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Walk-through-Audit (WtA) of Lillians Restaurant

Organisations have seen perceived service quality as a strategic tool for positioning as well as
means of achieving operational efficiency and improving business performance (Mehta, Lalwani
and Han, 2000). Service quality has been seen as critical for the success of organisations because
of its close link with customer satisfaction (Gilbert and Veloutsou, 2006) especially in the service
industry. Thus organisations regard quality as a source of competitive advantage which they
always strive to achieve.
Moreover, excellent service increases customer retention and leads to repeat customer purchase
behaviour (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) which ultimately increases the market share of the
companies and generates high revenues. For this reason, restaurant marketers and service
researchers more often try to study and understand customers needs and desires on service
quality and satisfaction level.

Dimensions of the Audit gaps- information

To test this use of a WtA, the same questionnaire that was given to customers was also given to
the managers and staff members. The responses given for each item on the questionnaire were
averaged for all groups.
This chart highlights the gaps in perceptions among clients, management and staff of Lillians
Restaurant. Some of the gaps are not surprising, such as direction to the restaurant was
adequate, receiving an average rating of 4.0 from both customers and staff. This is due mainly
to the fact that the restaurant is located in close proximity to the Universitys sculpture park.
Customers that are familiar with the university have little to no difficulty in locating the
restaurant. Managers however, with a perfect rating of 5 seem to believe that there is no
difficulty for customers to locate Lillians.
In the area menu provided as guests are seated the customers rated the restaurant with a score
of 4.0 , this suggests that while customers were satisfied with the time within which a menu was

placed at their table there is still room for improvement.. based on observation of the restaurant it
shows that the busiest time of the day is at noon. Andrews (1990) stated that at noon people are
usually on a tight schedule so as soon as they are seated a menu should be provided or in the
interest of time a menu should be placed at the table as soon as the table is set.
In relations to details provided on the menu were clear, management and staff holds the view
that every detail on the menu was straight forward and clear , but with the score of 3.8 it shows
that there are some customers have difficulty with the details .
The questionnaire also shows that when it comes to the statement It was easy to get additional
information from the staff and The waiter assigned was friendly. gaps suggest some major
improvements are in order. These areas were given a perfect rating of 5 from all management and
staff, which suggest that they have the assumption that there is no need to improve in those areas.
However average rating of clients shows that the areas mentioned received a score between 3.1
and 3.2 respectively. This is a serious matter as the management may be satisfied with the level
of service they perceive is being extended to customers failing to realize the need for
improvement. Customer service is one of the most important if not the most important factor of
any business, the level of service provided could mean whether you have a customer return to the
establishment or not which may eventually lead to service failures. In terms of getting additional
information it might mean that customers had little or no need for information that wasnt
already being provided by staff or the menu resulting in the not sure average response.

Recommendation

Management should consider periodic training sessions in service quality for employees
which should include customized training geared specifically towards enhancing the
service offered to customers at Lillians Restaurant

Management could adopt the mystery shopper technique where they have someone
come in as a customer and observe the way employees conduct themselves, so they will
be aware of the way customers are dealt with.

Strategically place advertisement which include a map of the campus highlighting the
roads or paths that leads to the Restaurant

Dimensions of the Audit gaps- Responsiveness


The responsiveness Service Quality Dimension refers to the willingness of the company
to help its customers in providing them with a good, quality and fast service. This is also a very
important dimension, because every customer feels more valued if they get the best possible
quality in the service.

The statement Guests are attended to as soon as they are seated shows an obvious gap in
perceptions between customers, employees and management. Customers average rating was 3.8
which simply mean that on average they were leaning toward agreement but there are some
shortfalls. The management and employees however both have a strong agreement rating that the
guests are attended to as soon as they are seated. The fact that customers are more exposed to
different types of restaurant settings, they developed a complex set of attributes for selecting a
restaurant for their excellent dining experience.

At Lillians with an average score of 3.0 for both customers and staff in the area of
Servers return within ten minutes after the entre is served and management with a score of 5,
show where staff are more intuned with the level of service they provide and it also suggest that
they are aware that improvernents are needed. Geist (2013) suggests that following up with your
customers demonstrates your commitment to customer service, builds your customers' loyalty
and helps generate repeat sales. The statement Bill is given as soon as meal is finished also
showed gaps between staff, customers and management. Management needs to ensure that
customers get the bill without delay, as the typical diners included students , Lecturers and staff
of the university that are on a tight schedule.

The statement Tables are cleared promptly also shows a similarity with high variation ranging
from 3, 4, and 5 for clients, staff and management respectively. Managers needs to be
more observant of and in tuned with the members on their staff in order to know what
areas they need to improve on. Tables should be cleared as soon as and only when all
occupants of that table is finished with a course. Recovery time for service failure is short
shows the most consistent among all groups with members from each group has an average
rating thats between 3 and 3.3.this means that with only a slight variation, as most
candidates were undecided. The problem of service failure is further compounded
by the fact that there is an increased competition in most service industries.
Restaurants have witnessed exponential growth and competition in the last two decades
(Lee et al. 2003).Thus, the customer has many options to choose from. This is
most applicable to the restaurant industry where the demand at times is outstripped by
the growth in number of restaurants. Earlier research has shown that
dissatisfying service-encounters are particularly relevant in restaurants (Bitner et al,
1990 cited in Mack et al., 2000). Due to increased competition and perceptual
differences between the customers a n d t h e s e r v i c e p r o v i d e r s l e a d i n g t o
s e r v i c e f a i l u r e s s e r v i c e r e c o v e r y b e c o m e s a n important strategy to
reduce the dissonance in customers. Gronroos (2000) in his six criteria on which
service quality is perceived good or bad by customers, gives due importance to the aspect
of service recovery by saying that the customer realize and anticipate that whenever
something goes wrong something unpredictable happens the service provider would
immediately and actively take action to control said situation and find a new acceptable
solution

RECOMMENDATION
1. Systems must be put in place to measure the time between when the entre is
served and when the employee returns to the table
2. Restaurant managers should be prepared to gain competitive advantages and
ensure sustainable business performance by focus on service quality.

Reference
1. Andrews. S.,(2013) Food and Beverage Service Manual. Retrieved April 02, 3015from
https://books.google.com.jm/books
2. Chen , S.J,. (2000) Advances in Hospitality and Leisure, Volume 4
3. Cronin, J. J., & Taylor, S. A. (1992). Measuring service quality: A Re-examination and
extension. Journal of Marketing, 56, 55-68.

4. Geist.,R. (2013) Service After the Sale... Retrieved March 30, 2015 from
http://pgeist.blogs.ocala.com/10386/service-after-the-sale%E2%80%A6/

5.

Gilbert, R.G, Veloutsou,C., (2006) "A crossindustry comparison of customer


satisfaction", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 20 Iss: 5, pp.298 308

6. Grnroos, C. (1990). Service Management and Marketing. Lexington, MA: Lexington


Books
7. Lee, S.C., Barker, S. and Kandampully, J. (2003), Technology, service quality and
customer loyalty in hotels: Australian managerial perspective, Managing Service
Quality, Vol . 1 3 No. 5, pp. 423-32.

8. M a c k , R . , M u e l l e r , R . , C r o t t s , J . , B r o d e r i c k , A ( 2 0 0 0 ) , P e r c e p t i o n
c o r r e c t i o n s , a n d d e f e c t i o n s : implications for service recovery in the
restaurant industry, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 10 No. 6, pp. 339-46.

9. Mehta,S. Lalwani. A., Han. S, (2000) "Service quality in retailing: relative efficiency of
alternative

measurement scales for different productservice environments",

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 28 Iss: 2, pp.62

10. Ting, D. H. (2004). Service quality and satisfaction perceptions: Curvilinear and
interaction effect. International Journal of Bank Marketing,22 (6), 407-420.

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