Customer Complaint Behavior Towards Hotel Restaurant Services - Case Study Example

Assessment 1 – Critical Incident Study: Part A Student’s Name Grade Course: Tutor’s Name: Date: Executive Summary This paper is divided into three sections. The first part provides a detailed description of a critical incident that occurred in what used to be this writer’s favourite restaurant. The first part also applies the critical incident technique (CIT) to the scenario and indicates that the situation, its relevance, the critical interaction that failed to happen between the waiter and the customer and dimension aspects that included cognitive and affective responses all affected this writer’s decision to stop going back for more service purchases. The second part of the paper provides an analysis of the critical incident, and through an extensive evaluation of literature, indicates several explanations that led to the scenario described in the paper. This part offers a discussion on the elements of customer satisfaction and aspects of consumer loyalty. The expectation disconfirmation theory is also offered as an explanation to why this writer may have reacted the way he did. The theory argues that people usually have preconceived expectations before purchasing a service. If their expectations are not met, consumers end up being dissatisfied. Part three of this paper offers recommendations to the service provider and indicates the need to staff the restaurant with the right number of employees, train new staff and recruit qualified staff. Additionally, the paper recommends equipping staff members with recovery strategies and methods to respond with during service failures, and concludes by recommending the importance of passing effective organisational culture to new employees. Part 1: Critical Incident Description I have always been a loyal customer to my local restaurant since it was established three years ago. I like the service, the décor, the food, and the friendly nature of the waiters. My loyalty however changed three weeks ago. I went to the restaurant eager to eat my favourite meal as I always did on Friday. Getting to the restaurant, I noticed some changes – nothing dramatic, but changes all the same. It seemed that the restaurant owner had replaced the entire staff. The waiters were new faces, and so were the cashier and the chef, whose face I could see from where I chose to sit. ‘Things can only change for the better’, I thought to myself. The attending waiter handed me the menu promptly and moved on to attend to other customers. Understandably, every Friday evening was a busy time for this local restaurant. However, she took approximately seven minutes before coming to get my order. I looked around and noted what the problem was – the restaurant was understaffed. Usually, there are about five waiters serving a restaurant whose sitting capacity is about 50 people. Today, I could only spot three waiters. But that was not all, it took another 15 minutes before I was served, and even then, the food was not hot as I liked – it was almost cold. No apologies were offered for the delay. I tasted it, but did not like the taste either. It was clear that the new chef had a new way of cooking my favourite dish of fish. I left my meal almost untouched save for one bite, paid my bills, did not complain, and have never been back to what used to be my favourite restaurant ever since. My experience marked a critical incident, in that I no longer frequent what used to be my favourite neighbourhood restaurant. According to Hughes (2007, p. 2), a critical incident as used in the critical incident technique (CIT) marks a “major crisis or turning point”. The four considerations in CIT that may have impacted me the most include: I) situation (i.e. a restaurant, whose customer service did not satisfy me, the client); II) relevance (i.e.as a result of my dissatisfaction, I haven’t gone back to the restaurant. Ideally, I have lost the satisfaction that I used to get from the restaurant, but they too have lost a client. My behaviour is also relevant to consumer behaviour especially in the service industry); III) Critical interaction (the waiter did not give the menu in good time, took time to take and deliver orders, brought cold food, and did not offer an apology); and IV) dimension aspects (my experience was possibly influenced by cognitive responses (I knew what services the restaurant offered before and so I expected the same or better), affective responses (I was frustrated by the service delay), and possibly cultural influences (the restaurant had a warm culture that was radiated by its staff. Changing all staff members therefore provided a sudden change to clients who had to adapt to the new members of staff). Part 2: Critical Incident Analysis According to Schorr, Campbell and Schenk (2003, p. 568), CIT “pinpoints precise sources of functional and dysfunctional performance in organisations based on actual events, highlighting necessary improvements in communication”. In his seminal work, Flanagan (cited by Serenko & Stach 2009) indicates that an incident is a human activity that is observable and complete in a manner that permits people to make predictions and inferences from it. CIT allows users to collect, analyse and interpret actions related to specific experiences (Serenko & Stach 2009). From the above incident, it is obvious that customer satisfaction was affected by surprise. The customer was surprised that his expectations of quality service and food were different from the actual performance of the chef and waiter. As Berman (2005, p. 135) indicates, “Satisfaction is based on meeting or exceeding expectations”. Berman (2005) further notes that surprise increases the intensity of anger and/or dissatisfaction experienced by a customer. From the above, the customer was dissatisfied but did not even register a complaint because he had not grown accustomed to the new restaurant attendants. The newness of the restaurant staff was a surprise factor for him. The critical incident highlighted above also portrays how consumer loyalty is affected by consumption experiences. Shankar, Smith and Rangaswamy (2003) define loyalty as a commitment to a service provider, brand or store by an existing customer. Loyal customers have favourable attitudes towards an item or place and hence make up a significant percentage of repeat customers. The critical incident above portrays this writer as a loyal customer to the restaurant in question. Observably, a customer can sever loyalty after experiencing a dissatisfying incident. In literature (Shankar et al. 2003; Oliver 1980), it is clear that loyalty results from favourable customer experiences formed from repeat purchase experiences over a period of time. The expectation disconfirmation theory (Oliver 1980; Oliver 1977), which argues that consumers anticipate the level of service they are going to get before purchasing a service, can also explain this writer’s reaction to poor service delivery in the restaurant. The foregoing theory indicates that consumers form valid perceptions of a service based on whether the service provided met their pre-purchase expectations. A negative disconfirmation occurs when the provided service does not match up to the expectations of the customer (Yi 2005). Going by this argument therefore, it can be said that this writer’s reaction to the arguably poor service at the restaurant was as a result of negative disconfirmation of service expectations. The critical incident above also had problems in the service system (delay in getting and delivering orders), reaction to customer request (food was not delivered in good time and in the right temperature), employee’s behaviour (no apologies were offered), and there was no correction (e.g. the customer would have overlooked the delay if an apology was offered and/or hot food served). Hu et al. (2013) identified five categories through which service recovery can be offered. They include reliability (e.g. the waiter could have inquired why the food was not eaten and warm it if need be or refund the customer); tangible compensation (e.g. money back or a free meal some other time); responsiveness (e.g. quick action by the waiter); affability (i.e. inquiring and/or listening with sincerity to consumer concerns); and caring (includes offering an apology and/or a promise for better service in future). The importance of recovery activities is underscored by Craighead, Karwan and Miller (2004, p. 307) who argue that “service failures do not need to result in permanent negative consequences”. The authors indicate that effective recovery activities should be undertaken in order to remedy service failures. However, the foregoing requires service providers to be discerning of consumer behaviour because not all customers express their dissatisfaction by registering a complaint (Tronvoll 2007). Some (like happened in the critical incident) do not complain; rather, they leave never to come back. Others share their negative experiences with other consumers but do not register formal complaints with the service provider (Heung & Lam 2003; Tronvoll 2007). Even though inaction by a dissatisfied customer may appear like it does not affect the service provider much, Metehan and Yasemin (2011) indicate that the service provider needs to engage in customer complaint management in order to eliminate the discontent or circumstance leading to customers’ dissatisfaction. Part 3: Recommendations for Provider As inferred in part 1, change can bring improvements in service delivery. However, change also needs to be progressive and well-prepared for. The service delays in the restaurant were caused by understaffing. The labour-intensive nature of the service industry (especially in restaurants and hotels) is well documented (Hess Jr., Gansen & Klein 2003). To avoid delays such as the one this writer experienced, it would be advisable to staff the restaurant with the right number of employees. This recommendation is important for several reasons. First, Olivia and Sterman (2001) indicate that understaffing can result in poor service quality and this eventually leads to customer dissatisfaction. Secondly, dissatisfied customers can sever their loyalty (i.e. by stopping to patronise a service provider) (Heskett et al. 2004), and may also express their dissatisfaction in ways that would cause further losses (e.g. through negative publicity) to the service provider (Park, Park & Gaur 2010). Ultimately, the financial performance of the service-providing business suffers (Maxham, Netemeyer & Lichenstein 2008). Secondly, this paper recommends proper training of the existing staff and hiring of qualified personnel in future. The waiters can for example benefit from a communication programme on effective communication with the customers. As Hoffman and Bateson (2007) note, service failures are bound to happen in service delivery; however, service providers need to train their staff members to adopt actions and activities that amend, rectify or restore the experience to a consumer in order to enhance or improve the trust that such a customer has towards the service provider. Explained, the foregoing would amount to the service provider admitting their shortcomings and amending or rectifying any loss or discomfort caused to the customer. Naturally, admission of wrongdoing does not come naturally to everybody. As such, staff members (especially waiters) need training on effective communication of shortcomings in service delivery, and should also be trained and equipped with effective recovery methods. New staff, especially waiters and waitresses should also be made to understand the importance of relationships in a service provision setting. As Bendapudi and Berry (2007, p. 16) indicate, a “relationship exists when an individual exchange is assessed not in isolation, but as a continuation of past exchanges likely to continue into the future”. Already, the critical incident above implies that this writer had a service relationship with the previous staff members. Getting used to and forming new relationships with the new staff members would most likely take some time. However, the initial interactions with the new staff can affect whether the customer would like to come for repeat service purchases or not. Friendliness from the waiter would have been a step in the right direction. Oliver (1999, p. 34) defines relationships formed by consumers as the “commitment to re-buy or re-patronise a preferred service consistently in the future”. On their part, Hess Jr. et al. (2003) indicate that such relationships do not necessarily involve emotional attachment or strong social bonds; rather, they are driven by a desire by the consumer to continue interacting with the services and their cognitive loyalty. It is therefore recommended that service providers should train their staff members to continually give their customers a reason to want to continue interacting with the service and a reason to be loyal. In the subject incident for example, this writer would go to the restaurant for the food and for the dining experience. It is imperative for the hotel owners to ensure that the quality of food and service delivery remains unaffected (or affected positively) with any changes that are put in place. Finally, it is recommendable that new staff members spend time with existing staff in order to learn the organisational culture. For example, if the new chef had spent time with the previous chef, chances are that the quality of food (in relation to ingredients and cooking methods) used would remain constant. Part of the reason why this writer will not be going back to the restaurant is that no matter how good the service offered by the restaurant’s staff is, it cannot compensate for food that does not taste as good as a customer would like it to. Arguably, customers can withstand delays in service delivery if they are assured that the food will be worth the wait. In conclusion therefore, it is important for the local restaurant to understand what drives consumer behaviour. Generally, consumers like to get value for their money. Being human, consumers also understand that mistakes happen. However, it is the service provider’s reaction and recovery after a service failure that affects the willingness of consumers to come for repeat purchases after the service failure. 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