Literature Review
Discuss about the Teamwork to enhance service quality in a Restaurant.
In the modern competitive business environment, quality service delivery is substantial in helping a business gain a competitive advantage over their competitors in the industry. Quality service delivery is the focus of every restaurant business whether small, middle or large. Developing an effective service delivery strategy in any market and especially the restaurant business defines the industry winning approach which is to deliver quality service to their customers. Most restaurants have therefore developed strategies to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors through human factors which means they have focused on growing their human resources to improve their service delivery (El-Said, 2014). Provision of quality service in the restaurant business helps in sustaining customer’s confidence, customer loyalty and contributes to increased performance regarding revenue. Therefore, there is a healthy relationship between service delivery and the return of restaurant business. However, in most cases service delivery is related with customer satisfaction and therefore it is the responsibility of every restaurant business management team to develop customer service strategies which will aid to improved service delivery since the performance of the restaurant business is measured concerning the quality of services they provide to their customers. Improving quality service is broad concept since different strategies can be adopted by any company to develop their service delivery strategies (Guchait et al., 2015). Some of the most commonly applied approaches in most businesses are through innovation and product development. However, it boils down that improved quality service begins with the development of the human business factors, in this case, the employees in the business. Many strategies have been developed to improve quality service delivery but failed due to failure to integrate human factors into the organization. This study, therefore, aims at providing an understanding of how teamwork can enhance service quality delivery in a restaurant business.
Service quality has become very significant in the hotel and restaurant industry globally. The success of any restaurant business is strongly linked to the type of service they offer to their customers. Service quality management is a strategy that has been implemented by many service provision businesses to improve the organizational performance. In the modern competitive business environment and specifically in the service sectors has led to the development or evaluation of an industry service provision strategies. In most cases, many businesses have used service quality delivery as a marketing tool or plan for their companies (Ceschi et al., 2014). The implementation of quality management strategies in most businesses has resulted due to the rapid growth of demanding customers and business increased sense of customer satisfaction. Therefore customer service has been identified as a critical factor that strongly impacts company evaluation of its service quality strategies. Development of effective quality service management strategies in a business does not only improve the business performance but also helps the business to gain a competitive advantage over their rival competitors. The different organization uses different mechanisms to enhance their quality service depending on the industry they operate. The hotel and restaurant industry is guided by quality service to their customers and their general performance in the industry is measured through the quality of services provided to their customers and the level of customer satisfaction with the services offered. To achieve the objectives of quality service management, there is a need to take into consideration the human factors in the organization. These are the people who interact with the customers on a daily business, and therefore they play a significant role in sustaining customer confidence and loyalty which is critical in measuring business performance in the service industry.
Frontline and Backline Staff in Restaurants
Organization of the human business factors includes; developing strategies to enhance team working in the organization of business. The increasing customer demands and an increased sense of customer satisfaction call for combined efforts of all the staff of the organization including the management team. The development of effective teamwork in any restaurant business does not happen by itself but takes planning, time and dedication to continuous training in quality service delivery (Ceschi et al., 2014. However, it is also important to understand that individual efforts and commitment to the group efforts is what makes a team work. The primary objective of teamwork in any business is to help the company realize its full potential despite any differences which may be happening amongst the employees. The restaurant business has faced challenges including communication challenges amongst the employees, lack of coordination of activities in the hotel as well as lack of team building activities amongst the hotel or restaurant staff. Most of the successful restaurant businesses use teamwork as a strategy to meet their daily targets or goals concerning sales and also to give employees a reason to support each other through collaboration (Perna, 2016). It doesn’t matter the strategies or concepts developed and implemented by the business such as the price point strategy; it is the quality of service provided by the restaurant staff that sets the company apart from other companies in the same industry. Customer service or quality service delivery starts the moment a customer sets his or her foot on the restaurant implying that every single action by an employee in the restaurant affects the customers experience whether directly or indirectly. Therefore, development of teamwork efforts helps in delivering quality services in the restaurant.
The restaurant business can be categorized into two main divisions regarding quality service provision. The company has both the front line staff as well as the back line staff. The frontline staffs engage mostly in interacting with the customers to facilitate effective service delivery. They get orders from the customers and serve their warrants respectively (Kliegl & Weaver, 2014). They are trained to offer exclusive customer service and therefore their communication, their dressing and hygiene are very critical in creating the first impression to the customers about the quality of service provided by the company. In most cases complains arise from the customers who may be as a result of not meeting the customer expectations and it’s during that time employees keep on blaming each other. Such blame games affect the efforts to build teamwork in the hotels and contribute to poor service delivery. The development of teamwork strategies between amongst the employees plays a vital role in service quality delivery in the restaurant. One of the key factors to enhance effective teamwork is through effective communication strategies between the front line employees and the back line employees who are engaged mostly in cooking services and other management services such as accounting and supply chain functions (Dabholkar, 2015). The first step to developing effective teamwork is to change the organization or business culture from individual performance culture where each employee strives to achieve his or her own goals and daily targets to a corporate culture which recognizes that corporate efforts work magic in improving organizational and individual performance. Having a few relaxing moments for the employees working in the restaurant helps in team building and also supports the employees to get to know each other outside of their working relationships.
Effective Teamwork Strategies in Restaurants
A committed team to the delivery of quality service helps in sustaining the customer’s confidence with the service providers, attracts more customers and contributes to increased business growth by maximizing on the company profits and focusing on improving customer satisfaction. Quality service defines the customer’s overall impression of the restaurant (Kaura et al., 2015). It is essential for the employees in the restaurant to understand the five dimension of quality service including; tangible services, the reliability of the service, the responsiveness of the employees to customer concerns, assurance of their services as well as creating empathy with the customers. The success of teamwork will be determined by their capacity to understand this five dimension concerning customer service. Every team member should be reliable when called upon to offer services to the customers; he or she should be emphatic and responsive in meeting customer needs and demands. The management of the restaurants should, therefore, develop active team working strategies aimed at improving their service delivery. There is a healthy relationship between teamwork and quality of services offered. The stronger the team efforts, the higher or, the more quality the services provided are. Collaboration contributes to sharing of ideas amongst the employees as well as improved decision making concerning customer service in the restaurant (Aikins et al., 2014). It contributes to increased innovative power among the employees which will enhance the restaurant quality service through the provision of exclusive services and hence resulting in increased competitive advantage. Teamwork contributed to minimization of possible errors amongst the employees in their attempt to offer services which help to improved business efficiency and productivity.
To enhance teamwork in the restaurants there is important to continuously offer training to the employees on the importance of teamwork and the needs corporate efforts towards the realization of the business goals. Lack of effective implementation of teamwork strategies is as a result of the business culture that provides that individual efforts are more important in the growth of a business compared to collective team efforts (Hussain et al., 2015). The organizational culture of competition in the business where each employee competes with the others to meet certain targets has negatively impacted on quality service. Competition amongst employees contributes to decreased employee performance and consequently reduce their motivation to offer quality services and especially amongst employees who do not perform well. It also contributes to demoralization and negative energy towards work. There is a need to develop quality service management systems which discourage negative competition in the restaurant business and adopt competition policies which are aimed at improving customer service delivery in the business (Gera et al., 2017). The strategies should be focused on improving customer service and providing innovative solutions to create quality services in a bid to meet the increasing customer demands and the company focus to achieve customer satisfaction.
Importance of Quality Service in a Restaurant
Teamwork in the organization has also been affected by the increasing employee turnover in the restaurant industry. Most of the restaurant businesses are found to focus more their profitability and therefore have recorded high turnover rates compared to other sectors (Hill & Alexander, 2017). Increased turnover destabilize the functions of the restaurant and impact on service delivery on their customers. For effective teamwork in the business and achievement of organizational quality service goals, there is a significant need for the management of restaurants to balance organizational profitability goals, employee retention goals as well as the need to enhance their quality service delivery. Training, learning and knowledge management contributes to increased quality service delivery (Kasiri et al., 2018). Lack of customer service skills amongst employees as well as lack of team working skills contributes negatively to the improvement of service delivery to the customers. Team working skills include having specific responsibilities for the team that is aimed at improving service delivery. Development of health competition such as rewarding the teams which will attract more positive responses from customer’s plays a more significant role in enhancing teamwork as well as quality service delivery.
The role of team building in the restaurant business is to strengthen the bond between the organizational or business staff. With increased teamwork, every member of the company or every employee in the restaurant business is equally motivated to achieve organizational goals and objectives. It contributes to improved quality service delivery through offering an enjoyable customer experience. A satisfied customer with the services of the restaurant will act as an indirect promotional agent to the restaurant by referring customers (Alzaydi et al., 2017). This shows a direct relationship between quality service delivery, teamwork, and organizational productivity. Team working helps to bring on board the lazy employees in the business and help them develop their efforts and change their attitudes towards work instead of retrenching the unproductive workers which may have further impacts on the image of the company and their productivity. The development of active team working is therefore not a function of the management team alone but also takes the collective efforts of all employees in the organization as well as the management team.
Development of active team working strategies benefits the employees, the business management team as well as the business customers. The employees of the restaurant benefit highly from high performing teams as the employees can share their responsibilities with other employees who help them to alleviate the burden of the whole projects in the businesses. The employees can share ideas with each other and can adapt to various job challenges arising from a sad day in the work which would have drained their efforts and attitudes towards work (Xu et al., 2017). Increased collaboration contributes to enhanced quality service delivery. On the other hand, the organization benefits from improved employee performance implying that they can meet the organizational goals and objectives efficiently which contributes to increased organizational productivity. Increased employee performance about business growth provides a company with a competitive advantage over their competitors in the industry. The company or businesses can develop regarding their service delivery in the industry and increased profitability of the company. The company customer base will also increase helping the market to improve their profitability. On the other hand, the customers can benefit from quality services from the restaurant and have their expectations. Through the team, the customers can gain increased customer satisfaction with the services provided (Hill & Brierley, 2017). The group helps the management to reduce their efforts in governing their employees as the team can work effectively with each other and contribute to increased performance. The managers can, therefore, focus on developing other aspects of the business other than concentrate on supervising the employees. Consequently, the development of active team working strategies in the restaurant business contributes to increased service quality service to the company.
Conclusion
In the previous chapter of literature review it found that teamwork plays a significant role in the quality service in most of the restaurants and consequently, a substantial number of restaurants are trying to enhance teamwork. This chapter of research methodology presents relevant data collected to evaluate the research topic (Abowitz & Toole, 2018). The section will start with the introduction of the research, the methods that will be used in the data collection. The chapter will also cover validity and reliability of the chosen techniques.
Research design entails two broad kinds: qualitative and quantitative. This study will adopt a mixed research design of both the qualitative and quantitative as it is the best for data collection, analysis, and information in a single research study (Gurtoo, 2011). Additionally, the mixed method is advantageous as it allows the researcher to identify some aspects that would have been covered by one tool through another. The mixed tool will compose of the literature review and semi-structured interview.
Literature review forms a significant role in supporting how teamwork enhances quality service in restaurants, majorly as an exploratory design and as descriptive design (Routray et al., 2015). Through the use of qualitative research “why” teamwork enhance quality service in restaurants will be realized instead of “how” since it focuses on developed initial understanding out of the study. Therefore, in this study to get more understanding on the teamwork, quality service and the impacts of teamwork on quality service in a restaurant, the researcher applied a depth interview and to support the qualitative study.
The research study population consists of supervisors and managers from different hotels. Therefore, a sample framework is drawn from the pool of the managers and supervisors through random selection of a limited number of 200. As stated by Daley et al., (2018) that for any sampling method. Legitimate and dependable research study, the sample should not be less than 25% pi its population. The sample size in this case will be 60 of which 30 to be managers and 30 to be supervisors.
In research study, sampling method provide wide variety of procedures that allow the researcher to minimize the number of respondents and information collected by having the most appropriate that will address the problem statement. The research will apply both the simple random sampling and purposive sampling (Thomson et al., 2017). The simple random sampling will be used to select the restaurants so as each restaurant stands and equal chance of participation, while the purposive sampling will target only the supervisors and the managers of the selected restaurants to participate in the interview as they are the only people with first-hand information about the impact of teamwork on the quality of services.
The primary data collection instrument is the semi-structured interview guide. The interview is more appropriate for this study since it allows the respondents to provide feedback that is slightly more elaborate and expansive than close-ended questionnaires. The meeting will take place in two steps approach, whereby the first interview will identify and understand how the teamwork in various restaurants affects quality service (Owen, 2014). On the other, another second interview that will more structure aims to have the respondents to rate the quality service items that will be identified in the first phase along with their level of satisfaction. The second phase interview, therefore, focused on the critical aspects of quality service that will be determined in the first phase (Lloyd & Hopkins, 2015). The interview guide will be administered by the researcher directly to select respondents either by a person or by phone.
Before the actual interview, the guide will be subjected to a pilot test. A convenient sample of three respondents from among the managers and supervisors of the selected restaurants will be chosen and interviewed. The result of this interview is used to test the understandability and comprehensiveness of the questions designed to collect information and make some approximate adjustments before the final data collection process.
The data analysis will be conducted into two phases, whereby the first phase will involve the grouping of the aspects of the quality services that are impacted by the teamwork through the use of significant themes in the excel (Gerstenblatt, 2013). These will give a summary of the responses from the respondents, that will be counted, and frequencies and percentages will be generated on each. The quality service aspects that will score more than 30% will be used in the next phase of data analysis.
The second phase of data analysis will entail the frequencies and percentages through correlation to determine the relationship between teamwork and quality services. The findings then will be presented using tables and charts.
Conclusion
This research has a purpose of ascertaining how teamwork impacts quality service in restaurants. Part of the solution has been identified through the exploration of the literature reviews while other parts are ascertained through actual data selection to affirm the problem statement. Teamwork in restaurants is a form of empowerment that motivates employees to achieve a particular goal, through receiving a greater sense of accomplishment and job satisfaction.
The researcher observed that teamwork results in the empowerment of the individual and that positively impacts the quality of service to customers, as workload is reduced upon each. Collaboration also tends to develop more flexible and creative ways of service and food production that aims at achieving a common goal of satisfying a customer to the fullest through the teamwork. The restaurant’s staffs use one another as a resource that compliments each other hence improved speed of the process, less fatigue and eventually jobs satisfaction of most of the employees.
Job satisfaction majorly determines the moods and how restaurants employees majorly on the service departments tend to approach customers. From the research, it is clear that pool of staffs working as a team tend to have a clear communication style, an aspect that is important in every organization since performance and quality of products and service depend on the instructions from the leaders and among the employees themselves. From the study, it is observable that, motivated waiting staffs tend to serve customer more positively than the less motivated counterparts. Thus teamwork has a direct impact on the quality of service that customers receive from the restaurant’s staff.
References
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