Operational Service Excellence Concepts

Running head: Operational Excellence 1
Operational Service Excellence Concepts
Student’s Name
Institution

Operational Excellence 2
Introduction - Operational Service Excellence
The goal of many businesses today is to earn profits and increasing productivity instead
of focusing on service quality. They forget that employees and customers are critical factors to
business success. Many adopt operational excellence concepts like lean manufacturing and six
sigma in their production system. Operational excellence is a philosophy which deals with
problem-solving and leadership in continuous improvement. Operational excellence is more of a
mindset which employees and leaders should have (Kasiri et al, 2017). Operational excellence
concepts, when correctly applied, enhance the quality of service of the business leading to
customer satisfaction and high performance. Lean manufacturing and six sigma focus on
elimination of wastes such as overproduction, inventory, waiting, over-processing, and transport
(Noori, & Latifi, 2018). Elimination of wastes is essential, but how you deliver those products to
customer’s matters. Quality services help in retention of customers; therefore, the business
should focus on how to improve their services. This paper explores the application of operational
excellence concepts in Rustica Kitchen.
Rustica Kitchen is a small café in Hawthorn which offers dine-in and takeaway. Rustica
is a well-franchised company with well-managed and efficient teams. Its operations are carried
out in small groups to fulfill customer satisfaction. Teamwork improves business productivity;
thus, the restaurant products are of high quality. The restaurant offers intangible and perishable
services. Though the company applies some of the operational excellence concepts which ensure
its products are of high quality, they forget focusing on customers. They don't focus on
understanding and engaging customers and employees in its primary operations. The company
does not offer empowerment and training programs to its employees nor consider customer
opinions in decision making (Sehnem et al, 2019).

Operational Excellence 3
For example the last few weeks I went with my friends for dinner in the restaurant. We
gave orders to one of the staffs but served the wrong order. I ordered one gluten-free sandwich
but given the wrong meal. They were quick in taking orders; that's why they did not understand
my specifications. I complain, but my complaints not considered because they were busy taking
orders from other customers. I waited for so long until I gave up and walked away. The reason
they gave the wrong order is that they don't take time and talk to customers to understand their
demands well. They are more focused on making more sales instead of offering excellent
services to customers. The restaurant doesn’t conduct market surveys and in house customer
satisfaction surveys to get information about their services. Surveys enable businesses to get
feedback about customers experience in the restaurant with which they can use it to improve
their services. Customer’s complaints should be analyzed and the proper solution adopted to
enhance service quality. For my case, the staff should have said sorry and replaced the meal with
the right order (Hüttinger et al, 2012).
Service vision, design, and encounter can help enhance service quality. From my
experience in the restaurant, i can conclude that its central vision is the return on investment that
why employees were more focused on making more sales. Though the company mission is
customer satisfaction employees were not aware that why they focused on increasing sales for
more returns. The service encounter is fair with customers and unfair with employees. Just like
customers, employees determine the level of the company's service quality thus should be treated
fairly. Another reason why the restaurant fails to meet customer demands is that they use the old
marketing p's; product, price, place, and promotion. They don't use the new marketing p's like
process that why their operation procedures are inefficient (Fonseca, 2015).