The area of focus included our major categories; the overall customer service being provided, the cleanliness of the restaurant, the preparation and quality of the food, and the functionality of the website for the restaurant. We believe the results gathered from our research along with implementation of suggested recommendations will help the business achieve greater sales and maintain employee retention. On behalf of Team C we would like to thank you for this opportunity to conduct this research on Applause’s of Guests.
If you have any questions or recommendations please feel free to contact us at We will be happy to answer any questions offering to your possible Inquiries or recommendations about our research. We look forward to continuing to build a professional relationship with you In the future. Team C Member Table of Contents Introduction -? . 4 Background History…. 4-5 Mission Statement Values -? 6 Menu Presentation Customer Experience 7-8 Atmosphere Appearance Website -? 9-11 Online Ordering Employment Opportunities Synthesis Power Point Recommendations -? 12-14 References . 5 Introduction Customer service is an essential part of the overall customer experience, not only the ability to meet customers’ needs but to exceed them on a larger scale. As a food service provider restaurants must provide service before, during, and after purchase. The backbone of the restaurant industry is, essentially, repeat customers. Good customer experience fosters loyalty and customer loyalty depends largely on customer satisfaction. Customer service in restaurants is about the hospitality that the customer receives from the host/hostess, the wait staff, and the management staff.
Customer satisfaction is what keeps that customer returning time and time again to the same restaurant. In order to offer Applause’s some insight for improved customer service, Group C has conducted a secret shopper survey. We visited the restaurant, observed the overall customer service being provided, the cleanliness of website for the restaurant. Background/History Applause’s first restaurant opened on November 19, 1980 in Decatur, Georgia. The founders of what was then known as TX Applause’s Rag for Edibles & Elixirs were Bill Palmer and his wife TX Palmer.
Mr.. Palmer had previously been employed by Burger King as a Franchise District Manager. While working there he came to the realization that he no longer wanted to make money for another company, but for himself. TX had faith that the two of them could accomplish anything together. So, they proceeded to open the first Applause’s restaurant. The success of Applause’s has grown; there are more than 1900 franchise locations across the United States and Europe. In 1986 the name of the restaurant officially changed to Applause’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar.
In 2008 the name of the company changed to Dine Mission Statement A company’s mission statement defines the purpose of the company. It guides the company’s actions and focuses on the company’s goals. The mission statement of Applause’s is the same as Dine Equity, its parent company. “Dine Equity unites great franchisees, brands and team members to create the world’s leading restaurant company, one guest experience at a time. ” (Farman, n. D. ) Core values are the principal beliefs that guide organization’s actions and conduct, internally as well as externally.
Values are the soul of a company’s identity and are the forces that drive the organizations activities. Applause’s core values are as follows (Farman, n. D. ): Integrity- to do the right thing Excellence – expect the best from all Innovation- to find creative ways to please guests Accountability- do as we promise and be accountable for our actions Inclusion- to respect and value the diversity of others Trust- collaborates and builds trust though open honest communication Community- to make a difference in the neighborhoods and communities served (Farman, n. D. One of the most important elements when going out to dinner is the benefit that the customer will receive from a product or service in comparison with its cost. Applause’s prices range from $6. 99 for a grilled cheese and a bowl of soup to $17. 69 for Shrimp ‘n Parmesan Sirloin. This gives the customer a range according to their edged. Applause’s also has specials “2 FOR $20” or “2 FOR $25” which means that two can eat for $20 – $25. This includes one appetizer or two salads and two entrees. For most, this would be considered a good value in price for the amount of food received.
For those who are watching calories, there is a “lighter side” also called the Weight Watcher menu to choose from, which offers dinners under 550 calories. Group C chose to order off of the special selection. Sherries and Tract ordered off the “2 for $20” while Eric and Alex ordered off the “2 for 25. ” Our salads were brought to us immediately after we ordered. Our dinner selections came out very quickly, too quickly as we had barely started eating our salads. By the time we were finished eating the salad, our food was cold.
We were missing a few side items that took longer than expected to come out. Alex asked for a side of ranch to eat with his Chicken Tender Basket, and Eric was missing ketchup for her Quadrille Burger with a side of fries. The presentation of the food was average, but it had a good flavor. There were no complaints regarding the quality, Just the timing. Menus are like a restaurant’s calling card or business card. It is the way that the assistant communicates to its customers. The presentation of the menu is important, it could determine the sales that are made.
Upon opening Applause’s menu the first thing a customer will see is a listing of cocktails and then a listing of appetizer; Applause’s is hoping to entice the customer into purchasing a cocktail or appetizer as it adds to the sale. The last page is where specials are placed. The placement of the specials at the back of the menu could be a way of having the customers look through the entire menu hoping to have the customer purchase something of greater value than the specials. Overall, Applause’s menu had a pleasing presentation.
Customer Experience Group C visited Applause’s on Wednesday, August 27th at 6:00 p. M. Upon entering Applause’s, we were standing around for about five minutes before we were greeted by our host, a young man named Matt, as his name tag clearly stated. He was neatly dressed, offered us any seat we wanted, and presented us with sticky menus. Our group was promptly greeted by a waitress, Becky, who was ready to take our drink orders. She was dressed inappropriately for her position. Her clothes were too tight to the point that it extenuated her muffin top.
The drink orders were not difficult, ranging from iced tea with lemon to water with lime. She brought them out promptly. Upon her arrival with the drinks, she asked in a nonchalant tone if we were ready to order. She did not automatically offer any information about the specials. We asked about what specials they had for dinner. She did not seem knowledgeable about the menu selections and specials. She haphazardly mentioned the two specials that were available at the end of the menu, if we wanted to look. Alex asked about adding extra chicken to his meal.
She smugly replied there would be a dollar upgrade. She gave the impression that we were bothering her with our inability to make a quick selection. The group’s salads came out immediately. Our meals showed up quicker than anticipated, after only partially consuming our salads the main dishes were brought out by a few of the bus boys who were disheveled in appearance. Ten minutes after our meal came out Becky came to our table and asked us how things were. We were missing a few side items and Alex needed ranch to eat his chicken. Which was okay as we were still working on our salads.
After bring the sides and ranch, she was asked to refill two of the waters. We saw her go to the other table and take an order before she went to retrieve our water. By the time she brought the water back we were done with the salads, and we had to ask her to take the plates. Once we had finished our dinner the manager came to the table to ask if we enjoyed our food. Atmosphere Atmosphere takes into account lighting, seating, colors, music, and even food. Applause’s has a very casual atmosphere. Customers would feel very comfortable bringing their children in for dinner.
The lounge provides televisions that could be enjoyed by a group coming in on a Saturday afternoon to watch college football. The lighting at our table was set for the dinner hour, with soft lighting, yet we were still the background, making conversations easy to be had. We were seated in a booth with plenty of room on the table for our drinks, plates, and silverware. Applause’s has a very comfortable and welcoming casual appeal. When arriving at the restaurant we noticed that the outside had pleasant curb appeal. The plants were well taken care of and the grounds were free of any debris.
However, there were some lights outside that were out and needed to be replaced. At night this could prove to be a safety hazard. The inside lobby appeared to be clean, but when we entered the ladies restroom it lacked the cleanliness that was displayed in the lobby. There was tissue paper on the floor, the floors were dirty, water had leaked around the commodes, and the soap dispensers leaked. Silverware had been placed on the table before arrival, unfortunately some of the silverware had food particles left on them and had to be replaced.
Website Applause’s, like most other businesses, has its own website. A website must be carefully targeted, wisely designed, and meet the expectations of the consumer visiting it. The main focus for restaurant websites should be to either sell a product or promote a product. There should be some sort of practicality with the options and you should be able to find out information about the company itself. Online Ordering When researching Applies. Com it was deemed that this website should be compared to other restaurants of the same nature and locale. Chills. Com and Arbitrageurs. Mom were closely related to Applause’s site and therefore made a good comparison. One of the options that most restaurants offer is online ordering for takeout. Applause’s: The convenient thing about Applies. Mom is that it assesses your location from the computer to automatically give you the closest restaurant. In this case it was in the Villages, but there was an option of choosing from eight other locations that were close in proximity to the Villages. You have to register your email to use the online ordering option but it was easy and you did not have to have email confirmation to proceed.
The site also had a record stored of your previous meal orders. It is common for customers to order the same meal or portions of the same meal when placing a new order. For example, if you love a certain hamburger and are ongoing to be ordering that particular meal 9 out of 10 times then you would have an option to pick that quickly instead of going through the menu options every time you place an order on line. Chili’s: Chili’s website looked very similar to Applause’s in the way a customer placed an order. They didn’t have the GAPS locator that conveniently finds the closest restaurant to your location.
Chili’s did have a nice feature off delivery service that could be utilized by those customers whose orders exceed $125. 00. Ruby Tuesdays: When looking at Ruby Tuesdays website it seemed to have online; this feature was not offered by Applause’s. A group order could be placed and the site had a prompt asking if you were hosting a meeting. This is a nice function to offer because this would allow the orders to be placed prior to arriving at the restaurant. The orders would then be prepared and ready for you. Separate checks could be requested and this would be tallied for each party.
This feature wasn’t offered on either of the other websites and if it was offered it wasn’t easily accessible. Reservations could also be made online. This is a really nice feature especially for large parties which reduces the wait time for a table. Global companies want the best employees to get the Job done. Finding potential workers who are the right ones can be a difficult task if your accessibility to information is limited. We will look at what kind of career opportunities you can find on the same three websites. Applause’s: Finding the tab to search career opportunities was quick and easy.
The first thing you see are three options. Local employment as an hourly team member, which is anything but store manager, management opportunities, and then corporate Job openings. Each option sends you to a different link and a different listing of Job opportunities. The biggest drawback is that when you are looking at a local Job listing, you are not able to determine if the position is for the closest restaurant to you. You are only able to choose from a wide range of open positions. So, how is an applicant supposed to know if the company is in need of a certain position or not.
Chili’s: Chili’s had many more options when compared to Applause’s. There were the same three career paths you could choose from. Hourly, corporate, and management. The big difference was when you pick the employment tab it brings you to a whole website dedicated to informing you of the attention perks, and things to look forward to when you have a Job at this company. The local listings were listed by Job. It let you know exactly what position was available. In addition, there was a tab for Spanish speaking people that have Jobs specifically catered towards them.
Ruby Tuesdays: There employment tab was very similar to Applause’s. It had the same three options, but the only difference was it does not let you see what is available. You have to create a “People Matter” account and go through the whole resume process before you can even see what is available. This is not as user friendly or informative. Getting the information to the consumers is key when looking at a company website. Whether the information is about employment, ordering online, or the general product of the food, it all should be helpful and accessible for every consumer to find.
Generally, the website Applies. Com is a helpful and convenient way to order food and find out a local restaurants location. It still lacks on many things including employment opportunities and various online ordering features. It is the team’s belief that if taken into consideration our suggestions could greatly help the corporation not only increase ales, but gain employees of superior quality. Recommendations The first impression that a customer experiences is very important. Customers usually decide during their first experience if they will be a repeat customer.
Group C has completed their customer service research on Applause’s restaurant and would customers and increase customer sales. These recommendations will help ensure the continued success of Applause’s restaurant in Guests, Florida. Applause’s needs to ensure the cleanliness of their establishment. The restrooms should be checked on a regular basis so that staff can ensure they are being kept clean. The staff needs to check the dishes and silverware to make sure they are free from food particles before giving them to the customer.
Maintenance of the outside lighting needs to be monitored and lights that are out need to be replaced, this is for the safety of the customers, as well as the employees. If the box televisions were replaced with large flat-screen television that are easier to see, this could increase the number of customers coming to watch sporting events, which would then increase customer sales. An additional sales technique would be to initiate a training program for the reverse in which they learn suggestive selling and engaging with the guests. The wait staff should make the customers feel like welcome guests and not like they are Just work.
These two steps alone would be a way to increase the average sales per customer and deliver a better guest experience. Menus are designed to appeal to the customer and to make customers hungry. A way to increase sales from food purchases is to add descriptors to their menu (Wanting, n. D. ). Adding descriptors to the food items such as “traditional, succulent, or grandma’s” it will increase the sale of these items. According to Wanting, not only do descriptors increase sales, they also have an influence on how the guest perceives the overall experience of the restaurant.
The most profitable piece of the restaurants business is the menu (Cranberry, 2013). The customer experience you receive when you dine can determine whether or not you will be a return customer and what you will share with other potential patrons. A negative experience spreads faster and farther than a positive experience. Making sure that your staff understands that this is crucial to developing and maintaining a thriving business. During our visit to Applause’s there seemed to be a bit of conflict of what customer service is amongst the staff.
Our waitress and other staff members could have benefited from an overall inspection of their attire. Some of the staff was dressed inappropriately for their size and some of the staff looked sloppy, giving an impression of uncleanness and incompetence. As the customer, we felt as if we were inconveniencing our waitress, making it uncomfortable to ask for assistance. Customers do not want to be where they are not wanted; this could lead to potential revenue loss. We would recommend that each employee undergo training in providing exemplary customer service and explain to them the importance of why.
Employees that cannot perform these duties should not be working with the customer. Regarding the website, companies don’t always have to be a first mover when dealing with e-commerce. With that being said, Applause’s should take a page out of their competitor’s playbook and add a few more functions. They already have the best location tool to find a location near you, but they need to add the catering options. If this is a feature they currently offer, then it deeds to be advertised and easily found on their website.
Group ordering on line was a feature of Ruby Tuesdays and if Applause’s offered this, especially during lunch hours for the business class, it could generate additional sales. Applause’s should look into a delivery service for customers who order over $125 like Chili’s offers. About them. You do not get this feeling from Applause’s at all. They should spend a little more time catering to employment opportunities in order to attract and hire good team members. Applause’s is a currently a thriving business that could only benefit from the suggested recommendations.
