Enhancing Customer Service Experiences
Instructions
Assessment 1
Over 2 different occasions, you are to provide a food and beverage table service to customers within a Cafe / Bar / Restaurant / Bistro / Event. Each observation will occur over 20 minutes. Over the 2 observations, you will be required to:
- Meet and greet customers (Hilken et al., 2017).
- Good evening and welcome to Brew Bistro. My name is Mark. Would you like a table for two?
- Where would you like to sit? Is the open-garden area suitable for you or you would like a table near the fireplace?
- Okay, fireplace it is.
- Serve customers, and take their orders (Jüttner et al.,2013).
- Here is our wine list and bar menu as well as food menu.
- We have Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet sauvignon as our white and red house-wines respectively.
- Can I take your drinks orders please?
- Yes, you can order both house wines by glass or bottle according to your preference.
- Yes please. So, a bottle of cabernet sauvignon and one litre of bottled water, warm?
- Okay, let me process your drinks order, it will be ready in about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, you can continue exploring the food menu please.
- Oh, you want to know about the chicken satay for appetizer? Yes, it comes in 5 skewers accompanied by dipping sauce.
- Yes, we serve it as an appetizer but you can order a larger portion (twice the normal portion) as a main course. The accompaniment for this will be potato wedges or fries.
- Okay sir. So, we will skip the appetizers and bring a double portion of chicken satay for one and chicken breast for one? Both well done? What will be the accompaniment for both dishes? Fries for both? Okay, noted.
- Process orders (not back-of-house) and take food to customers
- Wait on customers throughout their meal
- Yes sir, I will bring an additional dipping sauce and another bottle of warm water right up.
- No sir, we can always organize cab transport from one of our trusted guys at your request.
- Solve with problems proactively.
- Process customer payments (Wang, Miao, & Mattila, 2015).
- Okay, so you would like to have two separate bills for each of you? No problem.
- Okay, here are the split bills. This one is for you and this one is for you sir.
- Yes, we accept both cash and credit cards(Dasu & Chase, 2013).
- Clean tables / front of house
- Close down after service
- Provide a quality customer service at all times(Halstead & Richards, 2014).
- So how was the experience at our restaurant? Was it pleasant or wis there anything you would like us to improve?
- Okay, let me bring you a suggestion card to fill-up please.
- Yes, I have already called our trusted Cab guy. He will drop you at your doorstep safely.
- Ok sir, ma’am. It has been a pleasure serving you guys. Thank you for the tip. Please do come again, we will take care of you(Kandampully, Zhang, & Jaakkola, 2018).
Assessment 2: Enhancing Customer Service Experiences
Students are next to action the complaint as appropriate to the environment. This includes attempting to resolve the complaint or refer to an appropriate staff member. Finally, complaints are to be documented and recorded. Students must ensure undertake the following:
- Demonstrate the ability to research into a complaint and determine the nature and specifics of the situation / incident(Kao, Tsaur, & Wu, 2016)
- Good evening sir. I understand you have a complaint about your takeaway order for three burgers? How would you like me to assist you please?
- Okay, so he put cheese in all the burgers instead of just one of them?
- May I please see the accompanying receipt?
- It says here that the order was made at 01:45 pm. And yes, it says one with cheese, two without. It must have been during the lunch rush hour. We are Sorry about the mix-up, today our grill chef was really swamped with orders. Next time I promise we will do much better than today(Bharwani & Jauhari, 2013).
- Please take a sit at the bar as I organize for a replacement of your order. What soft drink will you take as we sort out the order? It is in the house sir. Yes, as a way of saying sorry for the inconvenience.
- Okay, one soda water for you, cold, coming up.
- No, it won’t take long sir. Fifteen minutes, twenty minutes at most.
- Identify appropriate resolution options and analyse them for the most appropriate choice in accordance with set customer service policy(Manhas & Tukamushaba, 2015).
- Confirm the authenticity of the complaint through receipts, bills and the returned food/drink item.
- After confirming that the complaint is genuine according to available evidence, liaise with the department where the food/drink item was produced. In this case, take back the burgers to the grill chef.
- The grill chef should also authenticate that the orders indeed cane from his/her section after which the supervisor will mark the original order as spoiled and make a new order through the system.
- Undertake corrective action within their level of authority, or refer to appropriate supervisor as needed(Xu & Gursoy, 2015).
- The appropriate action preferred in this case as agreed between the grill chef and supervisor is replacing the two beef/cheese burgers with plain beef ones.
- The grill chef will receive both the cancelled order and the new order through a printout at his station and then proceed to process a new order, this time carefully following the order details.
- After order is processed, it will be packed and presented to the waiting customer.
- Customer, personnel and supervisors are informed as to the situation and action followed.
- Further recording of the spoilage to the executive chef is made(Teng & Chang, 2013).
- The spoilage is also recorded in the monthly wastages record with the restaurant manager.
- Customer is informed of the amount of time it will take to process the replacement.
- Customer is offered a soft drink as he waits for the replacement to be processed.
- Customer is handed the packaged replacement.
- Service waiter or supervisor apologises again to customer and promises them better service next time. He/she wishes them a splendid afternoon and bids them goodbye.
- Thorough documentation is created and maintained following set procedures and relevant legislation requirements(Teng, Developing and evaluating a hospitality skill module for enhancing performance of undergraduate hospitality students, 2013).
The following documents are made, recorded and kept: –
- A cancelled original bill.
- Printout of the voided original bill.
- Copy of the replaced bill.
- Copy of the replacement order.
- Cancelled order marked ad spoilage.
- Cancelled bill recorded in monthly spoilages record book.
- All relevant signatures appended on the spoilage order and bill by supervisor and grill chef.
- Customer is handed a new bill of the replaced order.
use APA format, double spacing
References
Bharwani, S., & Jauhari, V. (2013). An exploratory study of competencies required to co-create memorable customer experiences in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 89-96.
Dasu, S., & Chase, R. B. (2013). The Customer Service Solution: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer’s Business: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer’s Base. McGraw Hill Professional.
Halstead, D., & Richards, K. A. (2014). From high tech to high touch: Enhancing customer service experiences via improved self-service technologies. Innov. Mark, 45-67.
Hilken, T., de Ruyter, K., Chylinski, M., Mahr, D., & Keeling, D. I. (2017). Augmenting the eye of the beholder: exploring the strategic potential of augmented reality to enhance online service experiences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 67-87.
Jüttner, U., Schaffner, D., Windler, K., & Maklan, S. (2013). Customer service experiences. European Journal of Marketing., 34-45.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T. C., & Jaakkola, E. (2018). Customer experience management in hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management., 11-27.
Kao, C. Y., Tsaur, S. H., & Wu, T. C. (2016). Organizational culture on customer delight in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 56-76.
Manhas, P. S., & Tukamushaba, E. K. (2015). Understanding service experience and its impact on brand image in hospitality sector. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 76-79.
Teng, C. C. (2013). Developing and evaluating a hospitality skill module for enhancing performance of undergraduate hospitality students. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 34-54.
Teng, C. C., & Chang, J. H. (2013). Mechanism of customer value in restaurant consumption: Employee hospitality and entertainment cues as boundary conditions. International Journal of Hospitality Management,, 56-78.
Wang, C. Y., Miao, L., & Mattila, A. S. (2015). Customer responses to intercultural communication accommodation strategies in hospitality service encounters. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 76-82.
Xu, X., & Gursoy, D. (2015). Influence of sustainable hospitality supply chain management on customers’ attitudes and behaviors. International journal of hospitality management, 45-65.