant business, which falls under the realm of the service sector, depends on a host of factors including customer service. The demands of the present day customers are very stringent. Even if one was to take a lenient view of what customer service entails, courteous and competent staff, prompt and correct delivery is the bare minimum that would feature in the ‘to-do’ list of customer services. The reasons why customers visit restaurants are varied. Some customers go to a restaurant to satiate hunger, while others visit the restaurant simply to catch up with a friend and enjoy a hot cup of coffee. Whatever be the objective of visit, there lies a common thread; the thread of expectations. Irrespective of the purpose of the visit, all customers want to be treated nicely at the restaurant and expect their order to be served promptly. It is important to remember that elements of hospitality and swiftness in serve revolve around the core service which is critical to success. In case of restaurants, the quality of the food is the core. Thus the minimum expectation of each customer is that the food should be delicious. Whatever add-ons come along are welcome for e.g. a good ambience would make the experience at the restaurant all the more pleasurable. Keeping in view the aforesaid discussion, the assignment of visiting a restaurant of choice was carried out. This report pens down my findings at the Zilver Seafood Restaurant. An attempt has been made to evaluate the restaurant on certain parameters/characteristics that had been identified before the visit. The areas where the restaurant needs to improve upon have also been discussed. Introduction The success mantra for organizations operating in the service sector is customer delight. In any service industry, the competing firms try to increase their market share by providing much more than the core service and thereby exceed customer expectations. There is no doubt in the fact that the quality of the core service is important; however the manner in which this service is rendered is equally important. It can be safely stated that restaurants, by virtue of their nature of business, not only sell cooked food to customers, but pass on a full fledged eating experience to their customers. A lot of factors clubbed together, make this experience either a memorable one or a nightmarish one for the customer. Other experiences like ‘average’, ‘just OK’ etc. may lie on the continuum. The quality of food, speed of service, attitude of staff, and overall ambience of the restaurant are just few of the numerous factors that contribute to making a restaurant fall either in the ‘special’ or in the ‘me-too’ category. A logical corollary of this aspect is that these very factors enable the customer judge the restaurant. An inherent characteristic of services is its inseparability i.e. the service cannot be separated from the service provider. Services are also perishable and are therefore produced and consumed instantaneously. Inseparability and perishability of services bring into play human involvement. In case of restaurants the parties involved are the host (provider of food) and the guest (customer). The human involvement adds to the complexity in any given situation. It may also lead to variability in the service rendered. Different customers may have different needs and motivations. The mood of the customer at a given time may impact his own experience as well as that of the fellow customers. For e.g. if an irate customer has a heated argument in the restaurant, it may affect the experience of all the other guests as well. The objective of the current paper is to evaluate a restaurant keeping in mind the aforesaid dynamics of services. To achieve this objective, the Zilver Seafood Restaurant, located in the Haymarket in Sydney has been judged on various parameters/characteristics (Checklist attached as annexure). A personal visit was made by me to the said restaurant for this purpose. The observational inputs have been juxtaposed, wherever necessary, with information culled out from various secondary sources including the official website of the restaurant, to figure out how the restaurant fares on these parameters. A modest attempt has been made to put forth the areas requiring immediate attention by the management of the restaurant. These are the potential threat areas and if left uncorrected may threaten the survival of the restaurant. Visit Details Place of Visit: Zilver Seafood Restaurant, Inner West, Level 1, 477 Pitt Street, Haymarket, Sydney, Australia (Sydney Central building, corner Hay Street) Date of Visit: 20 August, 2011 About Zilver Seafood Restaurant Vision of the Restaurant “To be the leading restaurant for Fusion Chinese in Australia” Mission of the Restaurant “Create Innovative Chinese Food, Deliver Excellent Customer Experience, Best Place to Work for Staff” Target Market The restaurant aims to provide the best of contemporary and classical Chinese cuisine. Essentially, Zilver Seafood Restaurant is a small portion of China imported and planted in Sydney. The target market is the people who want Chinese food in Sydney. Judgment on Various Parameters The Menu The dish variety at the Zilver Seafood Restaurant can satiate the taste buds of anybody who wants to have Chinese food. The food items include fusion dishes, entrees, premium soups, sea cucumber, abalone, live lobster and crab, shark’s fin, noodles, rice, vegetables and bean curd et al. The bar of the restaurant is also fully equipped. One may find a non alcoholic carbonated drink, spirits, bear, rum, wine, whisky; whatever one may want to have. The Infrastructure The Zilver restaurant houses a banquet for solemnizing marriages. The main dining room of the restaurant has a sitting capacity of 550. Additionally the restaurant also has five private dining rooms. The Dim Sim banquet at the restaurant has been specifically designed to provide the guests with a matchless ‘yum cha’ experience. Cleanliness From a distance the restaurant appears swanky and well done up. It is only when I entered the place I realized what is meant by the idiom ‘All that glitters is not gold.’ As I made my way to the empty table, I was greeted with used, dirty plates. Probably, the previous guest had just left but the waiter did not bother, or did not get the time, to pick them up. Which ever way you look at it, it is a failure on part of the restaurant. Competence of Staff The waiters who are presently working in the restaurant are not able to speak proper English. Their understanding of the language is also below average which makes the conversation with them far from easy. This is not to say that the restaurant does not have any talent at all. The cook making steamed fish was visible to the guests. He dexterously took out the bones of the fish in one go which made it an awe-inspiring site. The preparation of food at Zilver Seafood is done under the able supervision of Jack Ng, an award-winning executive chef from Hong Kong with more than 30 years of experience. Attitude towards Customers The element of ‘customer services’ was conspicuous by its absence at the Zilver Seafood Restaurant. The guests were not greeted at all. None of the staff members smiled. It appeared that the waiters were just not bothered about the needs of the guest. Yes, they were busy, very busy, but they had an agenda of their own. Quality and Price of Food The silver lining in these dark clouds that hover over Zilver, is the quality of food. Call the rose amongst the thorns, the food at the restaurant is sumptuous. The good points of the restaurant begin and end with excellent food. The food may be really good, but then, it is overpriced. The prices of the scarce assortment of drinks also appear on the higher side. The quality of the food, per se, may justify a high price; however the bad ambience overshadows the delicious aspect and makes the prices appear high. Had the same prices been charged by another restaurant with a comparable quality of food, but with a great milieu and courteous waiters, probably it would not have pinched. Moment of Truth The employees of the restaurant make no effort to satisfy or retain the customer. In fact, during my two hour stay at the restaurant, there was an unpleasant incident wherein a customer had a verbal duel with a waiter. Apparently the customer was angry because the correct order was not delivered to him. Instead of apologizing or taking corrective action, the waiter was arguing with him. None of the other staff members intervened to pacify the customer and the heated argument continued for a considerably long period of time. Thus for me and my friend who accompanied me to the restaurant, this moment of truth, further cemented the negative impression of the restaurant that we had formed. Zone of Tolerance The zone of tolerance refers to the range of service performance that a customer considers satisfactory. I was already disappointed with the cleanliness in the restaurant. However, my zone of tolerance was breached when I went to the toilet at the restaurant. The condition of the washrooms was appalling. They were stinking and it appeared that nobody had cleaned them for a long time. Convergence of Hospitality, Tourism and Events (HTE) The restaurant industry draws heavily from the intrinsically linked hospitality, tourism and events industry. In the hospitality industry, a range of service offerings along with the primary products of food, beverages and accommodation, add value to the guest. The same holds true in the restaurant industry. The primary requirement of the guest is the food or the beverage; however the add-ons play a pivotal role in deciding the success or failure of the outfit. If I talk of my personal experience at Zilver Seafood restaurant, the quality of the food was good. However due to the untidy place, the lackadaisical approach of the staff, I have formed a negative opinion about the restaurant. A restaurant is a vital link in the tourism industry supply chain. This is the place where a tourist can come to eat food, to have a drink, to relax or to entertain self. Again, since the needs are varied, the restaurant has to have in its repertoire the necessary ammunition to cater to these needs. It again transpires that this ammunition is nothing but good primary service backed up with equally strong add-ons. I went to Zilver Seafood on the recommendation of a friend. I was told that the food is good there. That’s true, but unfortunately, for me as a tourist, the good things about the restaurant begin and end with good food. There is no other pull factor. A marriage party, a conference, a business meeting are all events that can be held at a restaurant. From the perspective of an individual customer, a visit to the restaurant is an event. The onus lies on the restaurant to do whatever it takes to make the event memorable for every single guest. At the time of my visit to Zilver Seafood, a few tables were occupied by families, a few by couples while some friends were seated at a couple of tables. Two of the five private dining halls were hosting private parties at that time. Thus there were various events happening concurrently at the restaurant. The restaurant had the infrastructure to house these events. However, to ensure that all individuals have a memorable experience, the staff of the restaurant has to go an extra mile. Suggestions In terms of what this restaurant needs to do to survive in the present day world of cut throat competition; the answer is lots. The following table is a simplified version of where the restaurant stands with respect to the marketing mix of services. The + sign indicates that the restaurant is strong on that aspect, - sign suggests that there is scope of improvement, while # suggests that the parameter has not been observed or studied by me. Product (food) + Price - Place (infrastructure) + Promotion # Process - People - Physical evidence - The negative signs are the threats to the restaurant and probably explain the mere 35 percent occupancy level at the time of my visit. Zilver Seafood Restaurant must work on these areas and make them better. This will help it to capitalize on its positives; good product (tasty food) and place (infrastructure available within the restaurant). The restaurant should hire more waiters as the existing staff at the restaurant appears overburdened. This excessive workload may be helping the restaurant save a little money on wages, but is costing it big time in terms of loss of goodwill. Regular training should be imparted to these waiters. They should be sensitized to the fact that the customer is the bread and butter for any organization. The restaurant needs to improve on its physical evidence. Any stimuli to any of the five human senses should generate a positive feeling. Thus the stink needs to vanish and the aroma of fresh food should appear. The dirty plates should literally be dismissed from their presence. Conclusion Zilver group’s tag line ‘A New face, A New Taste, A New Attitude’ is being followed in letter and spirit, but partially. The Zilver Seafood restaurant has been renovated recently to give it a new swanky, sophisticated look. The signage, décor, chairs, tables, cutlery are all new. The taste is as good as one may ever get and the speed with which the food is served is pretty fast. Yet, there is something drastically wrong at the restaurant. It has something to do with the last part of the tag line ‘A New Attitude’. The restaurant needs to pull up its socks on this front lest it should see an erosion of its loyal customer base. A dust free, hygienic environment is a sine qua non for the guests that come to the restaurant. Regular mopping of the floor and an instantaneous picking up of used plates and dishes are essential to the success of the restaurant. The toilets may not be the place where all guests go, however the importance of their cleanliness cannot be overstated. Dirty toilets can have a lasting impression on the minds of the customers. Additionally, from the perspective of hygiene, the washrooms must be clean. The Zilver Seafood Restaurant has only got the basic (product) right. Now it needs to work on its basics which continue to remind the restaurant that the only thing that a customer carries back home after a visit to the restaurant is experience. Appendix-Checklist for Judging a Restaurant The checklist rates various observed parameters on a 5-point scale where 5 is the highest score on a parameter and 1 is the lowest score. Parameter 1 2 3 4 5 Location of the restaurant √ Nearness, adequacy and ease of parking √ Fascia of the restaurant √ Internal décor, ambience (visual stimuli) √ Space, infrastructure of the restaurant √ Occupancy level √ 1st experience; welcome drink, greeting by staff √ Aroma inside the restaurant √ Noise level, temperature √ Cleanliness of the seating area √ Comfort of seating area √ Menu variety √ Promptness in taking order √ Promptness in delivering order √ Food Taste √ Dress of staff; waiters, managers, helpers √ Staff displaying traits of courtesy, friendliness √ Cleanliness of the toilets √ References Beaujean, M. & Davidson, J. 2006, "The 'moment of truth' in customer service", The McKinsey Quarterly, , no. 1, pp. 62-62-73. Donnelly, R.A., 2004, "Managing the Moment of Truth for a Service Organization", SuperVision, vol. 65, no. 12, pp. 3-3-6. http://www.zilver.com.au/flash/main.html (Accessed September 3, 2011) Nadiri, H. & Hussain, K. 2005, "Diagnosing the zone of tolerance for hotel services", Managing Service Quality, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 259-259-277. Read More