Developing Collective Customer Knowledge And Service Climate – Training Program For McDonald’s Employees

Background of McDonald’s

Discuss about the Developing Collective Customer Knowledge and Service Climate.

McDonald’s is one of the oldest and best established fast food chains established in 1940 and is well known for the variety of products and also the state of the art services provided by the firm. It is reported to be one of the best companies operating in the fast food industry (Ravichandran et al., 2015). The company considers the need of providing best quality training and development programs to better the skill sets of the employees and also expose them to a greater number of opportunities in the field of career development. The most important fact in this context is that the firm uses techniques and strategies in their training plans and programs that are I line with the business objectives of the firm.

Increasingly, the firm has noticed a performance in gap in most stores if not all stores where it is currently operating especially in the context of customer servicing and management. There are reportedly long queues in every store and so the customers are not feeling the most comforted and are often ending up complaining. Further there are a lot of new employees and also quite a good proportion of employees who are not aware of the new deals and offers and are also not able to properly assist the customers with respect to the specifications and customizations of different products that they produce and sell. Thus, the firm increasingly needs to focus on this problem and make sure that the performance gap identified in this context is reduced and in fact removed if possible (Dhar, 2015). Thus, the firm will have to take proper steps to ensure that a proper training and development plan is both formulated and implemented so that the employees are able to better cater to the needs of the customers and the clients. This plan is both built and demonstrated with the help of this paper.

As the performance gap has been identified in the customer servicing and management section of the firm and needs to be worked upon, the training is to be provided to the employees directly involved in providing services to the customers in the different stores where this problem has risen, that is the workers who are involved with billing, serving the customers and interacting with customers directly on a daily basis are the major participants (Zhu & Sharma, 2017). This will also be accompanies by the managers working in the store management section so that they help and groom the employees accordingly. The managers will majorly be responsible for monitoring and availing the entire process and hence making sure that the productivities of the employees in the respect of performance gap is improved most importantly. Further, the human resources managers trainers will also form the most important group of participants who will be both providing the training as well as evaluating the assessments and results of the training process.

Participants

The amalgamated efforts from the employees that need to learn about the product, about managing long lines of the customers and gain knowledge about the various promotional or ongoing discounts and offers. This will not only help the employees to perform better and help in removing the dissatisfaction of the customers, but it will also eventually help the firm as a whole to adhere to the business objectives of maximum customer cooperation and satisfaction and also help to increase the revenue generation of the firm. On the part of the trainers, the training program will allow them to know about the views and problems of the employees. It will also help them in understanding how the current customer market scenario is different and why are these problems arising. On the part of the managers, they will be able to act as coordinators and also as evaluators of the entire process and so will be able to take proper initiatives and steps towards informing the highest authoritative body of the firm about these problems and hence formulate new strategies and techniques through disruptive models so that the firm as a whole is able to cater to the changing demands of the customers.

To address the challenges faced by the firm and in order to reduce the problems in the context of customer servicing as described above the firm needs to formulate and frame a plan of training which is described in this section of the paper.

The two most important theories of training and development that are to be used by the firm in this regard are the theories of connectivism and behaviorism (Cascio, 2018). The theory of behaviorism states that the employees should be behaved and groomed in such a way that they are able to behave and hold themselves up in the very same way in front of the consumers. In this context the training plan should include features that ensure behavioral techniques along with product and offer knowledge.

The theory of connectivism states that the training plan should be framed and formulated in such a way that the trainers feel connected and can place themselves in the shoes of the employees and understands their problems so that they in turn are able to relate to the problems of the customers and help them out effectively. In this context, again the employees will be able to understand the reason and thought process of the consumers’ complaints and hence provide them better services.

• To teach the employees about the various behavioral aspects and also increase the speed of billing in order to avoid long queues
• To train and educate the employees on all the different products and also train them on how to customize the products according to the needs of the customer
• To train the employees on the various ongoing offers and discounts across all the stores of the company in order to avoid mismatch of information,.
• To achieve the above and hence reach a reduction in performance gap so that the amount of revenue generation increases for the next financial year.

Program Plan

The Schedule and plan of activities that will be conducted are described I details in the following table:

The method of delivery in this case will include the techniques of on the job training as well as classroom training.  The trainers and managers will first induce the employees about the entire background of the firm and how ideally customers should both be greeted and treated in the stores. The following steps will be taken for imparting the classroom trainings:

The employees will be provided intense and in depth lecture about the various products and the discounts and offers ongoing in the firm and this will be done rigorously with the help of videos, charts, diagrams and presentations so that the employees can get a pictorial view and can place themselves in the very mindset as to how they should be professionally behave and care for the needs of the customers.

The next step of delivery of the training will involve the discussions in between the trainers and trainees so that the problems and concerns of the employees can be discussed and also the insight gained by the employees can be monitored and evaluated (Bryman & Bell, 2015).

Next, the amount of knowledge gained or the increase in efficiency of the employees will be judged and evaluated. The assessments will depend upon the products, characteristics of the products and customer ethics and behaviors, that is the entire material covered in the lectures and discussions.

After this the on the job training delivery will be conducted in the stores itself where the application of the learning will be monitored and evaluated (Keogh, Espinosa & Grigg, 2016). The employees will be under surveillance in the stores and how they are applying the techniques and strategies taught to them will be watched and feedback will be shared based on the same.

For imparting the proper kind of training including the lectures and discussions as well as the on the job training, the trainers should also be well informed about the procedures, policies and background existing in the context of the problem persisting in the customer servicing section. The instructions that the trainers need to follows are enlisted herein:

• The trainers should themselves be knowledgeable enough and should know about all the products and offers and discounts
• The trainers should develop modules and videos and presentations that enlist all the requirements of customer servicing as well as the rules and principles that underlie the context of customer servicing
• The trainers should themselves be present on the floor while evaluating and monitoring the on the job part of the training
• The trainers should frame assessments and workshops as well as discussions in such a way that the employees feel comfortable and the trainers are approachable so that their problems and concerns are addressed and they feel more confident than before.

The results and reports of the assessments (both classroom and on the job) should be assessed and evaluated and internal feedback sessions should be held regularly between the trainer and each employee trained in the first round. In the next round of feedback sessions, the trainees will be going one on one session with the managers (Jiang, Chuang & Chiao, 2015). The evaluation of the reports of the customer feedbacks shall also be used for efficiently to allocate the employees properly in different departments depending upon the skills he is best trained at or is the best performing in.

Learning Theories Used

The resources essentially required for this purpose does not include any huge infrastructural requirements but will require a lot of resources in the context of trainers and managers. The other equipments needed will include the means by which the employees can be demonstrated the use of different techniques and strategies using which the customer servicing can be improved and made more satisfying. Further new equipment installation will also be needed which can record the feedbacks and views of the customers. Other equipments that will be needed to improve training results include more automated devices that will speed up few processes like the billing process at different stores.

• Handouts and power points related to the set of policies and rules that the employees at each store irrespective of the department he is placed in is supposed to adhere to
• List of rules for the greeting of customers who are in the servicing section or department of the store
• List of rules and regulations including both presentations and handouts for the employees in the servicing serving the customers
• List of rules and regulations including both presentations and handouts for the employees in the billing section
• Business ethics and codes of conduct with respect to behavior and knowledge depth of the products and the specialization options of the employees working in both the briefing and the billing section
• Business ethics and codes of conduct with respect to behavior and knowledge depth of the employees about the various offers and discounts and events occurring in that particular week or month or that year.
• Steps and procedures for operating the new ordering and billing equipments in a faster and more convenient way as compared to before

The list of handouts and presentations that the trainers and managers should specifically be acquainted with include all the above mentioned lists as well as the following set of handouts.

• The set of points on the basis of which customers shall be providing feedbacks
• The handouts containing the list of criteria based on which the proficiency and productivities of the employees will be judged post training
• The handouts containing the detailed list of modules based on which the trainers are going to provide classroom sessions
• The list of points on the basis of which the managers will be holding the one on one sessions of the employees trained after evaluation of their respective performances
• The list of details based on which the customer feedbacks will be formed and framed
• The list of deliverables of the employees or the parameters that will be effectively decide the department where the employee will be placed after the training assessments and feedbacks (both internal and external) are evaluated and monitored

Apart from the list of presentations and handouts mentioned above, the trainees, trainers and the managers should compulsorily have the list of timings and the entire timeframe of the whole process of the timeframe so that all the employees can align their other responsibilities on an everyday basis accordingly.

The technologies required for the entire process will include projectors, white boards, laptops, immensely meticulous surveillance systems and software (Jiang, Chuang & Chiao, 2015). The other forms of technologies and equipments that will be needed to enhance the outcomes or productivities of the employees in addition to their own potential and capabilities include machines that will automate and fasten the processes of billing, servicing and briefing the customers and make it easier for the employees to make the conversations with the customers more didactic. Apart, from all these equipments, there should also be enhanced and technologically innovative software that can efficiently record customer data based on the feedbacks they provide and also their set of tastes and preferences.

In addition to all of the equipments and technology that are mentioned above, the firm will also need to implement the use of smart devices and software that will help collect information about the training methods and evaluation processes and frameworks being implemented by other firms and competitors in the same industry so that these employees can be better trained and the limits of revenue generation and customer satisfaction existing and persistent in this industry can be pushed further and extended as a whole (Stisen et al. 2015).

The location of the training will include the offices of the firm existing in the cities where the stores are faced with this problem and also the stores for on the job training where the performance gap has been noticed.

Objectives of the Plan

The staff for the training that is the participants that will be involved with the process of the entire training and development program will include the managers, the trainers (including the classroom training providers, on the job training provider and evaluators) and the employees who are working in the concerned departments across the different stores where this problem has been noticed.

The parts of the training where the classroom sessions are conducted and sessions with mangers are conducted will not involve much expenditure. However, the implementation of the automated devices, smart devices and the infrastructure for demonstrating and providing lectures and even the software will need some amount of investment. The particulars of the budget are illustrated in the following table in an approximate manner:

It might be possible that the management might not agree with all the rules and regulations or methods being implied and applied to better the situation of the customer servicing process. They may also pose limitations and barriers as to paying attention or heed to the problems being faced by the employees in providing the best services to the customers due to the changing market scenario and the changing tastes, preferences and demands of the customers. Further the managers might not agree to evaluate and monitor the issues and the process of training as it will require a lot of human resource allocation as well as time along with the expenditure to be incurred. Further, the management might not agree with the plan being the best fit for reducing the performance and might simply not approve the whole plan or even the need of the training process.

The training will only be successful and fruitful and will help in reducing the investigated performance gap only if there exists a situation of combined effort on part of the managers, trainers and most importantly the employees. If there is lack of participation and interest from any one set of the participants involved , it will impose potential and significant barriers to the process of training and development. Further the perception of the performance gap as perceived by the trainers and the different managers and even the higher authorities might not be the same. The differences in the efforts and perceptions will impose greater barriers on the entire process of training and development.

The budget presented above is only an approximation and the real values might differ significantly from the above prescribed values. In case the budget exceeds these anticipated values or is even at the level where it is anticipated at, the management and the higher authorities might not agree to incur this amount of expenditure. They might also not agree to take up the process of training and development at all as they might think it is more important to adhere to other business scenarios and solve other more important issues prevailing in the system.

The priorities and interests of the different group of participants will be varying and will hence impose potential areas of preventing the training and development program from operating smoothly and without any obstructions. Conflicting priorities is generally applicable in cases when the firm is faced with two or more performance gaps and the higher authorities and managers differ in the opinions as to which should be worked on before the other.

References:

Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.

Cascio, W. (2018). Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.

Dhar, R. L. (2015). Service quality and the training of employees: The mediating role of organizational commitment. Tourism Management, 46, 419-430.

Jiang, K., Chuang, C. H., & Chiao, Y. C. (2015). Developing collective customer knowledge and service climate: The interaction between service-oriented high-performance work systems and service leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(4), 1089.

Keogh, J., Espinosa, H., & Grigg, J. (2016). Evolution of smart devices and human movement apps: recommendations for use in sports science education and practice. Journal of Fitness Research, 5(Special Issue ASTN-Q Conference, August, 2016), 14.

Ravichandran, S., Cichy, K. E., Powers, M., & Kirby, K. (2015). Exploring the training needs of older workers in the foodservice industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 44, 157-164.

Stisen, A., Blunck, H., Bhattacharya, S., Prentow, T. S., Kjærgaard, M. B., Dey, A., … & Jensen, M. M. (2015, November). Smart devices are different: Assessing and mitigatingmobile sensing heterogeneities for activity recognition. In Proceedings of the 13th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (pp. 127-140). ACM.

Zhu, J., & Sharma, M. (2017). How do Organizations Measure the ROI or Impact of Leadership Training and Development Programs?.

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