Service Operations Management

[pic 1] 

Table of content

1. Introduction

As mentioned in the research proposal, the failure rate in the food service industry has increased considerably due to having an ill concept of service and operational problems. The purpose of this self-paced activity is to examine how service concept is specified at the service establishment, in this case, the Little Viet Kitchen, and how does it relate to some of the anticipated operational issues, which are the level of food authenticity and the consistency of service.

In this paper, the researcher acts as a ‘mystery customer’ to gain a practical experience of visiting the service supplier. Furthermore, a number of online comment and feedback will also be collected and examined.

This research will reintroduce the service concept at the establishment on section 2. Section 3 will identify the customers of Little Viet Kitchen as well as their needs and expectations. Moment of Truth will be revealed on Section 4, in which the researcher’s own experience at the restaurant is described. Section 5 presents and analyses some operational problems and service failures encountered by the researchers as well as other patrons, using online comments on TripAdvisor website. Lastly, the research concludes on section 6 and gives some recommendations to improve its service operations.

1. The service concept at the establishment

The term “service concept” was coined by Sasser et al. (p. 14) the total goods and services “sold to the customer and the relative importance of each component to the customer”. Defining the nature of service regarding its components has also been approached in the marketing literature. Eight elements of marketing have encompassed the constituent parts the service “Product”, “Process”, “Place”, “Physical evidence”, “People”, “Productivity and quality”, “Price” and “Promotion” (Lovelock & Wright, 1999). The physical environment and its surroundings are described as servicescapes, which has great impact on customer experience.

The service concept is defined by Clark et al. (2000), and Johnston and Clark (2001) as the service delivered (the service operation carried out by the staff) and the serviced received (including the customer’s service experience and the service outcomes).  

As stated in the research proposal, the service concept at the Little Viet Kitchen is “An exceptionally tasty authentic Vietnamese food accommodated by wonderful service, professional staff, and culturally rich décor”. This concept is constructed based on an “outside-in” perspective, which concerns with the service received by customers, customer’s experience and their feeling and emotion. From a customer-centric perspective, capturing the experience and emotions to be created will be followed by designing the servicescape to manage customer experience and relationships. To illustrate, some of the customer experiences are authentic Vietnamese food, stylish wall- painting, and experienced staff. Besides, the results and benefits of the service would be a satisfied meal, knowledge of Vietnamese food culture, and an intention to recommend friends and family.

1. Who are the customers of Little Viet Kitchen?

Located a few steps away from Manly Wharf, The Little Viet Kitchen’s main target customers are both foreign and domestic tourists, plus the locals who live in Manly and nearby areas. Drawing more than 8 million visitors annually, Manly is a major tourism destination (Northen Beaches Council, n.d.). Visitors come from worldwide and Australia, attracted by a variety of factors, including international dining experience. Patrons at the eatery are also segmented demographically into middle-class suburban families, couples, and groups of friends. They are all external customers, and also end users/consumers. Each has its own characteristics.

In their article, Cook, Goh, and Chung (1999) indicated that most service typologies focus mostly on differentiating the characteristics of service concept, overlook customer characteristics and automatically apply “one-size-fit-all” treatment to all customers (Cook, Goh, & Chung, Service typologies: A state of the art survey, 1999). However, customers have different needs and expectations. Observed by the researcher, the restaurant apparently reaches its full capacity of 80 people at peak hours, not only on weekends but also on weekdays. Therefore, The Little Viet Kitchen, with customer-oriented service, needs to align its service concept with a wide variety and high volume of its customers.