Case Study: Improving Customer Service at Cape Lighthouse Restaurant

This case study examines a service failure at the Cape Lighthouse Restaurant, where Mr. and Mrs. Jones' anniversary dinner reservation was mishandled. The analysis covers the customers' expectations, the potential negative impacts of unresolved service issues, and a proposed apology letter from the General Manager. It also explores methods for determining the persistence of customer service problems through online reviews. The study outlines essential policies and procedures for reservation booking, staff presentation and greeting, reporting requirements, customer service during service, and dealing with complaints. It emphasizes the importance of training, clear communication, and effective grievance handling to ensure a positive customer experience. Desklib offers this and other solved assignments to aid students.

Running head: CUSTOMER SERVICE
Develop and manage quality customer service
NAME OF STUDENT:
NAME OF COLLEGE:
AUTHORS NOTE

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1. Mr and Mrs Jones customer needs and expectations was to enjoy a memorable dinner
on their anniversary by spending quality time over fine dining at Cape Lighthouse”,
restaurant which had commanding views over the Coral Sea but when they arrived at
the restaurant; they found there was no booking and expected that staff would take
charge of the reservation and provide them details instead of shrugging off from
responsibility. They even expected them to arrange alternative table instead of keeping
them waiting. Lastly they expected an apology from the restaurant staff with regards to
their booking and the delay in the service, unfortunately no one was around even to
talk about it. On any occasion customers expect a good service that can maximize
service encounters experience to make even the bad things that happen to
customers go away really quickly.
2. If customer service issues are not addressed on time the likely incidents that can
negatively impact on business and down the customer interests on availing the service
of restaurant would be lack of customer inclination and buying intention to visit
restaurant due to their poor customer services and lack of staff accountability in event
of unfavourable incidents. This would result to drop of sales and revenues for business
due to low customer demand and in long run if issues are not addressed immediately it
can create negative publicity and harm the restaurants brand image ultimately resulting
into negative sentiments among customers which would even draw poor return to
stakeholders and in adverse case closure of business.
3.
From,
Mr. XYZ
General Manager,
The Cape Lighthouse
To,
Mr and Mrs Jones
Dear Mr & Mrs Jones,
I Mr XYZ, the General Manager of The Club Lighthouse am writing this letter to
apologize after the poor service encounter on your special occasion that we learnt after
the incident and on behalf of our staff, I convey my sincere apologies to have not made
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your special day as pleasant as it should have been. Here it is difficult to truly resolve
and bring back cherished memory that was expected but I offer resolution with my
gesture to either offer a refund or discount on future services so that I can be given an
opportunity to truly recreate good service that was desired.
This letter has been drafted not only to make you know about the fact that we have
been aware of the bad incident and but also to make you aware that we expect a chance
to sincerely apologise and give you the best possible solution and service in future.
Yours truly,
Mr XYZ
4. In order to determine whether the customer service issues are persistent or not Mr &
Mrs Jones can check the review given by customers on Club Lighthouse in either their
public social webpage or in general can check reviews being posted on other group
forums over internet by the customers who have used their service. Through online
reviews that are posted on internet they can figure out experiences and encounters of
other customers so as to get clear picture and assess if customer services issues are
recurring in nature or not at Club Lighthouse.
5.
a. Booking: The policy and procedure that needs to be included for reservation and table
booking is called Reservation booking policy. The aim of this policy is to ensure that
guest receive best of service experiences by having a secured reservation of table on a
specific time to. The reservation booking policy ensure detail of reserved table made
by guest for a whole service and pre-payment in advance along with notifying specific
dietary or allergic requirement during the time of booking. The normal procedure
followed is making a call to restaurant and booking table in advance for full service.
Guest should arrive in advance on booking day to ensure best service or if there is
delay with more than 30 mins without prior information then booking time can be
held back to later time to ensure possible level of service for other guests (Chen
2016). In order to perform booking services and adhere to its policies it is necessary
that staffs receive proper training to understand guidelines that comes under
reservation policies. Employees should be careful not to do overbooking of
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reservation in a temptation to fill every table as this could be trouble during busy
nights like Fridays. If any party is late at table or may sit longer then overbooking can
trouble entire restaurant reservation chain by creating more waiting time for other
guests. To monitor effectiveness of this policy it is essential to check and trace
booking entries done by reservation staff so that inaccuracies can be located. This
policy is made available for front line or reservation staffs and through manual guides
or booking policies framework.
b. Staff presentation/Greeting/ hosting: the staffs are required to wear formal attire at
work and should be well dressed and groomed to welcome and greet guests. These
come under policy and procedure of greeting and seating. The aim is to attend the
guest and help them in seating at proper sized table depending on guest count to
ensure that servers have equal guest number and are not overloaded. This includes
greeting guest at entrance by host or hostess and alerting then of any wait time and
escort them to appropriate seating table, give them electronic or manual seating chart
that gives information about each table’s party to be added and replaced with new
ones. The employees who greet must ensure to use seating chart to hold table for
reservation or big parties. In order to perform greeting and seating procedure the
employees need to be trained on etiquettes to greet and meet guest and help them in
queries and give them proper information on seating and waiting time if any.
Employees should also be trained to use seating chart and adjust information as guests
come and go to ensure space for each guest. Also they need to be trained to allow
equal distribution of service staff so that they can attend guest as per count and are not
overloaded. To ensure effectiveness and evaluation of this procedure a simulation or
drill exercise can be conducted to check understanding of host or hostess responsible
for greeting guest. This policy will be applicable to employees who are responsible to
greet guest and monitor service staffs activities to ensure guest are given best of
services. And this policies are made available through printed guidelines as well as on
employees job guide manuals.
c. Reporting requirement/staff hierarchy: these come under organisational structure
policies and procedure and their aim is to ensure proper clarification of job duties, line
of command and reporting structures. These include detail of individual general
responsibilities, allocation ,supervision and coordination of tasks as well as reporting
hierarchy in case of person to be contacted for issue or query. To attain the purpose
entire organisation is divided into structural hierarchy with clear line of command and
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roles as per specific job responsibility and position in organisational hierarchy
(Chou,Wu & Huang 2014). To ensure that staffs perform as per reporting requirement
they should be trained and given brief explanation of organisational structure and line
of command and reporting. The effectiveness can be monitored and evaluated by
clarity of roles and responsibility in area of leadership, decision making, structure ,
work process and systems and clarity of instructions. This will be made available to
all employees in organisation from top-down and through employees policy and
procedure guidebook.
d. Customer Service Procedures for Service (Orders, timelines, attendance): these
policies come under general guideline of restaurant for customer assistance whose
aim is to assist guest to ensure hassle free standard operating procedure. This will
include responsibility of customer service employees in delivering service roles and
duties in context to general area of ordering, guest attendance tracking and
maintaining schedules of reservation. The procedure applied to attain purpose is
providing information to all employees through communication either on portal or by
supervisor where purpose us explained, implemented and enforced with accessibility
protocol and standard. Effectiveness will be monitored and evaluated through guest
feedback and supervisor feedback as well as observation. This will be applicable to
customer service staffs and will be made available through restaurant customer
service guidelines.
e. Dealing with complaints: the policy is called grievance handing and resolving and it
aims to solve various issues or difficulties that may arise in regular operational
activities of restaurant including reservation and booking table. This includes
recording customer complaint and solving them as per need and to attain this purpose
employees need to be aware of all grievance handling techniques, policies and
regulatory framework of restaurant. To perform this procedure staffs should be
regularly trained and made aware of policies, changes and updates and should be
given test practices to exercise handling requirement under expert supervision.
Effectiveness and evaluation can be measured by decline in number of registered
complaints and this is made available for all employees who are involved in front line
and is made available through grievance handling procedure and guidelines.
References
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Chen, C. (2016). Cancellation policies in the hotel, airline and restaurant industries. Journal
of Revenue and Pricing Management, 15(3-4), 270-275. Retrieved from
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/rpm.2016.9 [Accessed on 24 Nov. 2018]
Chou, C., Wu, P., & Huang, C. (2014). SERVICE CLIMATE, SERVICE CONVENIENCE,
SERVICE QUALITY AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS IN CHAIN STORE
RESTAURANTS. International Journal of Organizational Innovation (Online), 7(1),
161-170. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1544215803?
accountid=30552[Accessed on 24 Nov. 2018]
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