Discuss about the Service Marketing : Locations of Restaurant.
Services have become an integral part of our everyday lives. We avail different services in our everyday lives. This includes dining out, travelling to places, getting a spa or getting an event organized. All these are examples of services that we have all experienced at one point of time or another. This report highlights upon my experience of a service that I received recently when I visited a restaurant for a family dinner. Food quality, ambience and service quality are three most important aspects of a restaurant service industry (Appendices 3).
The restaurant was a fine dining restaurant located at the center of Canada. It has been in existence since over 30 years and has a huge history attached to it. Over the long period of time, the restaurant has garnered immense trust and a largely positive reputation in the market. The restaurant is well known for serving multiple cuisines including Thai, Chinese, Italian, Indian, Lebanese and Mexican. It was equipped with a Buffet facility as well as A La Carte. It was my father’s birthday therefore we had made reservations in advance and the restaurant had booked us a table with a fairly decent view. We had booked the table by calling them only 4 hours in advance and they were still very accommodating.
The restaurant came highly recommended from a friend and therefore we decided to give it a try. Before finalizing the place, we had looked the restaurant up at Google and Zomato. The reviews of the place further convinced us that we had made the right choice. We prefer to do a background check of restaurants as we often try to explore new restaurants of the city and have had a few bad experiences. Therefore, this time we planned in advance, reviewed all the important aspects of the restaurants and then finally made the choice.
The restaurant has a valet parking which was convenient. Upon entering the restaurant, we asked the manager about out booking and he greeted us well and showed us to our table. The table was quite comfortable. In fact, we had one extra guests as one of my father’s friends has joined us unexpectedly. The manager understood the situation and gave us an extra chair as a bigger table was not vacant at that time.
The ambience of the restaurant also adds on to the fine dining experience of its customers. The resultant that we visited has a beautiful ambience and the interiors have been creatively designed. There are various paintings and antiques placed at different locations of the restaurant. There is a large fountain at the center which adds to the beauty of the place.
The menu and the food are the most important tangible aspects of this service. The menu was carefully curated. Every cuisine was given a unique name. To our surprise, the menu even had one section dedicated to healthy eating choices. This included gluten-free food, vegan food and food for lactose intolerant. None of us ordered from there but it was surely a thoughtful addition to the menu. This showed that the restaurant was up to date with customer needs.
One of biggest drawbacks was that the service provided by the restaurant was relatively slow. It took almost 40 minutes for our food to reach the table after placing the order. Therefore it requires immense patience and we found it better to place the order also before arriving and pay an advance by card. This long wait time also adds on the waiting line outside the restaurant of people who have yet not entered the restaurant. In such cases, the restaurant must take special care to ensure fast service in order to cater to a large number of customers.
Besides the food, the restaurant also had a live performing band. It was a six member band that had prepared an ensemble performance. They were also seeking requests from customers of the restaurant and playing their favorite songs. The music that played was calm and soothing. This totally added on to our experience. Such value added services add to the customer’s delight.
The stewards were extremely polite and well mannered. The manager too apologized for the delay in food but explained that the items that we ordered were exquisite and take longer than normal to prepare. All the stewards did their best in ensuring that we get a fine service at the restaurant.
The restrooms of the campus were neat and tidy. My mother is obsessively compulsive about cleanliness and sanitation of the restrooms and the tables ensured her satisfaction with the place. The interiors of the place were beautiful. We clicked various pictures. The manager took immense pride in the grandeur of the restaurant and offered to take us through the entire facility.
An additional unique feature of the place was that while placing order, we were all asked to fill a small form that asked us small details including our allergies as well as our desired taste in food. The overall food was delectable and exactly how we had requested.
At the time of booking, we had notified the staff that the dinner was organized for my father’s birthday. Post our dinner, the team got a small cake for my father and the live band sung him a birthday song. My father was overjoyed and their impeccable service truly won our hearts.
I even saw a lady who had an injured leg and the restaurant had complete facility for disabled individuals. The staff members quickly reached the gate with a wheel chair and escorted the lady to her seat. The staff even took immense care of taking her to the restroom upon her request. Post which I noticed, that the entire restaurant was disable friendly and wheel chairs could reach any part of the restaurant as there was a ramp beside every staircase.
The people associated in the service were the manager, the stewards, the kitchen staff, the cleaning staff, the live band artists and the valet. All these people were extremely well mannered and offered their services to the best of their abilities. The valet took good care of the car. When we called for our bill, the valet was notified about the same and he got the car ready for us even before we exited. This reduced our wait time. The manager and the entire team took efforts to make my father’s birthday special. The kitchen staff was well trained and prepared a delicious meal for us. The Stewards were extremely well mannered. They took our feedback and offered to work upon their services in the future. All the people element of the service ensured that our service received was top quality.
The process of a service includes the entire process of a service from beginning to the end (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016). The processes involved in a restaurant service are pretty simple. Welcoming guests, taking orders, preparing food, presenting food, cleaning tables and billing. However, in order to gain a competitive advantage, the restaurant had done their bit in improving these processes.
Allowing customers to customize their food as per their taste buds, celebrating customer’s birthday, coordination between valet and the hotel staff and the live music were surely aspects that improved the processes and enhanced our level of satisfaction. The wait time for food was still a pain point for us.
The physical evidence is the grand infrastructure of the restaurant, their creatively crafted interiors, the food presented on our table, the smartly curated menu, the bill given to us at the end of the service and the valet parking receipt are all physical evidences of the service. Such physical evidences include all the tangible representations of the service.
We had visited the restaurant after it was referred to me by a friend. My friend had praised the food as well as the ambience of the place. Moreover after looking at the positive reviews shared by previous customers on Google and Zomato, our expectations from the place were quite high. After visiting the restaurant, I believe the restaurant and its staff entirely lived up to our expectations.
Personally, I belong to the target segment where I prefer to go to cafes and lounges which are targeting youth and are not priced premium. However, when I go for a family dinner on a special occasion, the market segment that we belong to shifts. We prefer a restaurant that target upper income group families who stay relatively closer to the restaurant. This is why we fit perfectly, in their target market which further ensured our satisfaction with their services.
One notable aspect of the restaurant is that it is premium priced. This form of pricing is done by businesses that charge a higher amount from their customers as compared to other players in the market. This is ideally done with an aim to position the business as high end and luxurious. The average cost for two people is approximately $ 60. This is relatively higher as compared to other restaurants in the area. This premium pricing is actually the reason why most of the upper income segment of the society prefer to visit this restaurant.
There are various high end restaurants in Canada. The restaurant industry itself is very highly competitive. Therefore, it is imperative that restaurants work towards gaining a competitive advantage against other players in the industry. Price differentiation, offering unique cuisines, centralized location of the restaurant, easy accessibility, and increased value added services, excellent quality services, unique marketing strategies and increased branding efforts are some of the strategies adopted by restaurants in gaining a competitive advantage (Appendices 1).
The restaurant is highly renowned in the whole of Canada and often has people from different parts of the country visiting the restaurant to dine there. The success of the restaurant has been achieved owing to large number of environmental factors. These environmental factors are stated as below:
The restaurant is located in a central location of the city. The area is largely commercial and has a movie theatre and a shopping mall within the radius of 500 meters. The commercial nature of the area attracts a lot of crowd. This in turn leads to an increased demand of the restaurant. Restaurants located in remote places of the city are at an automatic disadvantage.
The increasing buying power of the country and improving economic situation is definitely an advantage for the restaurant as it is a high end restaurants and targets people who can afford the premium priced services offered by the restaurant.
The changing lifestyle of the people and their switch to healthy eating has also positively impacted the restaurant. The restaurant has effectively made the best out of the opportunity offered and added an entire page of healthier eating options in their menu. This has led to an increased target market which will eventually result in improved revenues for the restaurant. Understanding changing consumer needs is essential in service industry. This results in satisfied customers and improved goodwill in the market.
At present, the restaurant has a single branch. The restaurant has been in service since over 30 years. This has allowed the brand to build immense trust in the minds of customers. Therefore, it would be the right time for the restaurant to consider expansion plans and open other branches in different geographical locations. Opening up of different branches would automatically increase the brand’s reach and allow the brand to target more customers.
In order for the brand to target its customers in a better manner, they must adopt some strategies for effective customer relationship management (Armstrong et. al., 2015). The strong brand name of the restaurant already garners them a high footfall. This is why little to no marketing efforts are put by the brand. At present, customers can either call the restaurant and book reservations or they can simply enter the restaurant and place their orders if there is enough space.
The restaurant must adopt strategies for customer relationship management by storing details of their existing customers and targeting them through digital marketing and mobile marketing strategies. This could include sending regular customers’ offers and discounts. This would result in repeat footfall in the restaurant.
The restaurant can also focus upon improving the technology used by the restaurant. Customers should be allowed to book tables through the company website of mobile application. Recently, most restaurants are also allowing customers to place orders to through mobile applications so that there is not miscommunication between the steward and them. Technology could also be used to ensure waste reduction as well as create complex loyalty programs that would help the restaurant in gaining more customers.
The service we received at the restaurant was highly efficient and we were completely satisfied by it. However, a few recommendations that would surely help the restaurant in enhancing its productivity would be as below:
Reducing wait time: Reducing the overall wait time for customers outside as well as for customers inside would lead to increased productivity.
Brand expansion: The restaurant must invest in expanding the brand by opening new branches for a different target market.
Events: The restaurant could also use the space on their rooftop to organize events including receptions, corporate parties and personal events.
Conclusion
Services are an important aspect of our everyday lives. We receive numerous services serve different purposes. This report has highlighted upon my experience at a fine dining restaurant. The service presented to us at the restaurant was highly effective. There are various important aspects of the restaurant that added on to the effectiveness of our service. This includes the delectable food, polite mannerism of the staff, creative ambience of the restaurant, centralized location and extremely efficient service offered. The restaurant surely needs to work upon reducing its wait time in order to serve customers more effectively and invest in better customer relationship management strategies. The technological aspect of the restaurant can also be improved upon by switching to digital media and atomization of services.
The restaurant must work towards opening a few more branches for a different target market and utilize the roof top space better by organizing events. The overall service experience was class apart and we all had positive reviews about the place. There are various people and processes involved in the service and the efficacy of them all has led to the strong brand name and loyal customer base that the restaurant holds today.
References
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
Wirtz, J., & Lovelock, C. (2016). Services marketing. People, technology, strategy. Eighth edition. New Jersey, London, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Chennai, Tokyo: World Scientific. Google Scholar.
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