Incorporating Service Marketing in the Restaurant Industry

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Introduction

The study focuses on incorporating service marketing in the restaurant industry. There are over 8 million restaurants in the world today and over 300,000 restaurant companies. These restaurants are either full service restaurant or a fast food chain. However, the growth rate of the fast food chain in the world has superseded the full service restaurants (Parsa and Kwansa, 2002).

This gives rise to the numerous business opportunities in the development of fast food restaurants all over the world. It was such an opportunity that was seized by Old Chang Kee which has developed into being a major fast food chain in Singapore.

Background information of Old Chang Kee

Old Chang Kee is a fast food restaurant in Singapore. This food chain restaurant has a very humble beginning. It started as a very small coffee shop outside Rex Cinema along Mackenzie road. It specialized in serving people with curried diets that were loved by many residents.

Among its major pastries are curried potatoes, chicken, slices of chicken fried with herbs and spices. The customer service ensured that deliveries were tailored for each customer. As a result, torrents of Singaporeans wanted to visit the Old Chang Kee outlet. The hotel’s management under the pioneer leadership of Mr. Han’s management since 1886 has ensured that the business has grown and traversed into a major brand in the Singaporean fast food industry.

The first objective of Mr. Han when he took over the management was to re-engineer the company so that it would modernize its business operations to meet the demands of its customers. He proposed a new system that would guarantee absolute improvement in the quality of services that were being offered at that time.

This re-strategizing of the restaurants’ ways of operating resulted to the initiation of more aggressive competitive programs and this led to the growth of the restaurant whereby it has more than fifty outlets in Singapore, more than three in China, two in Malaysia and more than four in Indonesia. Another strategy that won the market share for the restaurant was the introduction of more diets in its menu such as the Sardine “O” and the Pepper ”O” that won the hearts of many Singaporeans.

This has ensured that the company has been able to keep up with the trend in the customer satisfaction that has been diversifying due to the entry of more international fast food restaurant like the MacDonald Singapore franchise. Due to its growth and ability to evolve along with the customer’s requirements, Old Chang Kee restaurant has won a number of prestigious awards among them being the Singapore SPBA distinct brand awards of 2005 (Parsa and Kwansa, 2002).

Service Marketing

Service refers to the value co-creation that is achieved when there is interaction in the service systems that are involved in the creation, proposing of the absolute realization of the propositioned values that are expected to be realized. These propositions in the service system include goods and services that are delivered to clients. These propositions involve customers-provider interactions in which the provider create the service and the customer seeks to purchase (Patokallio, 2008).

The definition of the term service will help the reader understand actually what Old Chang Kee restaurants Singapore entails and in the completion of critically evaluating the service marketing of this restaurant in Singapore.

Service marketing is defined as the study of the creation of value adding interactions between the customer and the provider of the service that can be derived from the economic service, be it a service provider or an activity that entails the provision of services to customers (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2005). Service marketing transcends all forms of marketing tools and marketing methods as it puts more emphasis on the delivery of quality services that are oriented on customer satisfaction.

The delivery of the services depends on demand forecasting by the organization management, carrying out of accurate market segmentation and proper pricing of the services that are to be delivered, creation of customer loyalty and development of services that will sustain (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2005).

Old Chang Kee Service Main Product

Old Chang Kee main products will be serving of customers with curried foods alongside the local snacks. Each of the meals falls under either “O” food and snack products, the “Onstik” or the “feel’n” categories.

Old Chang Kee Service Blue Print

The line of the provider of the services, in this case Old Chang Kee represents that very instance the customer walk into the restaurant and gets the chance to interact with the management of the restaurant and in most this is by word of mouth. The interaction is usually between the customer and the waiter who welcomes them and asks them to make the order. The line that involves the customer versus customer interaction represents the actions that happen outside the restaurant and they involve the customers only.

For instance, the interaction between A and B may involve A telling B of the services that are being provided at the restaurant. This line in the service blueprint uses the word of mouth as the means to relaying the information over board. The line that involves the interaction of the service provider and the customer who visits the restaurant entails the one-on-one interaction between the customer and the service provider. It excludes all the other interactions that have taken place in advance.

The line of visibility section in the service blueprint of Old Chang Kee restaurant entails what a customer is able to see as the service delivery is taking place. This involves the physical structures that are in the restaurant, the mode of service delivery that is displayed by the waiters of Old Chang Kee restaurant. For instance, conversation may seek to inquire on the professionalism of the waiters and the quality of the food served at the restaurant.

The line that incorporates internal interaction in the restaurant brings out all the distinctions in the types of services that are being provided. That is, it separates services that bring value addition to the restaurant services which are the core reasons for its existence from the other services that are meant to support the service delivery processes in the restaurant.

The line of customer influence differentiates in the blueprint marks the differences that are exhibited by the services that are preplanned by the restaurant’s management in the service delivery protocols from the services that are induced by the customer during the service delivery process. This customer induced services provide a business opportunity for the restaurant to expand or the possibility of a new service that may attract more customers to the Old Chang Kee restaurants (Parsa and Kwansa, 2002).

Failures That Can Be Experienced in the Service Marketing

The possibility of service failures in the delivery of Old Chang Kee restaurant services may be encountered. They may happen in the following ways. First, if a customer’s interaction with Old Chang Kee restaurant employees’ ends up in customer dissatisfaction. This may make the unsatisfied customer feel negative about the restaurant. This is most likely to start if a customer demands for a service, but the employee responding to him is not in a position to give satisfying answers.

For instance, the customer may be complaining of wrong billing which has high possibility of happening if the management is not vigilant enough. This may invoke exchange of words between the customer and the waiter who was serving him or her. Another instance that may arise in customer dissatisfaction is the delay in the delivery of an order. The waiting may leave the customer dissatisfied (Parsa and Kwansa, 2002; Gummesson, 2007).

The service marketing strategies that are applied by Old Chang Kee restaurant and the service delivery that is represented in the restaurant’s blueprint is prone to biased interpretation from the customers. The customer interpretation is then spread around by word of mouth. This happens where a given customer explains certain aspects of the service delivery of Old Chang Kee to another customer is per their individual interpretation of the politeness and responsiveness of the waiters in the restaurants.

This interpretation is prone to negativity which can be propagated by others and this could have a disastrous outcome to Old Chang Kee. This is because its service marketing objectives may be derailed by people in their own interpretation and consequently, leading to loss in market share (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2005).

The quality of life is improving in the globe with changing variances in the demand indexes that are being expressed by consumers in all dimensions of consumption. The consumers are demanding more quality products as they continuously acquire knowledge on the quality of service delivered. This has caused the consumer expectations to rise and the trend is escalating continuously over the years. This has made the delivery of services to improve tremendously along with better quality products by the providers.

The restaurant has been experiencing an increase in the number of people who are demanding food that is customized to fit their dietary recommendations by their nutritionists. For instance, the amount of calories in the food being served in the restaurant has to be within a customer’s tailored recommendations.

This customization is based either on health consciousness of the customers, cultural background, religious orientation, past consumer experiences in the type of food that had been served has posed a major challenge in the service marketing of Old Chang Kee restaurant to cope with and maintain customer satisfaction at optimum and at the same time retain customer loyalty (Hoffman2 and Bateson2, 2001).

Another failure that is exhibited in service marketing is the inability of the customers to identify all the services that are offered by Old Chang Kee restaurant. These customers are only likely to identify the services that they are used to. This problem is fatal and this is because in case a new product that is developed by the restaurant may take time to attract a commendable market share because of the customers’ inability to identify all the services that are available in these restaurants (Hoffman¹ and Bateson¹, 2010).

Recommendation to Overcome the Failures that Could Experienced in the Old Chang Kee Service Marketing

It should be noted that customer reaction to failures in the business is usually very critical. Therefore, Old Chang management should be equally strong and effective in coming up with processes and procedures that will eliminate the shortcomings that will come with the negative impressions that are created in case of a failure in its service delivery program. It should be cautious because negativity is easily spread in the grapevine communication.

The problem in keeping up with the changes in customer tastes, preferences and request for better services from Old Chang Kee restaurant can only be overcome if the management comes up with good systems that will capture all the customer enquiries, analyze them and after identifying fundamental queries, it should initiate the way to go around them to ensure customer satisfaction is being met.

It should be able to keep up with the socio-cultural evolution of the society. This will enable the fast chain outlet to come up with changes and be able to serve them optimally.

The problem of organization objectives or service delivery practices misinterpretation can be reversed if the management keenly takes the necessary steps such as making its objectives known to all customers. This will be achieved through rigorous advertising of the services that the restaurant offers to its customers.

This will also be achieved by having a good public relations forum with its customers. It is here that it will be able to address the issues of misinterpretation among other rumors that are meant to tarnish the credibility of the restaurant to deliver quality food and snacks to its customers.

The possibly of dissatisfaction by customers in Old Chang Kee restaurant is at minimal levels due to the professionalism exhibited by the management and its employees in the delivery of the services. In case dissatisfaction is experienced, the management should handle it whole heartedly to ensure that the issues arising are eliminated.

This can be achieved if the real cause of the dissatisfaction is identified and the management comes up with appropriate guidelines that will alleviate the problem. For instance, if it arose due to an incorrect billing, the management can ensure that this problem is not repeated by having a professional accountant to do the billing.

This problem of customer’s inability to identify all the services that are offered by the restaurants can be alleviated if the management carries out vigorous advertisement programs that aim at popularizing all the products.

The advertisements can involve the issuance of free samples for the relatively popular meals and snacks. It can also employ the use of buy one get one free marketing strategy. This is because it will act as an incentive to stimulate the customers to buy the product from Old Chang Kee. This will win some of the customers who try its products and thus gaining a market share for each of the new products.

Conclusion

The study has defined the term service marketing and related it to the restaurant industry. It has come up with general insights that are vital to the reader that will enable any interested reader to identify market servicing as a very important sector for the success of any business.

The paper has also come up with a service blueprint of a restaurant. This blueprint has achieved the objective of outlining how the restaurant activities are undertaken to meet its obligation to satisfy the customers at all times. Therefore, it is evident that for effective marketing of a service delivery industry, it should also carry a service marketing analysis before embarking on the actual production process.

Reference List

Gummesson, E. (2007). Exit services marketing – enter service marketing. Customer Behaviour, 6( 2), Pp. 113-141(29)

Hoffman, K. D¹., Bateson, J., E., G¹,2010. Services Marketing: Concepts, Strategies, & Cases. Upper Saddle River: Cengage Learning.

Hoffman, K. D²., Bateson, J.,E.,G², 2001. Essentials of services marketing: concepts, stragies & cases. Harcourt College Publishers.

Parsa, H., G., Kwansa, F., A, 2002. Quick Service Restaurants, Franchising, and Multi- Unit Chain Management . New York: Routledge.

Patokallio, J., 2008. Wikitravel Singapore: the Free, Complete, Up-to-Date and Reliable Guide to Singapore .Wikitravel Press.

Zeithaml, V., A., Bitner, M., J., Gremler, D., D, 2005. Services marketing: integrating customer focus across the firm.New York: McGraw-Hill.

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