Business Service Management at a restaurant

Let’s discuss something that each one of has some experience with and we will be able to relate to it i.e., business service management at a restaurant. This will enable us to gain greater appreciation of how service management enables greater appreciation of our customers and allows us to focus on the areas that will impact the quality of our products and / or services that are consumed by our customers.

Most of us have experienced having our dining experiences at a variety of restaurants. With obvious exceptions, most commonly, after we go through initial settling-in steps, we are presented with a menu that mostly presents the following:

• Upcoming new or specials such as lunch specials 

• Meals grouped by categories such as Appetizers, Pizza, Specialties, and so on.

• Under each main category, we are presented with individual meal options. Each meal item contains some relevant details such as:

• Name of the item

• Brief description of what to expect

• Pricing information

• Other relevant information on potential exceptions is normally provided by the server.

If I ask you to rank your ‘experience’ at a particular restaurant, what factors will you consider? We all appreciate that there are personal preferences. However, there are certain elements of the experience that are absolutely critical and largely common. These may include:

• The way we are received and welcomed to the restaurant and treated to our tables

• The hospitality of the server and the presentation of the menu

• Clarity of the items described in the menu

• Pricing information

• Timely delivery of the order placed

• Appropriate follow-ups to ensure that we are satisfied

• Overall customer care and the attitudes

• In case, we have any issues with the order, proper management of our complaints

When we settle in, the first thing that we are presented is the menu. Menu shows us what the restaurant produces, lists any specialty items, shows price tags, and serves as the key source for enabling our selection, decision making and order initiation. In most cases, restaurants will not accept orders outside of the menu items. Have you tried ordering Indian curry at a McDonald? In short, menu enables restaurants to achieve the following:

• Ensure that customers clearly understand what items the restaurant offers

• Based on historical data and demand, ensure that appropriate quantity and quality of required ingredients are ordered and acquired

• Ensure that right staff (chef) with right skills and experiences (competencies) are hired to be able to prepare and offer the items listed in the menu

• Ensure that recipes (processes) for the items in the menu are clearly documented and well maintained to ensure quality and consistency.

Therefore, in case of a restaurant, menu helps determine what people are required, what processes need to be defined, what tools are necessary and what partners / suppliers will have the ingredients needed to prepare the items. Think about what kitchen will do if there is no menu. 

Now, let see some situations that will most definitely lead to a negative overall experience. These may include: 

• What is there is no menu? Imagine your experience and the steps that you will need to go through to explain what you need and then for the kitchen to agree on one-on-one basis on how to fulfill all that you need. Keep in mind that there are restaurants where every order may be custom made or prepared by the customers themselves. Even in those restaurants, there will be menu but the menu will list ingredients, probably recipes, and so on instead of prepared meals.

• What if there is no clarity on how to place the order? Do you go to the kitchen yourself? Do you place the order at the bar or at the reception?

• What if there are no servers and you are asked to reach out to the Chef directly? Imagine the impact that it will have on the Kitchen and its productivity?

• What if you are approached by multiple members of the Kitchen team in order to gain further understanding of what you need? Even if, at the end, you do receive exactly what you were expecting, will you be happy and / or satisfied as a customer?

• What if you ordered one item and received a totally different one?

• What if you just keep waiting? Every time you inquire, you are told that it would be ready soon and then again a never ending waiting period.

• What if you are not clear on the price?

Having provoked this business service management at a restaurant thinking, in my upcoming blogs, we will discuss how business service management may look like at a high maturity IT organization. Following that, we will discuss the challenges faced by lesser mature IT organizations and how those can be addressed by implementing business service management.