HR Assignment Essay Writing Help Analysis Review Online: Managing relationships and customer loyalty :: Restaurant
Question?
Managing relationships in Restaurant services??
Solution the Essay Question frame is::
Introduction
The frontline service personnel of any organisation are a very important source of creating customer loyalty and help the company gain competitive advantage and differentiate from the competitors as they are the ones who belong to the core part of the product because they deal with the customer face to face and are responsible for the after sales services. It is the frontline personnel who describe the product to the customer and the way they behave influences the buying action of the customer. The way they greet the customer and even the after sales services is provided by them only in case they are not efficient in the after sales services it directly affects the brand image in the mind of the customer.
The frontline staffs are also responsible for customer loyalty and they play a very important role in anticipating the needs of the customer and then showing him the products accordingly so that they can buy. Providing customised services and building long term personalized relationships is also another part of the role played by them.
The role played by them can also be called as a boundary spanning role as they are the ones who link the inside of the organisation to the outside world. They have to perform multiple roles and this even sometimes results in having these people pursue both operational and marketing goals, as they are the part of both the product as well as the delivery system.
Example
Let us consider the expectation of the management from restaurant servers:
– Customer should be provided by a highly satisfying dining experience.
– Speed and efficiency should be shown while executing operational task of serving customers.
– Should be able to do selling and cross selling, like after the meal (main course) asking for desserts.
Role Stress in the Frontline
There are three main reasons for role stress in frontline:
– Person vs. Role: Employee’s own beliefs and personality sometimes contradict with the job requirements.
– Organisation vs. Customer: Confusion in the minds of the employee whether to follow the rules of the organisation or the demands of the customer.
– Customer vs. Customer: Conflicts between customers which require service staff intervention.
Cycle of Failure, Mediocrity and success
When the working conditions are bad it results into dreadful service, as the employees start treating their customers the way in which their managers treat them. Companies which face a high employee turnover rate get stuck in what is called the “Cycle of Failure.” On the other hand company where job security is there but lack of personal initiative is present, those companies suffer from “Cycle of mediocrity.” The presence of the above conditions can be avoided by installing virtuous cycles in service employment, which is termed as the “Cycle of Success.”
The Cycle of Failure
When the company is keen to hire employees at low cost and does not pay attention at the hiring process, thereby hiring workers as cheaply as possible basically to do tasks which are repetitive in nature and require no kind of specialised training. When such a strategy is enforced the cycle of failure comes into the picture which involves two interactive cycles: One related to failure with employees and the other one involving failure with customers. The employee cycle comes into existence when the following things take place
– Designing jobs in a way that they accommodate people with low level skills.
– Emphasising more on rules rather than the quality of services.
– Using technology to control the quality.
– Along with low wages minimum effort is made on the selection and training processes of the employees.
Al the above reasons lead to a dissatisfied employee who lacks the ability to respond well to customer problems as when you are not satisfied it tends to develop a poor service attitude. The firms then suffer from a high employee turnover and poor service quality which paves way to lower profit margins with less profit again the company looks for cheap labour and the cycle repeats itself. While this cycle is operative the excuses and justifications given by the managers are usually:
– “Getting good quality workforce is very difficult these days.”
– “Getting quality workforce is expensive and it adds to the cost and passing on this burden to customers won’t be fair.”
– “No point training the frontline employees as the leave the company so quickly.”
Now let’s discuss the customer cycle of failure which begins with repeated emphasis on attracting new customers as the company is not able to retain old customers for a long term, which happens because the dissatisfied employees leave the organisation and the customer is greeted by a new face every time which implies lack of continuity. Customer is unable to develop loyalty towards the supplier and turnover as rapidly as the employees.
The public affairs committee has lambasted the defence ministry’s cycle of failure in procuring projects, the NAO figure cited shows that around 15 of the top defence projects out of which a few have been cancelled were together £8.8bn over budget and running 32 years behind the schedule.(Defencemanagement.com)
Cycle of mediocrity
This type of situation is often found in bureaucratic organisations which type casted as State monopolies, industrial cartels, or regulated oligopolies- wherein the incentive to improve performance is very low and the union’s emphasis on discouraging the management to adopt innovative labour practices. In such type of work environment the delivery standards of the service are well defined by rigid rule books which are oriented by standardized service, generating operational efficiency, and preventing employees from fraud and favouring a particular customer. Employees are usually expected to spend their entire working life in the organisation. Job responsibilities are well defined and a close watch is kept and are highly categorised. The increment in salary is based on the longevity in service and performance is measured by absence of mistakes instead of high quality customer service or increased productivity. Training is usually imparted on the technicalities of the job and rules elaboration rather than improving the communication skills so that they are able to improve their interaction with the customers. As there is lack of flexibility and initiative on the part of the employee the job becomes boring and repetitive. When compared with the cycle of failure the salary provided though is quite well with a high level of job security so the employee turnover is really low. Such a structure makes the customer unhappy as the experience is frustrating as the there is no service flexibility and the employees are not ready to take initiate and always give an excuse that it is not my job. In case monopoly exists in such type of firm the customers usually become hostile and keep complaining about the bad service experience to the employees and co- customers and do not cooperate with the organisation to attain better service. Even the staff becomes indifferent towards the customer complains.
Many industries are f the view that forming a cartel can increase prices and help in the survival of the firm in the changing economic environment whereas the organisation operating in cartel need to respond to the changing outside environment in the absence of which the cartel usually tend to break(Levenstein and Suslow)
Cycle of success
Firms which keep the long term prospective in mind and incest in the manpower of the organisation lead to the creation of the success. Similar to the cycle of failure and mediocrity, the cycle of success applies to both the employees and customers. The job responsibilities are very wide and have great scope of initiate on the part of the employees and the proper training and empowerment practices are in force to help the front line personnel perform effectively and efficiently. As the process of recruitment is highly focused and intensive training is being imparted accompanied by good salaries, the employees are highly satisfied and motivated to perform better and deliver high quality customer service. The employee turnover rate is low which gives the company the benefit of continuity in services in the eyes of the customer thereby creating long-term customer relationships and customer becomes more loyal to the organisation and remains with the company for a long time. When the customer loyalty is high efforts are made by the company to satisfy the needs of the existing customers by delivering high quality service to retain them with the firm and less stress is paid on attracting new customers which is a costlier process.
Many service industries have been deregulated and government corporations are privatised to extract them from the cycle of mediocrity towards the cycle of success. Many public corporations are getting privatised to increase their exposure to the competitive environment and these enterprises have undergone a radical cultural change. They extend to which a firm gives importance to the service delivery aspect decides the performance of the firm in the market. The extent to which the people of the organisation understand and support the goals of an organisation, have the potential to perform the task assigned to them effectively, ability to work in team, understands the importance of customer satisfaction, and are confident enough to take initiative to solve problems, makes the marketing and operational functions easy to manage.
Like humans even organisation are living and breathing entities, even they grow and change with time. The changes through which organisation undergoes are the life cycles and when they are not able to recognise and adapt to these inevitable life cycle changes, it cease to exist (Mandelberg, 2012)
Empowerment of the Employees
When the working environment in the organisation is healthy and the employees are provided more authority to take decisions on their own and allow they to provide high level of service to the customers without referring to the rule books and greater power lies in their hands is basically empowerment of the employees. It involve motivating the employees to take initiative and utilize the power at their discretion, it helps the employees to find solutions to various problems related to service and take appropriate decisions regarding the customization of service delivery. Empowerment can also be termed as enablement as it involve giving the workers the requisite amount of tools and resources which is required to perform the task allotted to them.
Is empowerment always appropriate?
It is believed that empowering the employees will motivate them to contribute to the best of their capabilities and result in highly satisfied customers rather than adopting the directive line alternative, in which the management designs a standardized system and the workers are expected to carry out every task within the framework of the guideline provided by them. Choosing between the two approaches is very difficult as different situations require different solutions. Will deciding the degree of empowerment the following points should be taken into consideration:
– Increased cost of training and selection
– High labour cost
– Slower service as the frontline staff devote more time on each customer
– Reduced consistency in service delivery
Factors favouring the Employee Empowerment
1) It is best suited to the firms with the strategy based on competitive differentiation and provides customised service to the customers.
2) This approach lays emphasis on building long term relationship rather than one-time transaction.
3) It involves the usage of complex and non-routine technologies.
4) The outside environment is ever changing and cannot be predicted so good quality manpower can take decisions according to the need of the situation with the help of the training which is provided to the employee by the management.
5) Managers are more comfortable in letting the employees work independently for the benefit of the customers and the firm.
6) Employees seek to deepen skills, like working with others, and are good at group processes.
Empowering Employees
“Evaluation and rewards can disempower when they are at odds with the direction of needed change” (Kotter & Cohen, 2002, p. 75). According to Pan and Scarbrough (1999),
The task for the organization is to continuously create and maintain a knowledge-enterprising culture and community whereby associates feel comfortable with knowledge and are motivated, rewarded and entrepreneurial. Equally challenging, is the task of developing a knowledge-focused reward system that can effectively replace the traditional, commission-based reward mechanisms (p. 371).
If we want to ensure that knowledge sharing is adopted by employees for the good of the organization, we need to change the rewards mechanism. That means encouraging and rewarding teamwork, stepping up with ideas and publicly acknowledging contributions. Kim & Mauborgne (1998) conducted a study to determine the cognitive and motivational processes underlying the role of procedural justice in sharing knowledge. Results indicated that on the motivational side people are seeking to be recognized as human beings and to be treated with respect and dignity while intellectually they want recognition that their knowledge is sought after. When these needs are met, employees will voluntarily share their knowledge and expertise with the organization for the benefit of the organization. According to Chiem (2001), presenting knowledge sharing as a way to make jobs easier can assist is making the practices appealing to government employees. McAdam and Reid (2000) found that the public sector organizations viewed the major benefits of KM to be improved efficiency and quality and public employees received intrinsic benefits related to job enrichment from participation.
When the employees of the organization are satisfied and happy with their work environment then only they perform best of their capabilities and are able to satisfy the wants and demands of the customer effectively by creating cordial relations them which helps in creating a long term relationship with the customer and generate loyalty on the part of the customer.
Recommendations
Identify obstacles to empowerment
Educate on Knowledge Management
- Include in executive training
- Include in new employee orientation
- Include in performance evaluation
- Participation in or Sponsorship of Communities
- Additions to Lessons Learned
- Knowledge Sharing
Encourage risk taking
Establish communities and invite participants
Establish proper training and recruitment procedure and hire good quality resource
Job responsibilities should not be defined rigidly and there should be scope for personal initiative
Employees should be allowed to take decisions on their own in the matter pertaining to deliver customized service to the customers.
The level of control and employee involvement should be well managed as over empowering the employee can sometimes prove fatal
MH73
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