Synopsis Draft #1

Title: How to manage customer’s long waiting times at restaurants

1. Introduction

This report will address a service delivery issue within Singapore’s Food and Beverage (F&B) industry. The team will explore the methods of how the restaurant staff can further manage the guests’ needs and expectations during peak meal periods.

1. Workplace Context

Singapore is ranked as the top Asia country with the greatest developed food markets. According to the Singapore Statistics Household Expenditure Survey, average monthly per capita food expenditure in Singapore is $220, due to the high disposable income (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2014).  With the tendency for a household to dine-out due to the convenience of food selection and availability, household expenditure of eating out rose from $470 in 2003 to $760 in 2013. Zooming into the expenditure on food services in restaurants, the number of cafes and pubs have also increased from 22 percent in 2003 to 27 percent in 2013 (Statistic Singapore, 2013). The F&B industry in Singapore is anticipating to witness sturdy growth in the near future with the promising per capita consumption growth rate. Thus, the importance of customer service within the F&B industry is prominently critical to the current F&B context.

Food plays an important role in the success of F&B businesses. However, good customer service drives the loyalty of customers, and this is what sets each restaurant apart from the abundance of competitors (Benbria, 2018). Research by ReviewTrackers has shown that out of 331,925 reviews made online, “service” was the most mentioned keyword with “good food” placed second (Wenzl, 2017). This further emphasizes that customers perceive good customer service as an important factor in the selection of a restaurant.

2. Thematic Focus

The focus of the case study synopsis is managing customers’ wait time at the restaurant. Most of the members in the group have worked as a host at a restaurant. They found it difficult to handle demanding customers, answer calls, take in reservations and at the same time, provide exemplary customer service. One of the main causes may be due to the shortage of manpower in the F&B industry, resulting in the employees having to multitask (AsiaHospitalityCareers, 2018). It is almost impossible for one service host to create a personalized dining experience with the continuous influx of customers.

One team member admitted that there were times when she was unable to attend to the waiting customers as she needed to manage cashiering and the online reservation system. The customer made a fuss and she felt that her needs were not taken care of. According to Kuwar, Kalawani & Dada (1997); Lachmandas (2018), customers’ waiting experiences are known to affect their overall satisfaction negatively. In addition, it may adversely affet brand loyalty (Carroll, 2016). In an industry where customer service needs to adapt to ever changing customer demands, it is important for the restaurants to understand effective queue management and communication between the customers and employees (Sulek & Hensley, 2004).

Thus, the synopsis focuses on the pre-dining services, providing a guideline to manage the waiting customers at the restaurant.

3. Problem Statement

Long queues can have positive or negative associations. Despite the fact that long queues may signify the product for being popular or good,  sources of unpleasantness from the customers can be derived from the boredom with the wait (Stevenson, 2012). Customers are upset when waits are longer than expected (Hwang, & Lambert, 2008), As both service quality and customer satisfaction have a linear relationship, it is essential for the management to adopt a framework that can eliminate the wait and enhance the customers’ experience at the same time (Weiss, & Tucker, 2018). By managing the customers’ expectations, it helps the restaurant to establish its own brand image and position in the industry (Chow, Lau, Lo, Sha, & Yun, 2007).

4. Purpose Statement

The purpose of the synopsis is to propose to the upper management the implementation of a training programme for employees in the deliverance of service standards and implementation of on-site additional non-food services to enhance the customer’s waiting experience. In addition, the proposed solution aims to alleviate the pressure on employees when dealing with disgruntled customers. Hence, this ensures a pleasant experience for both employees and customers, ultimately generating good sales for the restaurant.