Report on Causes of Sales Decline at Chasska Restaurant

This report investigates the causes behind the recent decline in sales at Chasska Urban Indian Restaurant in Western Australia. A primary survey method was used to collect data from 50 respondents, and statistical procedures were employed for data analysis. The research explores existing literature on restaurant sales and consumer decision-making to identify factors contributing to the sales decline. The report presents the analysis of survey data and provides recommendations to help the restaurant address the problem of declining sales and enhance customer visits. The study covers the Australian hotel and restaurant industry, explores the specific challenges faced by Chasska, and identifies research gaps in understanding sales declines. It further discusses marketing strategies and management methodologies to regain the restaurant's stature and boost sales. The report concludes with limitations and suggestions for future research.

Causes of Decline in Sales of Chasska
urban Indian Restaurant
Executive summary
Aim of this research is to understand the causes behind the recent decline in the sales of
Chasska so that recommendations can be made for improvement in the situation. The
research uses a primary survey method for data collection and statistical procedures for data
analysis. There were 50 respondents including the customers who had not been visiting the
restaurant much in the last couple of days and months that has resulted into the decline in
revenues of the restaurant. The research first explores the literature studied already conducted
on the restaurant sales and the industry based on which some factors of sales decline or
consumer decision making were identified and used for constructing the survey
questionnaire. The report presents the results of the analysis of the data obtained from the
survey and based on the same, some recommendations have been made. These
recommendations can help the restaurant work on the problem of sales decline and recover
from it and work to enhance its customer visits.
Contents
Executive summary...............................................................................................................................1
Introduction and research problem........................................................................................................2
Literature review...................................................................................................................................3
Hotel & Restaurant Industry in Australia...........................................................................................3
Sales decline in Chasska Restaurant..................................................................................................7
Addressing the issue of Sales Decline...............................................................................................8
Research Gaps.................................................................................................................................10
Methodology.......................................................................................................................................10
Research Design..............................................................................................................................11
Data Collection................................................................................................................................11
Data Analysis..................................................................................................................................11
Ethical Considerations.....................................................................................................................11
Findings...............................................................................................................................................12
Discussion...........................................................................................................................................21

Recommendations...............................................................................................................................21
Limitations and Conclusion.................................................................................................................22
List of References................................................................................................................................23
Appendix.............................................................................................................................................24
Introduction and research problem
Decline in sales of restaurants is actually a growing trend in Australia. Several reasons that are noted
in the industry including decline in the cost of food consumption at home, higher bills of restaurants,
and budget pressures pushed by oil crash and other political issues. However, if the real reasons
behind these declining sales trends have to be understood, the customer would have to be asked who
consumes the food in these restaurants and can present insights into what is causing them to consume
less at these restaurants. Thus a research is needed to be done which could focus on a specific
restaurant facing the worse times so that the challenges that the industry is facing in Australia can be
revealed. If the causes behind sales decline can be identified then it would not just help the restaurant
that is studied but also the entire industry as they can also try to apply the recommendations to
improve their sales in the market. For the current research, a case of Indian restaurant has been
chosen.
Chasska is an Indian cuisine restaurant located in Western Australia. It provides Indian food to people
living in Australia through three branches that are located in carousal shopping center, Cockburn
shopping mall and Yangbup. The Yangbup of the company has recently faced a major decline in
sales. The problems that have caused this decline are required to be addresses. The brand currently
has 15 employees and they include six main chefs, waiters, accountant, and restaurant manager. If the
sales continue the declining trend, the restaurant would lose its foothold in the market and would not
be able to sustain. This can result into a complete failure of the branch and subsequently its closure.
The aim of this research is to explore the problem of declining sales of Chasska Urban Indian
Restaurant to find out the causes behind so that the problem of reduction in sales can be taken care of
and measures can be taken to increase the sales of the restaurant in Australia. The research would be
conducted on the restaurant, its operations and its customers to identify the causes behind the decline
in sales. To achieve this aim, following research questions have to be answered by the researcher
• What are the reasons of the decrease in sales lately in Chasska Urban Indian restaurant?
• What are the management methodologies that are needed to gain the stature of the restaurant?
• What are the marketing approaches that must be applied in order to advertise the existence of
the restaurant? (Rugg & Petre, 2011)

Considering these research questions, the research would be fulfilling following objectives:
 Explore the causes of sales decline in the Chasska Indian Restaurant
In order to achieve this objective of the research, the literature would be conducted through which the
factors would be identified causing sales decline and the same would then be tested using statistical
procedures that would be exploring the views of the customers.
 Explore the methods that can be used by the restaurant to maintain its sales
The previous literature would be explore to identify methods that restaurants are currently using for
improving their sales. Further, the results of the analysis of the survey data would be discussed to
come up with recommendations on what methods can be used by the current restaurants to increase its
sales.
 Explore various marketing strategies that can be used by the company to boost its sales
Based on the literature reviewed and the results of the data analysis, recommendations would be made
on what marketing strategies can be used by the company to attract more customers to the restaurant
and thereby increase its sales.
Literature review
In this section, the industry overview would be explored besides the specific company problems. It
would also include discussions on the theories related to marketing and restaurant industry
management that would help in identifying themes for the further research. The literature review
would explore the current trends and explorations already done on the industry and on the problem
and would identify the gaps in the research in terms of understanding the reasons for sales declines in
a restaurants. These gaps would be filled using the current research. The literature gap identified
would then be used for defining the methodology of the current research so that they can be filled
which would presented in the next section.
Hotel & Restaurant Industry in Australia
Hotel can be defined as a public establishment that welcomes visitors to take services like
accommodation and catering at a cost. However, the industry has seen some major structural
modifications across globe in past few years. Independent restaurants and fast food chains make a
large part of the industry now. Further, the services provided by the hotels have also become
customized as per the needs of visitors. They can be building their services that can vary as per
location, objective, type, grade or size.

The hotel business has some key characteristics that makes it different from other industries and they
include intangibility, variability, perishability, and inseparability. The warmth that the industry gives
to customers through taste and feel of food makes an experience which is an intangible concept.
Variability refers to the differences in the values of services with respect to their scope. Perishability
refers to the fact that the facilities that are provided by the food industries include delivery of
perishable goods. This is because the facility of the hotel or a restaurant cannot be separated from the
supplier of the food.
This channel encompasses many independent dining and function venues. The outlets are typically
independently owned and accordingly serviced by specialist fresh product and foodservice
wholesalers and distributors offering services to meet the frequency, cold-chain and specification
requirements of these retailers. Specialist meat, fruit and vegetable and seafood retailers service a
significant portion of the fresh product needs of these establishments.
Drivers of volume and value in this channel General factors • Growth in consumer preference for
casual dining reflected in the general increase in retail spending in the channel • Growth of coffee as a
focus for casual meeting and snacking occasions driving increased business into café channel •
Increasing consumer consciousness of cuisine • Improved variety of restaurant offering • Growth in
breakfast as a meal occasion • Growth in the numbers of outlets of coffee franchises and groups
Volume • Number of outlets • Seatings per night • Breadth of menu offering • Day parts, or meal and
social occasions, or events serviced Value • Average main meal price • Percentage of beverage in the
sales mix • Outlet location

Figure 1: Revenue-wise Establishments in Australia (The Intermedia Group Pty Ltd , 2017)
The number of establishments that provide dining or eating out facilities and the consumers visiting
them in Australia every day is difficult to capture. Absolute figures are difficult to gain but a research
has attempted to build a model of the industry which to some level of accuracy can give the
knowledge about the distribution. This was based on a primacy research conducted on the eating
joints in Australia. The revenue data was captured and compared for all establishments. It was found
that in June 2016, 85,284 eating outlets operated in Australia and most of these (34.5%) were the fasts
food joints followed by restaurants , café’s and then clubs. The total revenue gained by the industry
from all these joints was $45.3 billion with highest proportion (42.4%) going to fast food outlets
followed by restaurants, bars and pubs. The figures and percentage have been taken from the
Australian Hotels and Clubs Australia.
Figure 2: Cuisines/food concepts growth in %

The population of Australians in 2016 was 24 million and these Australians are used to eating out on
two to three days on an average which accounts to serving of over 2.5 billion meals each year. An
average household expenditure on eating out in Australia is $45 billion in an year. Food outlets and
restaurants is a large industry in Australia which gives these eating joints an average yearly income of
$480,000. The industry is competitive, has low cost to entry and has little regulations holding them.
However, it also faces challenges like getting and training good staff. A survey conducted on 1,009
eating joints from Australia in August 2016 revealed some major issues that these establishments
facing and these included marketing, staffing, and technology. Another survey had also taken views of
customers of these restaurants in 2017. The collective research report was prepared which presented
following findings:
o The industry faced staffing as a major problem because of lack of skills and difficulties in
managing them. It is hard to get people who have the right skills and are also committed to
delivering performance. Moreover, the industry being human resource intensive, a large
amount has to be spent by restaurants in compensating and training their staff which reduces
their margins thereby reducing the revenues. While finding human resources is one
challenging, retaining them in competitive arena is another challenge.
o Healthy food is becoming preference of most consumers and thus, instead of eating outside,
they are preferring to have their food consumed at home. Also, they look for food variety that
is more heathy to consume. Thus, traditional fast food items are facing a decline in sales as
more and more customers are looking for healthier food options. Less healthy food like steak
are on decline in sales.
o Tastes of consumers are changing and these are respondent to by the restaurants adding more
of fine dining options even in their fast food joints. Fine dining has thus become less
exclusive and thus, does not give any major competitive advantages to find dining restaurants
that are selling food at the similar range as fast food restaurants or are serving similar items.
o The pressures on the restaurants are increasing with increasing costs of operations as there are
dozens of cost heads including procurement, servicing, order management, staff management,
maintenance, rent, waste management , marketing, wage payments and so on. Because of this,
margins of restaurants are reducing
o With virtual world connecting to the physical world, many customers are making online
bookings or through phone calls which makes them explore the reviews posted online while
they take a decision to visit a restaurant. Thus, it becomes necessary for the establishment to
have not just the presence online but also good reviews posted by customers for which the
companies have to invest huge in marketing.
o More exposure and visibility is required and thus, marketing is gaining importance in the field
of restaurant. Good marketing can make a difference between the failure and success of a

dining business. Thus, organizations need to have better marketing strategies in place to
remain competitive in the market.
o Food business is a kind of show business which sells more with increasing appeals and thus,
ambience plays a significant role in establishments. The ambience has to be created as per the
customer preferences.
o Customers of today are hard to please as they already have so many options for dining and
thus, a lot of complaints may be received from them by the restaurants if they are not given
effective service
o Consumption of alcohol is declining because of which fine dining restaurants that have
alcohol based drinks offered to their customers are not able to sell them much. Australians
love to drink which is why most restaurants already have alcohols served in restaurants but
with this new turned of declining sales of alcohol, the restaurants are likely to face major
problems in stocking and selling
o More people are preferring to eat food at home and thus, home delivery services are gaining
importance in the industry. However, the actual meals that are delivered by the restaurants are
limited in quantity because of lack of sufficient services.
o Old style cuisines are on decline such that the old types of restaurants such as Italian and
Chinese are declining in popularity while modern Australian restaurants are preferred.
o Newer restaurants are coming up with creative ambience which puts a pressure on the
traditional organizations to invest more on the ambience to attract their customers. However,
this can increase the cost for them that has to be covered through the increase in pricing which
can upset the customers in the long run adding challenges of attracting more customer to the
restaurants.
Sales decline in Chasska Restaurant
Chasska Restaurants has three branches, two of which are located in malls that have good footfalls but
its Yangbup is located on streets and thus, suffers from a lack of familiarity in people around. Th
restaurant only serves the Indian food while other nearby restaurants also provide other Asian food
items. Indian food is specifically liked by the Asians but they are spread in small areas that are also
separated which makes it difficult for the restaurant to reach and create awareness in them about the
restaurant. The brand also does not provide a direct online delivery facility and uses channels like
ubereats, menulog, and eatnow for distribution to the online consumers. From the study of the
restaurant and the secondary data on it, certain trends have been observed such as:

o Less customers are visiting the restaurant in past few months which has been observed from
the company data and thus, for the current research respondents are chose from the database
of customers not visiting the restaurant very frequently for a few months.
o There is a continuous decline in revenues and despite the measures taken by the company to
attract customers through promotion, the sales are not increasing
o The staff working in the restaurant does not have the right skills to provide good services to
customers as most of them are either new or are not experience enough in the field
o The staff is a cost to company and with reduction in sales and shrinking margins, giving them
wages with perks is becoming a big challenge
o The rate of attrition is very high as the employees are motivated and leaving the restaurant
fast because of which the cost of human resource management is increasing day by day
The company is looking for increasing its sales for which the current study explores the views of
customers that can help in identifying causes of decline in sales so that appropriate recommendations
can be made for improvement.
Addressing the issue of Sales Decline
The previous researches were studied to identify some strategies that can be used for working on the
issues of decline in sales. Before identifying solutions, it wold be needed t discuss various challenges
that restaurants are facing today. These include:
o Customer preferences are changing and competitive landscape is getting more difficult as
brands fight intensely to gain their market shares
o Companies are fighting aggressively in the market and reducing prices and launching
aggressive promotions which puts pressures on the margins of the business
o More and more consumers are preferring to make booking online and thus, restaurants that
solely rely on the brick and mortar model are experiencing decline in sales and around 20% of
them have gone bankrupt in 2015 in Australia.
o Overheads are increasing for restaurants because of several cost heads that are involved
including rents, wages, promotions, marketing, operations, training, and so on.
o Companies are needed to focus on building their identifies and experiences for both offline
and online customers while communicating marketing messages to people. A sustainable
platform is required to be built which can be both time consuming and cost intensive.

o There are some inherent issues that are causing decline in sales such as shifting preferences of
consumers, challenges in management of supply chains, addition of newer brands, and
struggles in marketing legacy brands.
o Significant decline is caused in the brick and mortar models of restaurants that do not have
online presence as they are not connected well with the information on the values and needs
of modern customers as they are not connected through social network sites and thus, do not
have exposure to the expectations of customers that modern restaurants have.
o Companies need to focus on customer convenience and their value perceptions which
traditional organizations are unable to do because of lack of awareness of how the modern
consumer preferences are shaping.
o Prices are reducing while costs are increasing which results into shrinking margins
o Digitization provides rich information about the customers to the restaurants that have
presence online. However, these insights cannot be obtained by the traditional restaurants.
o Relationships between customers and restaurants is no more only transactional and restaurants
are required to cate a brand experience that gives them more of an emotional connection
which requires them to understand their customers.
The strategies that were discovered from the previous researches include the following:
o The target customers and their preferences can be understood using online data that is
available with the industry. The data has to be evaluated thoroughly by the companies in
order to understand how customer preferences are changing how customers are perceived by
customers.
o Marketing strategies can be built based on the analysis of this data which can be obtained
through consumer research. The data that would be used by the companies for understanding
customers and their own presence include net promoter score, aided brand awareness and so
on that would be obtained through various touchpoints.
o Restaurants can conduct surveys on consumers to understand why some of their customers are
loyal while others are not preferring them over others.
o The companies should build an online presence and manage it well so shape the perceptions
of consumers through appropriate marketing strategies that can be used for engaging
customers.
o The restaurants should conduct researches or use customer feedbacks to understand the gaps
in services and the reputation of the company based on which the company can build
strategies for improvement in the top line of the company
o Consumer experience gaps must be understood which can be understood by exploring the
differences between the goods and service offered toc customers by traditional and modern

bands so that standards required to be adopted by the old restaurants to catch up with the
newer establishment can be identified and adopted.
o Researches have shown that 60% of consumers do not make purchases if they have a poor
customer service experience and thus, restaurants can focus on improvement of their service
to enhance the experience of their customers so that the decline in revisits of the customers
can be reduced.
o Legacy brands may have some weaknesses that are posing challenges which is why they are
not able to catch up with the market needs. These weaknesses can be exploited by company
but if they are understood well then the organizations can take steps for improvement.
o Integrated strategy can be used for shaping the experience of the restaurant consumers so that
the consumers can be provided better services.
o Restaurants should take efforts to better understand their customers so that management can
understand their needs better and accordingly build branding and marketing strategies that are
effective for the restaurants and can help in overcoming the challenges of sales decline.
o Organization can use innovative processes for improving their services for customers so that
the perceptions of consumers about the brands can be improved
o Core attributes that are important for customers need to be understood and step must be taken
by the restaurant management to build strategies for improving their experiences.
o Restaurants need to be more transparent for which the communication strategies can be used
by the restaurants
o A restaurant must build a personality and give voice to it so that a brand story can be created
and leadership can be established. A lifestyle can be created around a brand to enhance their
experience through increase in ecommerce offers and smart phone applications to reach out to
customers.
o Social media can be used for leveraging on them so that consumers can be engaged with the
brand and companies can better interact with their customers and understand them as well as
market them directly (Mackinac Partners, 2016)
Research Gaps
The past research conducted on the restaurant industry gave a few insights like the changing trends of
the restaurant industry and the changing preferences of consumers. It also gave some insights on what
strategies can be used such as use of digital media for engaging consumers, use of analytics to
understand them, and improvement in services based on this understanding. However, the reasons of
decline in sales of a specific restaurant was only superficially covered as the researches did not
explore the industry or the restaurants of specific types that could reveal the causes behind decline
that is experience by the industry in the Australia today (Halej, 2017). This research gap would be
filled with the current research in which data would be collected from the consumers for a specific
restaurant that is facing a decline in sales to understand the underlying causes.

Methodology
This section explains the research philosophy, research approach, data collection methods, data
analysis methods, ethical considerations, and limitations of the research. The section explains the
choice of the primary research which would be conducted in the current research involving restaurant
customers. The section explains why primary research survey has been used as the primary method of
data collection in the current research, It would also cover the methods that would be used for
analyzing the data obtained from respondents. It explains the research, data collection methods, data
analyses methods, and ethical considerations that were addressed by the researcher while conducting
this research (Braun & Clarke, 2013).
Research Design
The research methodology can be decided on the basis of the objectives of a research, availability of
respondents and the concept of knowledge in the eyes of researcher or in general. The researcher
understands that there are specific reasons that would be causing a decline in sales. However, these
reasons can only be understood by considering perspectives of different customers of the restaurant.
Thus, a primary research method would be used in the current research involving a primary survey on
the customers of the restaurant. Survey is chosen as the method of research because it would provide
an opportunity to the researcher to understand consumers better (CRESWELL, 2000).
Data Collection
The data was collected from customers who have been customers of the restaurant but have not been
visiting the restaurant since the stage of decline began. The contact details of these customers was
obtained from the company database and they were called to request their participation in the survey
(GRAY, 2016). For the survey, the researcher had prepared a quantitative questionnaire which was
given to the respondents who agreed to take part in the research for data collection. For data
collection, a random sampling was used and names of 100 customers were selected from the company
database. The database was used to get contact details of these 100 customers who were not visiting
the restaurants but when they were called only 50 of them agreed to participate in the survey to
express their concerns and share their reasons of quitting the restaurant visits (Dul & Hak, 2013).
Data Analysis
For the analysis of data obtained from the questionnaire responses, statistical tools would be used
including correlation tests, cross-tabulation, pie charts, and ranking. The test would be run to
understand the factors that cause satisfaction or dissatisfaction in customers of the restaurant. The data
would be coded into SPSS data analysis software and analysis would be run on the same (Fielding, et
al., 2016).

Ethical Considerations
As this research involved primary survey conducted on the customers of the restaurant, some ethical
codes would be taken into consideration such as privacy, rights, and confidentiality of the respondents
(Halej, 2017). The research would not take any information from the respondents that can be used to
track them down. The data collection would only be used for the purpose of research and the same
would be communicated to the respondents during the survey with clear mention of objectives of the
research such that their responses would be taken only after they give their consent for participation
(Halej, 2017). Any personal data that would be gathered about the individuals would only be for the
purpose of the demographic understanding of the respondents and as soon as the research findings are
obtained, the same would be deleted by the respondent (Dongre & Sankaran, 2015).
Findings
The data collected from the restaurant customers was analyzed and the key findings of the analysis are
presented in this section. The section includes graphs, charts and test results that explain the
perspectives of customers towards restaurants. The findings would answer the key research questions
by interpretation of the SPSS analyses output. However, this data needs to be related to the literature
studied and thus, the finding should be explored in the next section of discussions to gain insights on
the research issues. The chapter includes the results of the analysis of the primary research data and
presents charts, tables, and insights. For this, SPSS software has been used in which the data is coded
and entered and used for analysis of the responses obtained from the customers of the restaurant.