ASSIGNMENT PROMPT #4:  Oral ReportDUE DATE: TODAY!!!! Oct. 1st, 2018 (19:00 military time)!!Interpretation Oral Report PROMPT:Using your individual problem/goal from the first 3 weeks of this class,

ASSIGNMENT #1:

Organization: Sophia’s Restaurant, Buffalo NY

Problem/Goal #1:

To address growing concerns and customer complaints pertaining to long waiting times at the restaurant.

Solution:

Provide training to employees about impeccable customer service, effective communication, workplace etiquette, and potentially hire more employees.

Problem/Goal #2:

To address increasing turnover rates among employees that has threatened to undermine the profitability of the organization.

Solution:

Create a conducive work environment through restructuring the reward/incentive program, and being responsive to the needs of employees.

Problem/Goal #3:

Employees are complaining that they are finding it tedious to track sales, food inventory, and cash flow at the restaurant.

Solution:

Introduce a state-of-the-art POS system for tracking sales and providing audited reports with digital images.

ASSIGNMENT #2: Request for Approval

To: Sophia’s Restaurant CEO

From: Customer Care Representative

Date: September 17, 2018

Subject: Request for Approval to Move Ahead

Sophia’s Restaurant has been enjoying a steady growth and relative sound financial success. Nevertheless, the organization is also experiencing a problem that threatens to undermine its profitability and sustainability. The problem stems from increasing complaints by customers about long waiting times and delayed service delivery especially at the point of sale. Improving response time is thus a major priority that the company should consider in order to retain customers and improve profitability. Various solutions can aid in addressing this potential problem.

The most plausible solution is providing employees with ongoing training on aspects such as effective customer service, etiquette, superb communication skills, and diversity awareness, as all these topics can have positive implications on the effectiveness of the staff members (Davis, Lockwood, Pantelidis, & Alcott, 2013). Another potential solution that can aid in addressing this problem is instituting a state-of-the-art POS system and hiring additional, qualified employees to handle the increasing number of customers.

Completing the exploration will require massive investment in time and other resources. The first step will be contacting the customer service employees and asking them about any pertinent issues that may be responsible for causing or aggravating the problem. This will help in understanding the root causes of the concerns and formulating a responsive plan for addressing these concerns (Davis et al., 2013). Besides talking to customer service employees, it will also be paramount to conduct surveys with the disgruntled customers to get their perspectives about the problem at hand. This will similarly help in uncovering the real reasons behind the customer complaints and guide the decision-making process for coming up with an accommodative solution.

In order to develop the solution, the organization must provide support and resources. The main resource requested for solving this problem is financial resources. The financial resources will aid in conducting a thorough needs assessment and conducting customer surveys to ascertain the areas that need improvement in the organization. In addition, the restaurant may require the services of external consultants to conduct the needs assessment. This will certainly require financial resources to hire and maintain the consultants. Another pertinent resource is time from other department, particularly the IT department. The department will look at the current systems within the organization and potentially offer valuable recommendations that can help in improving the response time among the customer care staffs.

Resolving the problem about customer complaints will be of great benefit to the organization. Some of the potential benefits that Sophia’s Restaurant will reap from addressing this problem include improved customer service that translates to higher profits, better productivity, and improved brand reputation (Adekola & Sergi, 2016). Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that in order to address the problem, senior management must play an instrumental role in providing support and allocating the necessary resources to implement the proposed change. If provided the approval to move forward, the responsible team will conduct a thorough needs assessment and implement a vibrant solution that will have positive ramifications to Sophia’s Restaurant in the long-term.

References

Adekola, A., & Sergi, B. S. (2016). Global business management: A cross-cultural perspective (3 ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Davis, B., Lockwood, A., Pantelidis, I., & Alcott, P. (2013). Food and beverage management (5 ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

ASSIGNMENT #3: White Paper -- Solutions Progress Report

Sophia’s Restaurant has experienced gradual growth and enjoyed profitability over the years. Nevertheless, in recent times, this organization has faced a major problem resulting from increased customer complaints. Without addressing this problem, the restaurant may end up losing loyal customers and suffer financially. Understanding the root causes of the problem is necessary for generating the right solutions. Sophia’s Restaurant can explore these causes through conducting customer satisfaction surveys and holding focus group meetings or interviews with employees. Results from these surveys and focus groups could not only help in uncovering the source of the problem but they can also find direct application in customer relationship management. The present white paper identifies the problem and impact on the current organization, highlights the research conducted to uncover the root causes of the problem, and outlines the next steps in research and generation of possible solutions.

Problem and Impact on the Current Environment

The problem under investigation pertains to increasing customer complaints by diners who frequently visit Sophia’s Restaurant. Whereas the company has enjoyed substantial success in the past, the complaints by clients over the recent past threaten to undermine the company’s profitability and long-term sustainability. Sophia’s Restaurant is a family owned firm operating in the food and beverage industry. It has its headquarters in Buffalo, New York and maintains other joints within the larger New York area. Like many other industry players, the company has a host of issues to deal with such as stiff competition and regulatory pressures. Competitors for this restaurant include other small restaurants as well as larger chains such as McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC.

Increasing customer complaints can have detrimental effects to the organization. Ultimately, if not addressed, this problem can lead to decreased customer satisfaction and the departure of many loyal customers from the business. Furthermore, unmet needs can lead to negative word of mouth advertising by the customers that can have dire consequences to Sophia’s brand reputation and eventually undermine its business operations (Davis, Lockwood, Pantelidis, & Alcott, 2013). While customer complaints are sometimes inevitable, customer satisfaction in today’s competitive business environment plays a critical role in sustaining the existence of the restaurant enterprise. Addressing these concerns is essential for saving the organization from imminent collapse. In order to accomplish this and meet the customers’ demands, all the concerned stakeholders at Sophia’s Restaurant need to enhance operational performance, strengthen service standards, construct unique images and enhance service quality (Davis et al., 2013).

Research Conducted to Uncover the Root Causes of the Problem

Uncovering the root causes of the aforementioned problem and clarifying the scope of the problem is of utmost importance for coming up with a lasting solution (Kallet, 2014). In order to uncover the root causes of the problem, it was paramount to communicate with the disgruntled customers to gain firsthand information about what they perceive to be problems within the restaurant. Communication with these customers took place both face-to-face and through a survey distributed to them. The survey asked them to rank the quality of service provided by the staff and underscore any areas that they believed needed further improvements.

A study by Chan, Hsiao, & Lee (2016) that sought to explore customer complaint behavior toward Asian full-service restaurants also established that using a survey to communicate with the clients was an effective way of obtaining information about perceptions, expectations, and experiences with the customer care staff. The researchers affirm that in the highly competitive environment of the contemporary world, restaurants need to take the conscious decision to acquire feedback from their customers in order to further improve the services and products they offer. Encouraging and facilitating the complaint process is one sure way of obtaining such feedback. Chan et al. (2016) conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 30 customers who frequently dined at Asian full-service restaurants in Hong Kong in a bid to uncover their complaint behaviors.

From the customer satisfaction survey distributed to clients who visit Sophia’s Restaurant, a number of issues emerged that may help to explain the underlying cause of the problem. For example, it became apparent that complaints mainly arose due to unfulfilled expectations in service encounter and poor service quality perceived by customers as below expectation or unsatisfactory. Attitude of staff members was yet another major reason identified by customers as a root cause of the problem. To this end, several customers claimed that some employees at Sophia’s Restaurant appear to be rude and unresponsive when presented with concerns or complaints. As per the customers, these staff members do not put the interest of customers first.

It is worth mentioning that in order to uncover the root causes of the problem, it was also essential to conduct interviews and focus groups/meetings with all staff members in order to obtain information on their side of the story. The senior management team at Sophia’s Restaurant conducted the majority of these interviews and facilitated the focus groups/meetings with the staff members. From these interviews and meetings, it is becoming apparent that employees complain of increasing workload as the primary reason for delays and deficient customer service that has been the main driver of the customer complaints. Most of the employees claim that they sometimes feel overwhelmed by the number of customers particularly during lunch and dinner hours, while those at the point of service maintain that the technology they are currently using is not as fast as they may desire.

Next Steps in Research and Generation of Possible Solutions

It will indeed be paramount to come up with a strategy for further exploring the problem and coming up with lucrative solutions that will help to address the problem in the long-term. In this undertaking, the first step will be consulting with HR leadership to discuss staffing and other issues related to human resources. From previous research, it has become apparent that some of the staff members attribute their deficient service delivery to increasing workload. Hence, consulting with the HR manager can provide a way forward as to whether it would be plausible to hire additional employees in a bid to resolve the current problem (Davis et al., 2013).

Consulting with the HR department will also entail querying about the incentive structure that Sophia’s Restaurant maintains for its employees. According to Chan et al. (2016), rewards and incentives play an instrumental role in enhancing the motivation of employees. With increased motivation, the customer service employees are more likely to improve their performance and potentially find a way of resolving the problem of increasing customer complaints. The other step will be analyzing the IT infrastructure at Sophia’s Restaurant. Some of the employees, particularly those at the point of service, have voiced concerns that the systems currently in use are not as fast or effective as they should want, a factor that they have attributed to the slow service provided to customers during peak hours. Mobilizing the IT team at the restaurant to evaluate these systems and provide their recommendations may thus be a viable step for potentially resolving the problem (Kallet, 2014).

Another step will be conducting a comprehensive needs assessment targeting all employees at the organization. The aim of this assessment will be to determine the training needs that employees may benefit from in order to resolve the problem of customer complaints. Clearly, from the survey with customers, it is apparent that some personal attributes of the employees such as poor attitude have aggravated the problem. As such, providing employees with ongoing training in areas such as restaurant etiquette, effective communication, conflict resolution, and diversity awareness among other topics can be beneficial in addressing the problem (Davis et al., 2013). In conducting the needs assessment, Sophia’s Restaurant may elect to liaise with external consultants who have in-depth mastery of conducting such assessments.

Conclusion

Whereas Sophia’s Restaurant has managed to sustain substantial growth over the past years, the organization faces a problem emanating from increasing customer complaints. These complaints can have devastating effects to the company if not addressed amicably. For example, the complaints can lead to low customer satisfaction and negative word of mouth advertising, all of which can tarnish the brand’s reputation. From customer satisfaction surveys distributed to diners, it was apparent that the underlying causes of the problem include unfulfilled expectations in service encounter, poor service quality perceived by customers as below expectation or unsatisfactory, and poor attitude of staff members. Employees also provided their own insights as to the underlying causes of the problem, with many of them attributing increased workload and unresponsive technologies as the root causes of the problem. Further steps including consulting with the HR department, ordering an evaluation of the IT infrastructure, and conducting a comprehensive needs assessment will be essential for brainstorming and coming up with long-lasting solutions to address the problem of increasing customer complaints.

References

Chan, G. S., Hsiao, A. C.-H., & Lee, A. (2016). Exploration of customer complaint behavior toward Asian full-service restaurants. International Journal of Marketing Studies , 8 (2), 46-58.

Davis, B., Lockwood, A., Pantelidis, I., & Alcott, P. (2013). Food and beverage management (5 ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Kallet, M. (2014). Think smarter : Critical thinking to improve problem-solving and decision-making skills (1 ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.