How Should Quality Be Defined At This Restaurant Marketing Essay

Jose’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant is situated in a mature business district on the periphery of large city area in New England. The restaurant is the real place for Mexican food and depicts exactly the same environment of traditional Mexican style. Such as The interior decoration, the walls appearances, Spanish-Mexican furniture style, and flamenco Guitar and mariachi music gives the real feelings of a traditional Mexican atmosphere.

The Customers enter the restaurant through a small entrance or reception area that opens directly into the dining area; there is no separate waiting area for wait. Upon arrival of the customers, they are greeted by a hostess. If there is space then seated directly, otherwise let them know the expected time of wait. But normally there is no need of wait, except Friday and Saturday nights when waits of as long as forty five minutes. In these conditions, they have to wait outside as there is no waiting area for customers. Due to this problem, the restaurant does not take reservations.

The restaurants menu consists of twenty three main entrees or main food meals, prepared from eight basic stocks such as (chicken, beef, beans, rice, corn tortillas, flour tortillas, tomatoes, and lettuce) and a variety of other ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, sauces, herbs, and spices.

In general, the amount of time needed to prepare a meal when an order has been taken is twelve minutes. Before the busy time begins, the cook prepares all the necessary food. So when order comes it takes very less time to prepare the final food. During peak time waiter also helps the cook as alone it is difficult to prepare all the food all together.

According to customer surveys filled out during the busy times on Friday and Saturday nights, Sixty seven customers thought the dinning experience was worth the money and only sixteen said that it was not. Seventy two said food was enjoyable and only eleven were not fully satisfied. Seventy three people said waiter was satisfactory. And seventy people were seated promptly. There was one point where customers seemed to be the unhappy according to that survey was on the delivery time of their food to the table. Those were only fifty eight and twenty five were not happy. The majority of people were satisfied with the overall dinning experience.

Major Issues Discussed

Location of the Business

Location is the most important prospects for any business. Location of the business depends upon the nature of the business. If it is related to manufacturing or production type then it should be located in the industrial area,. If it is a fast food or any other food chain business, then it should be located on a location where maximum number of people can get access or should be a public place. And more importantly this place should offer well enough parking.

Mexican authentic restaurant is located in New England in a mature business market on edge of metropolitan area and it provides limited free off-street parking. This is a constraint for the business. Jose’s restaurant is located in a metropolitan area where parking is limited so this problem can be an obstacle in the success of the restaurant.

Space Limitation

Jose’s is a small restaurant, only 58 seating capacity. The main problem with Jose’s is that there is no separate waiting area for the customers. The dining area is also not much spacious. So customers have to wait outside until they are called by the hosts for dinner. During the weekend, Friday and Saturday nights customers have to wait for more than 45 minutes. That is really a long time to wait. It makes customers annoyed. In New England life is too busy; people have very short time in their lives. And they have other alternative options as well. Many competitor restaurants can be found where they can dine in less time than Jose’s. Lack of space is also an issue for the Jose’s restaurant.

Food Serving Time

In Jose’s authentic restaurant, The typical amount of time needed to complete a meal once it has been ordered is 12 minutes. In Peak timing the serving time is more than 20 minutes. It is really quite much time to deliver the food on the table. According to the survey conducted last Friday and Saturday, only 58 customers were satisfied that got the food in reasonable time and 25 customers were not satisfied with this sort service. This High level of percentage shows, that customers are not happy with this food serving time. This is the main hurdle in the success of the restaurant. It will make the difference.

Cook and other Staff

Another issue in the Jose’s restaurant is its waiting staff and cook. Jose’s has only one specialized cook, whose responsibility is to prepare all the food orders alone. He has not any regular helper or any additional cook to create more efficiency in order to improve the time and quality of food. Only Karetski help him in busy timings. Despite the fact it is not his duty, to help him in food preparation.

Supply of ingredients

Cook has complaints about the poor quality of ingredients. The poor quality of ingredients affects the taste and quality of the food. And also create difficulty to cook. So as a result the delivery time increases. The poor quality ingredients can cost the business heavily. This is another issue for Jose’s authentic restaurant.

How should quality be defined at this restaurant?

First we need to understand what is the meaning and definations of the quality. Then we need to identify that what is the process of achieving the quality. In the end we will discuss, how quality can be defined at Jose’s autehtic mexican restaurent.

What is quality? Chartered Quality Institute UK (definition)

Quality management is an organisation-wide approach to understanding precisely what customers need and consistently delivering accurate solutions within budget, on time and with the minimum loss to society.

What is quality?

Nigel slack, Stuart chambers, Robert Johnston, Allen Betts. Operations and process mangment second edition

Quality is consistent conformance to customers’ expectations.

Figure 1. process of customer satisfaction by improving quality

Why manage quality? Chartered Quality Institute UK

The effective management of quality not only creates value for an organisation and its stakeholders but also manages its exposure to risk and can make the difference between success and failure.

Is ‘quality’ adequately defined?

Nigel slack, Stuart chambers, Robert Johnston, Allen Betts. Operations and process mangment second edition

Quality needs to be understood from the customer’s point of view because it is defined by the customer’s perceptions and expectations. One way of doing this is to use a quality gap

Model. This starts from the fundamental potential gap between customers’ expectations and perceptions and deconstructs the various influences on perceptions and expectations. Gaps between these factors can then be used to diagnose possible root causes of quality problems. A further development is to define the quality characteristics of products or services in terms of their functionality, appearance, reliability, durability, recovery and contact.

Why is quality important?

The most successful organizations are those that give customers what they want. Satisfied customers are loyal to those suppliers they feel best understand their requirements. As a result they will make repeat purchases and will recommend a business to their friends.

http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/case-study–quality-through-standards–53-214-3.php

If we manage or fill out all the gaps and improve all the processes of the any business then we can achieve the quality. Now If we identify all the processes in the Jose’s authentic Mexican restaurant and then we work on all the processes and fill those gaps well manage all of them, then we can achieve the quality and customers can be satisfied from Jose’s overall dining experience.

Major Processes in Jose’s authentic restaurant

1. Reception and seating process

2. Seating and waiting the customers

3. Food preparation and Ingredients supply

4. Billing

1. Reception of patrons.

a) Parking

When customer come to Jose’s restaurant then Jose’s staff’s first responsibility should be to park the customer’s cars in appropriate parking space. Jose’s should have to build their parking area as well. In this way customers will feel easy to come at Jose’s restaurant.

b) Reception and waiting

When customers come to the restaurant after parking, then the hosts should be there at all times to greet the customers. And Jose’s should have to build a new waiting area which is the necessary part of any restaurant business. Where the customers can sit who does not want to dine straight away.

2. Seating and waiting the customers

When customers come in the restaurant they should be greeted very well with smiling faces and seated promptly or in very good manners. If the wait time to be seated does not decrease, customers will not stay. Seating also should be increased in the restaurant because it is not worthwhile for the customers to wait for a long time as mentioned in the case 45 minutes in peak timings. When Jose’s will increase the seating capacity they will get more customers and increase the sales by satisfying their customers.

3. Food preparation and Ingredients supply

a) Food preparation

This is the most critical process. The preparation time for the food should be able to more consistently hit the twelve minute goal. Since the time it took for meals to be served was the customers biggest complaint, if Jose’s is able to get back to the twelve minute prep time instead of twenty minutes the customers main issues should be solved.

b) Ingredients supply

The cook at Jose’s is stressed out.  He is unhappy with the quality of food that has been coming in from the supplier.  To try and improve the problem, the manager at Jose’s needs to contact the supplier and address this issue.  Jose’s should have someone that could go through a check list with the food to make sure they are getting the best quality possible. If the quality of the food continues to arrive at Jose’s in poor condition, Jose’s would then need to search for a new supplier. When cook will get food quality of ingredients then he will prepare a good taste food and also he can save the time being spent on sorting out the best food. So time he can save time.

What are the restaurant’s costs of poor quality?

Nigel slack, Stuart chambers, Robert Johnston, Allen Betts. Operations and process mangment second edition

Quality costs are usually categorized as prevention costs (incurred in trying to prevent errors), appraisal costs (associated with checking for errors), internal failure costs (errors that are corrected within the operation), and external failure costs (errors that are experienced by customers). Generally, it is held that increasing expenditure on prevention will bring a more than equivalent reduction in other quality-related costs.

Principles of Quality Costs: Principles, Implementation, and Use, Third Edition Campanella, Jack, editor. ASQ Press. Item: H1013 219 pages. ISBN 0-87389-443-X. 6 X 9 Hardcover. 1999. (800) 248-1946

The Cost of poor quality is the sum spent on Prevention, Appraisal, Internal failure costs, and External failure costs. Most experts’ estimates that cost of quality range from 20 to 30 percent of the gross sales.

The four categories of costs:

Prevention costs

Costs incurred to keep failure and appraisal costs to a minimum.

Costs associated with preventing defects before they happen.

Lee, Larry, Manoj Operations management processes and supply chain 9E

Examples are the costs of:

New product review

Quality planning

Supplier capability surveys

Process capability evaluations

Quality improvement team meetings

Quality improvement projects

Quality education and training

Appraisal costs

Costs incurred to determine the degree of conformance to quality requirements.

Cost incured when the firm assess the performance level of the processes.

Lee, Larry, Manoj Operations management processes and supply chain 9E

These include the costs of:

Incoming and source inspection/test of purchased material

In-process and final inspection/test

Product, process or service audits

Calibration of measuring and test equipment

Associated supplies and materials

Internal failure costs

Costs associated with defects found before the customer receives the product or service

Costs resulting from defects that are discovered during the production of service or product.

Lee, Larry, Manoj Operations management processes and supply chain 9E

Examples are the costs of:

Scrap

Rework

Re-inspection

Re-testing

Material review

Downgrading

External failure costs.

Costs associated with defects found after the customer receives the product or service.

Cost that arises when a defect is discovered after the customer receives the service or product.

Lee, Larry, Manoj Operations management processes and supply chain 9E

Examples are the costs of:

Processing customer complaints

Customer returns

Warranty claims

Product recalls

Tools for improving quality to assess the situation at Jose’s?

Total Quality Management and Six sigma, two philosophies and supporting tools that many Companies embrace to evaluate and improve quality and performance.

Total Quality Management

“A philosophy that stresses three principles of achieving high levels of process performance and quality: customer satisfaction, employee involvement, and continuous improvement in performance.”

Lee, Larry, Manoj Operations management processes and supply chain 9E

Six Sigma

“A comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business success by minimizing defects and variability in processes”

Lee, Larry, Manoj Operations management processes and supply chain 9E

The idea of a successful restaurant business is to have happy, satisfied guests that will want to return and will also tell others of their dinning experience. However, at Jose’s if the prep time and delivery time for the meals does not improve, customers will not want to comeback. Also, if the wait time to be seated does not decrease customers will not stay. Another aspect is the quality of food the cook receives from the suppliers. If the food is not adequate then the overall taste of the meal will not be what the customer expects. All of these issues will result in Jose’s losing business and possibly having to shut down. When the guests are not happy then the whole restaurant suffers. Karetski’s tips are probably declining mainly due to the poor quality of food which creates a snowball effect. The guest are not going to tip well if they have a bad experience and less people will come back so business will be slower.