Marco’s Restaurant Management Concerns

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Terms of Reference
Procedure
Findings
Results of the staff survey: Key themes
Results of Customer survey: Key themes
Implications of the key themes
Conclusions
Recommendations
Reference List

Terms of Reference

This report was commissioned by the manager and owner of Marco’s Restaurant. It seeks to address the increasing losses that the restaurant continuously incurs. The profits have been declining since 1998 and beginning 2006, the restaurant has been on the downward trend incurring serious losses. The objective of the report is to determine the root cause of the increasing losses of the restaurant by analysing the management problems which include staff recruitment, training and motivation, communication, customer service, innovativeness and production efficiency; and to suggest strategies to revamp the restaurant.

Procedure

The report will analyse the background information provided by the manager as well as the findings of a recent customer and staff survey carried out to determine customer satisfaction and staff perception and attitude towards the management of the restaurant. The background information and the survey results will be used to explore the recurring problems and their relationships with the current downward trends of the restaurant.

Findings

Employee perception survey was given to a section of the staff across all the departments within the restaurant with an aim of determining their feelings towards the management of the restaurant. The survey conducted by an independent agency posed a series of questions around some key areas:

Organisation
Innovativeness
Staff recruitment, training and motivation
Equal treatment of staff
Communication
Production efficiency

A customer satisfaction survey was also given to customers who had been previously served at the restaurant. They were asked to comment on which areas they were satisfied with in terms of the services, food and menu; and which areas they were dissatisfied with. The results of this survey also raised some questions about customer service, menu and communication.

The background information provided by the management plus the surveys of both the staff and customers yielded recurring themes which suggest that poor management practices taken by the restaurant’s owner/manager are the potential sources of the poor services at the restaurant leading to the serious downward trends that is currently experienced.

Results of the staff survey: Key themes

Organisation

A recurrent theme was that the management has been ineffective in organizing and planning for activities of the restaurant. The restaurant is managed by Marco and his wife, Maria. Marco manages the kitchen while the wife manages the services; however, planning daily activities becomes a challenge to Marco as the wife often comes late. Maria is also not able to effectively manage her department since she wastes a lot of time with the relative employees including the sister. This causes poor coordination of the workforce and the business process of the restaurant.

The major problem being the large number of staff during the day when the customer turn out is low while the number of staff who serve the large number of customers in the evenings up to midnight is low. The staff also complain that roles of each employee are also not clearly defined. Another source of problem identified was the budget management in the kitchen department. The management purchased more than double the amount of ingredients required per week therefore over half of the stock was wasted. It was also suggested that the management paid little attention to its opening hours. Preparation of breakfast and lunch had become cost-ineffective since it served very few customers during these sessions.

Staff recruitment, training and motivation

Most of the members of the staff are either family members or friends of Marco’s family some of them with little training or no training at all in the hotel industry. This means that the level of expertise in the operations of the restaurant is low. Besides, there has been a major concern on equal treatment of the staff. The management is more lenient on the relatives and friends leading to increase in workload on the non-relatives and friends. The relatives and friends cause a lot of time wastage and delays in the provision of services.

The management tolerates their unhealthy behaviors such as coming to work late while drunk. In addition, there has been little on job training provided to the workers. It was also noted that motivation of the workforce was not given priority especially to the professional staff. They complained of workload and in addition, their views were not incorporated into the business process of the restaurant. It was suggested that the manager was too controlling to let the head chef and the bar manager carry out their jobs in best ways they thought.

Innovativeness

The restaurant management particularly the manager does do not allow for new ideas to be integrated in the production process or menu. The manager still believes in applying the traditional ways of food preparation and the original menu that was introduced during the establishment of the restaurant. The management has not invested into more modern and efficient equipment of managing its ingredient and food wastage. On the other hand, the restaurant offers broad menu while focusing less on strategies that could help effectively compete with other restaurants in the market. Guiseppe’s, a restaurant which came into the market 17 years after its inception has greatly overtaken Marco’s in the market share.

Communication

In particular, communication remains a major problem in the restaurant. The survey suggests that the staff are sometimes not given instructions on what to do. The front house manager mostly concentrates on talking non-business issues with relatives often forgetting to instruct staff under her department.

Results of Customer survey: Key themes

Poor customer service

The customers’ complaints were majorly on; order delays, mix up, menu and low staff morale while serving. Marco’s lost a lot of revenue as a result of order delays and mix-ups as some customers went away to get served at its neighbouring restaurants while others decided to stay away from the restaurant after experiencing such delays. The customers also complained that the staffs’ lack of morale while providing services created a very formal and stuffy environment not suitable for serving guests. The customers suggested that it would be much more relaxed if the restaurant provided for a more relaxed environment. The menu was also written in Italian making it hard for non-Italian customers to make their choices.

Implications of the key themes

The poor management practices adopted by the management of the restaurant have led to overall poor customer service and in turn declining market share for the restaurant. Employee motivation is low causing low morale in the workforce and job dissatisfaction. This has also contributed to low commitment to their duties as they feel less valued by the management especially the professional staff (Ninemeier & Hayes 2005: 237). The management problems have inhibited staff creativity and innovativeness as well as involvement in the management of the restaurant. Poor planning and budgeting has increased the cost of operations of the restaurant leading to increased losses.

Conclusions

The major problem that Marco’s is experiencing is management in all its business processes which include budgeting, planning, purchases, food preparation, customer service and human resource management. Family management with the help of friends and relatives has been very ineffective and has reduced efficiency in its business processes. The management also focuses less on motivation and empowerment of its employees.

Recommendations

It is therefore recommended that the manager has to first accept that customer trends are changing and therefore the restaurant need to diversify its operations and adopt better management practices.

Consider only non-family members as staff to achieve high level of expertise in its workforce. This means that the management has to lay off most of the relatives and friends staff and only remain with professional and efficient staff since maintaining relatives and friends has proved inefficient and cost-ineffective. The manager has to recruit expert staff as well as a human resource manager to help revamp the restaurant. The management has to invest in developing the skills and knowledge of its workforce through on job training and providing latest practices in restaurant operations. Each member of staff must have his or her roles in the restaurant clearly defined (Ninemeier & Hayes 2005, 237-239).
Allow staff to make decisions in situations under their jurisdiction. Their views should also be taken into consideration by the management. Customer service has to be trained to excellently handle customers and there should be an agreement on how to reduce the evening workload on them through proper planning of work schedules so that they do not work under much pressure and stress. It is important to eliminate service delays. The management also needs to consider implementing a reward scheme for its staff to motivate the workforce.
Adopt modern ways of marketing its services and menu by creating an interactive website where customers can order for foods online or make reservations. It has to expand its services to include offering food services to offices. It has to adopt more contemporary Italian cuisine and avoid being rigid on traditional style of food preparation to meet the changing customer trends and demographics. D
Discuss the possibility of introducing a different menu depending on the time of the day, day of the week and occasion.
Discontinue the foods in the menu that provide less returns or cause losses (Los Angeles Magazine 2006 74). It is not how broad the menu is but how each item in the menu can earn the business.
Invest in modern food preparation equipment which monitors the use of ingredients and also tracks product quality. This will help the restaurant streamline its costs and prices as well as reduce wastage (Boyle 2007). It will also help achieve speed and flexible cooking.

Reference List

Boyle, M., (12 October 2007), Burger King reinvents flame broiling. Web.

Los Angeles Magazine, (2006). The restaurant. Los Angeles Magazine, 51(1): 60- 188. Web.

Ninemeier, J., D., & Hayes, D., K., (2005), Restaurant operations management: Principles and practices. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 237-239.

Click Here To Order Now!