Walk-through-Audit (WtA) of Lillian’s 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 Lillian’s

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 University’s 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 Lillian’s.

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

wasn’t 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 Lillian’s 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. Customer’s 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 Lillian’s with an average score of 3.0 for both customers and staff in the area of

‘Servers return within ten minutes after the entrée 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 that’s 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 entrée 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

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