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Sheffield Hallam University: MSc: Hospitality Assignments
Management Information Assignment 1
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Background *
Defining the product or service *
Defining the stakeholders *
Defining "Quality" *
Food and Beverage *
Service attributes of staff *
Physical attributes of restaurant *
Issues relating to service quality management *
Redesign and improvement of kitchen utilities *
References *
Background
Avalon is café-bistro, not very large (48 seats), located in the thriving business and cultural centre of Sheffield and is open from 11:00 am. to 11:00 p.m. In its immediate vicinity there are two traditional pubs, two cafes, the cinema’s cafe and the theatre’s cafe.
Three equal partners own Avalon but only one of them, the CEO, has any relevant experience, having managed a pub.
During the daytime, Avalon serves sandwiches, cakes, coffee, tea, fruit juices and other soft drinks. The menu offered in the evenings is more sophisticated with the possibility to choose from a range of "fine" wines. The menu changes every four weeks.
The Cafe is part of the citywide Healthy Eating Campaign and prides itself on the freshness and quality of its ingredients which, wherever possible, are sourced locally often from organic suppliers. Nevertheless the emphasis on freshness produces a waste of food and poor margins. All the food is prepared and cooked in-house.
There have been attempts to assess the performance of the menu but high staff turnover makes continuity of assessment difficult.
The food spend varies from £ 3.50 per head during lunchtime, rising to £10.00 per head at night. Alcohol generates average revenue per head of £6.50. Turnover for the first year was just over £375,000.
The customers who frequent the Cafe are mainly young middle classes (25 to 40 A, B, C 1) and they knowledgeable about food and wine and are aware about fashion and trends. The regular customers are recognised by the staff who try to operate on a first name basis where is possible and appropriate.
The staff are composed by a Chef/Manager who has strong ideas about the way to manage the cafe bistro (vertically). She sometimes disagree with the CEO and with her two Assistant Managers: one is the Assistant Manager Chef who has more experience but is not innovative and is the supervisor of the 4 Kitchen staff. The other Assistant Manager is the HeadWaiter, is the supervisor of the Floor staff and has strong ideas about the role of the front house staff. He is from Greece and has not lived in England for very long. Both Kitchen staff and Floor staff are mainly students who work part time basis and are hourly paid.
The kitchen is adequately equipped with some new and some renovated equipment. It is small very hot in the summer. The limited storage makes it difficult to expand the menu. The recently purchased computer equipment will aid in accounting, forecasting, menu preparation, and analysis and in marketing purposes.
Defining the product or service
One cannot say that Avalon serves only one product or service. There is a substantial difference between the product, and perhaps the service, which cafe bistro Avalon serves during the day and its evening offerings. Even the customers are different. In the daytime there are more B’s and some C1’s. In the evening, more A’s and some B’s. Obviously the factors affecting Food, Habits, Acceptance and Preferences from each group of customers are different. The food and drinks served during the daytime are more "relaxed", such as sandwiches, cakes, teas, and coffees, fruits juices and another soft drinks. The evening menu is more upmarket with wines on offer.
Despite the mentioned product differentiation and market segmentation, the common characteristic is the freshness and the quality of the food ingredients that Avalon prepares and cooks in-house. The average spend during is quite high but is justified by the quality of the food, the attractive and unusual atmosphere and its convenient location.
Furthermore, the staff is friendly with the customers and tries to adopt a familiar but not over-familiar approach.
Avalon’s products are location, fashion, health and friendliness.
Defining the stakeholders
According to Evan (undated) stakeholders are groups or individuals who benefit from or are armed by corporations, and whose rights are violated or respected by corporate actions, Avalon’s stakeholders are:
The owner-shareholders because they have some financial stake and they want to increase Avalon’s market share. They should have a very clear business plan, which defines and develops the objectives and the achievement action plan.
The employees because their salary depends on Avalon’s functioning.
The suppliers They are very involved in Avalon’s business health. They should deliver their products Just-in-time and in the best condition and Avalon should pay their bills on time as well.
The customers who expect total quality in the product and in the service.
Sheffield as local community expects that Avalon respects the environmental policies and collaborate with it as a "good citizen".
The Competitors who expect fair and ethical competition from Avalon and its staff.
The licensing authorities who expect from Avalon a correct observance of all the precepts and laws.
In the same way, Mitroff (1983) described the existence and maintenance of social systems drawing in stakeholders’ objectives. These are necesssary for an organisation to perform satisfactorily or even exist. This social system comprises different attitudes to be adopted by the organisation’s leader and the managers:
Change and Creativity
Business, Political and Economic Functions
Information and Communication.
Defining "Quality"
Quality is the perfect combination of certain elements which comprise the service or product served which meet customers’ expectations producing his or her satisfaction. Quality is improvement. Without continually improving what you offer your customers you will lose their loyalty and marginal quick fix improvements will backfire. Wille (1992) explaining W. Edwards Deming philosophy.
Quality enhancement requires a very deep and rigorous analysis of an organisation, getting to know its strengths and its weaknesses with an extensive knowledge of its customers’ habits.
Quality should be understood as a whole and as the business of everyone with a total commitment from the owners and senior management - Witt (1995). Innovation and imagination with quality are two concepts with which customers always are pleased because it means that the organisation is thinking of them and their needs.
Jones (1983) recognises the quality significance of the whole meal experience in the following types of attribute :
Food and Beverage
Originality of menu, style of service, match between consumption and appearance, wine list price.
Service attributes of staff
Number on duty, attentive, clean, smart, friendly, courteous, helpful, efficient, attentive to detail.
Physical attributes of restaurant
Space, comfort, noise, lighting, temperature, glassware, menu cards, furnishing, colour.
Parasuraman (undated) adds more determinants of service quality such as reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, communication, credibility and understanding & knowing the customer.
To be able to carry this out, the whole process must be studied, and the right methods, materials and equipment identified. Staff will have to be trained to perform the process correctly. (Witt 1995). "Train and Train and Train" is one of the 14 points which W. Edwards Deming (Wille 1992) specifies to achieve quality. "Training is absolutely fundamental because new skills are required to keep up the continual changes in materials and methods, design and machinery".
It is necessary as well to implement measures to know costumer satisfaction and this measures should be both internally and externally. The Spanish hotel company where I worked, HUSA hoteles, had in every room of their hotels a short questionnaire about the service. It title was very short and to the point: "One minute to criticise" and it was a very convenient working tool to know client’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
It would be novel, but a good idea for the restaurant to give away a brief quality questionnaire with a stamped-addressed envelope. Cash speaks loudly. A 50p coin or evn a £1 note "for charity" could be attached to the questionnaire as a token of appreciation. Many find e-mail user-friendly. Ensure that the client has a card with the CEO’s e-mail address.
Issues relating to service quality management
There could be more differentiation between the product and service offered by Avalon during the day and in the evening. This differentiation could include changing the opening hours. Avalon could open at 8.00 am instead at 11.00 a.m. and offer besides the English Breakfast a Vegetarian Breakfast. Alternatively it could offer a "designer breakfast" for its trendy customers – Espresso coffee and croissants and brioche with freshly squeezed orange juice. This would emphasise the freshness of the product and service range. Its high-paying evening customers would appreciate this initiative and turnover could increase. Avalon should close for one hour, between 4.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. to prepare the dining room for dinner. The ambience should be completely different from those of the day time: It would cosy and intimate (candles instead lamps, different menus cards, different staff uniforms, etc..) and the food more sophisticated as well.
Redesign and improvement of kitchen utilities
More imagination and creativity is needed in forming the menus. The menus should change every week and its ingredients should be fresh and seasonable. But there are highly successful restaurants that never change the menu.
Management shoul carry out a rigorous demographic study of the staff working in Avalon (nationality, personality, rota, etc..). Their duties and their productivity should be clearly established and measured. Their skills and skill-requirements should be established.
Training should be provided to the staff making the quality objectives very clear and how to achieve the firm’s strategy. An isolated cse of botulism or diahrhoea can easily destroy a food service busi nees. Personal hygiene is vital.
Provide the staff a good work ambience, especially with the manager and their superiors. It is very important for the CEO and the manager to share the same point of view about the running of the business.
Provide a window onto the kitchen. Not only will it demonstrate and display the cleanliness and organisation of the kitchen but it will act as a part of the "show". Learn from Belgo and not from Fawlty Towers.
References
Evan, William M. and Freeman, R. Edward " A stakeholder theory of the modern corporation : Kantian capitalism" Corporations & Responsibility (undated)
Mittrof I.Ian, " Stakeholders of the Organisational Mind" (1983) pp.39,40,41. Jossey Bass Publishers
Johns Nick " Quality Management in the Hospitality Industry: Part 1. Definition and Specification." International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. Vol. 4 No.3, 1992, pp 14-20.
Oldcorn, R. "Management" London 1989 Chapter 2
Wille, Edgar " Quality : Achieving Excellence" Chapter 2, " Listening to the Gurus" (1992)
Jones P. "The Restaurant a Place for a Quality Control and Product Maintenance" International Journal of Hospitality Management. Vol. 2 No.2. 1983 p.p.93-100.
Parasuraman,A., Zeithaml Valerie.A., Berry L.Leonard, "A conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for future Research" Vol. 49 (Fall´85) pp 41-50.
Wit, SF and Mouthing L. (Des) "Tourism Marketing and Management Handbook- Student Edition. London Prentice Hall. !995
Zurita Hospitality Consulting
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Sheffield Hallam University: MSc: Hospitality Assignments