Solving Declining Sales Problem: A Case Study Of SpiceSky Restaurant Essay.

This assignment designed to give you the experience of investigating and recommending solutions to a business problem. Read the scenario (business problem) below and present solutions to managers within the client organisations. Write a clearly structured, wellargued and appropriately referenced report of 4000 words. You are expected to deal with complex issues faced by the owner, both systematically and creatively, make sound judgements in the absence of complete data, and communicate their conclusions clearly to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

Restaurants and food chains are important part of any sort of culture. Across the globe, there lie multiple categories of restaurants selling various types of foods and beverages. These span from casual food parlors to food trucks to normal dining restaurants. Throughout the centuries, the Indian food has been recognized and considered as one of the delicious and spicy categories of food that has been famous throughout different parts of the world. The assignment focuses on the restaurant named SpiceSky restaurant and it marketing tactics which it takes pride in. The restaurant takes pride on the range of the quality of the Indian food since the year 1988.  The restaurant had an increasing number of sales figure since the day of opening and the owner Ali Mahal has been on the profit side for decades (Salleh, Hashima and Murphy 2015). The assignment focuses on the declining sales category and figure of the restaurant from the last six months. The assignment furthermore explains the experience of the investigation and the recommended solution or the measures to the issues in the business of the restaurant, inspite of the changes in the market where the other competitors of the  SpiceSky restaurant are doing well and reaching towards the prosperity and high profit range. Highlight of complex issues, recommended strategies for effective marketing tactics together with the improvement of the total management system of the restaurant is thus reflected in the assignment.

The major problem lies on the fact that the SpiceSky restaurant has been facing a major decrease in the sales figure from the last 12 months. Even if recording for the increase in the yearly sales figure, the restaurant has drastically fall down compared to its other competitors in the competitive market in the heart of the London’ city centre. Some of the other identified problems in the restaurant included lack of fancy advertisements that the competitors of the SpiceSky restaurant use for attracting new customers, reduction of the menus or the items that were previously offered by SpiceSky restaurant and the absence of the special Hadia beer that the SpiceSky restaurant took specialization in. Due to excessive cost of production and manufacturing of the Hadia beer that involves  the manufacturing process by the creation with the mixed herbs with some of the boiled grained rice and are left to ferment for around a week or two to capture the nature and the taste of the beer (Burns, Bush and Sinha 2014). Furthermore the deficit of the attractive advertisement for the attracting the new base of the customers, lack of effective promotional budget, television advertising, and the changes in the external operating environment has contributed to the declining sales figure and the growth opportunities. The restaurant furthermore faces lack of customer satisfaction  , innovative range of menus and frequent customer complaints regarding the absence of their desired menus in the platter. Lack of relevant offers, new attraction and also dull interiors have les the customer flow going less in the SpiceSky restaurant. Some of the other identified problems in the restaurant includes the issue of employee turnover in the restaurant, having to keep the poor employees in the restaurant management, problems regarding the cash flow and the  dwindling of the capital of the restaurant. Furthermore the lack of proper space and good cooks for the management of the cooking department of the restaurant is one of the main issues that the SpiceSky restaurant is facing in the current scenario.

Identification of the problem

The SpiceSky restaurant in the food industry of London is at a high business risk proposition. According to the investigation and the visit to the restaurant for the obtaining of a first hand experience of the dining of SpiceSky restaurant in the span of two days some of the major factors have been identified which have been stated above (Lee et al. 2014). Though it has been found that the nearby restaurants are generally doing the same things that they have been doing for the years and developing and implementing the same categories of promotion on the basis of each years, still the problems arising from the SpiceSky restaurant is something that needs to be concerned about since its high effect on the restaurant’s sales figure and reputation.

The menu : It is one of the most common problem that most of the restaurant faces and SpiceSky restaurant is not an exception in this category. Often the customer in the last 12 months have raised complaints against the non availability of most of the food items in the menu card due to the reluctance of the employees and the staff members to manage and organize for it. Furthermore the lack of the presence of Hadi beer which is mostly made from the Indian spices and rice have led the customers upset over the restaurant.

The service -  Often the customers in the SpiceSky restaurant reported the poor and the reluctant services of the waiters and the cook towards hygine and cleaning of the table sets prior serving food. The lack of recruitment of the new and smart professionals for the restaurant service management and the stagnant work force of the restaurant due to the fact that the new hiring will bring high salary expectations and more expenditure of the restaurant is affecting the business of the restaurant as a whole (Kraak et al. 2017). The restaurant falls under the category of the hospitality sector. The lack of proper hospitality and services in the SpiceSky restaurant is leading the customers to shift their preferences and choices to other restaurants and their menus.

Unique selling point – According to the manager and the staff members of the restaurant when interviewed for the analysis of the downturn of the sales figure, they explained that SpiceSky restaurant already offers very good quality of food, good and friendly customer services and comfortable ambience for the customers checking in. Then the restaurant lacks the unique selling point (Lynn 2017).

Analysis of the problem

Management – Another important problem is the effective management for going in the profitable way and the rise in the sales figure of the restaurant. Lack of proper staffs, absence of half of the items in the menu cards is some of the factors that points towards the poor management of the operation of the restaurant (Ali and Abdullah 2017).

Hiring and training the staff members of the restaurant – Successful restaurant furthermore includes the notion of the importance of the hiring of the correct members. The SpiceSky restaurant lacks the proper staff and the cooks for the introduction of innovative measures and the dishes for attracting the new customers (Sudhagar and Rajendran 2017). While analyzing and interviewing with the staff members it has been found that the restaurant has been going and following the same measures and the same menu cards despite of frequent customer dissatisfaction and complaints regarding food and the beer.

Marketing – The SpiceSky restaurant lacks proper marketing tactics. Other Indian restaurants in the same area have good budget of the promotions, attractive campaigns, advertisement both in the form of posters and in the television ads challenging the other restaurants in the competitive positioning (Chen 2018).

Besides all of these factors, capital is one of the biggest problem for the manager and the owner of the SpiceSky restaurant which has resulted him remove the famous Hadia beer and some of the food items from the menu card.

Before starting the renovation of the business and the restaurant, it is important for the owner of the SpiceSky restaurant to develop and write a business place including the purpose, the summary, the issues faced by restaurant, the analysis of the marketing analysis, the strategy for the implementation, the financial plan and finally the recommendations.

The primary objectives of the business plan for the SpiceSky restaurant include the following:

1. To be the premier restaurant in the heart of London
2. To be the greatest attraction of the clients for the Indian cuisine (Oinas-Kukkonen and Harjumaa 2018)
3. To provide some of the innovative and quality meals at a very reasonable price
4. To provide exemplary ranges of services and hospitality for gaining customer satisfaction
5. To develop marketing strategies and measures to promote the restaurant via the posters, the television ads, local radio, newspaper spot, on the high way board (Omari, Essegbey and Ruivenkamp 2015)
6. To provide offers and attractive deals to increase the sales of the restaurant

The Mission statement of the restaurant is

To provide unique and relaxing dining experience to the customers with the provision of innovative food menu options, incorporation of quality ingredients at reasonable price range and improving the service of the hospitality of the customer (Saitone, Sexton and Sumner 2015).

Some of the major factors for the business plan of the SpiceSky restaurant are the following.

Getting the correct funding to the renovation and pushing for restarting the business is one of the effective and important business plans. Furthermore considering the technological innovation that tends to drive the business in the current scenario is also an important factor (Amato, Boyle and Brock 2015). Creation of attractive web pages promotion in the platform social media, recruiting of the staff members and the integration of the social media for renovating the design of the restaurant and enabling the facility of the online food ordering is some of the basic factors that should be included in the business plan of the SpiceSky restaurant.

The SpiceSky restaurant has been facing its worst time since the last 12 months with a drastic decrease in the sales figure, low number of customer visit and increasing profit and customer of the other Indian restaurants in the locality. Apart from the internal factors like the non qualified and the untrained staff members of the restaurant, the lack of proper service quality and the absence of the Hadia rice beer together with some of the special items of the menu card, there lies some of the external factors that further tends to affect the restaurant business (Williams 2018). These includes the economy, the competition and the competitive forces, the politics, the customer and the suppliers.

The SpiceSky restaurant should firstly  revise and create a new Indian menu with the balance of the appropriate price ranges and the customer preferences. Consideration of the suppliers while developing the menu is an important aspect since this will help the restaurant to analyze the manufacturing cost together with the plan of the selling price range. Instead of the offering of a five to six page menu, the restaurant should offer a small number of dishes that particularly do well (Kotas 2014). This is because large menu items takes long time to order and make, the cook will take long time to work on it and each table of the restaurant will get a long time to get served.

For making the customers happy and to make them satisfied, all the employees and the staff members of the restaurant must be dedicated to the preferences and the wellbeing o f the customers in the restaurant. Each and every contact with the customer should be pleasant friendly and welcoming in nature (Ryan 2016). The restaurant should furthermore pay attention to the evaluation of the customers in the online and the platform of the social media.

The restaurant should furthermore pay attention and importance to the unique selling points. The manager of the restaurant should understand the fact why the customers goes to the other restaurants and not at the SpiceSky restaurant. The restaurant should initiate the offerings of something special representing the quality and the grade of the restaurant which will help in creating an impact in the minds of the customer even after leaving the restaurant.

The restaurant should furthermore engage in effective management strategies and measures. For making sure that the restaurant goes in a profitable way, it is important for the manager of the restaurant to keep an every day track of the menus ordered, noting down the most ordered and desired profitable items of the menu, calculation of the cost margin of each and every menu, budgeting of the labor and making financial strategies for reduction in the production cost, specially of the Hadia rice beer which was one of the main attraction of the restaurant and desired by many of the customers.

In competent staff members tends to damage the image of the restaurants. The restaurant should hire new members for enhancing the service of the restaurant and gaining a good reputation of the restaurant. Each and every employees of the restaurant should be properly trained and made aware of the goals and the incentives (Alonso-Almeida, Bremser and Llach 2015). The restaurant should also think about some of the ways to inspire the employees and motivate them towards the production of high quality service of the restaurant.

One of the most effective strategically measure for the SpiceSky restaurant is a good marketing. For avoiding further pitfalls of the restaurant and further decrease in the sales, it is important for the owner of the restaurant to formalize the standards of the brands that include the statement of the mission, the guidelines, the logos and more. Making a market plan and furthermore keeping contact with the social media and the digital marketing together with the customer loyalty program are some of the important factors for consideration (Solomon et al. 2014). The restaurant should furthermore develop marketing strategies, promotions in different places like television, media, posters on high way and adopt other measures of innovation for attracting the customers in the restaurant.

Conclusion 

Across the globe, there lie multiple categories of restaurants selling various types of foods and beverages. The report highlighted the major problem that lies on the fact that the SpiceSky restaurant has been facing a major decrease in the sales figure from the last 12 months. With the identification of the issues that the problems challenging the sales structure of the company, the restaurant furthermore revealed some of the management and the operation issue together with the poor range of food quality and services that constitute the factors affecting the business. The report highlighted the need for a proper business plan for the restaurant together with the strategic measures and recommendations for increasing the profit margin and the popularity of the business. Thus it can be concluded that restaurant business constitute as one of the major part in the sector of hospitality services. Engagement and proper satisfaction of the customers and the clients are thus important for the recognition of the brand. The restaurant furthermore needs to improve the marketing strategies and promotion for the unique ranges of Indian food to rise in the competitive market of the food chain  in the heart of London.

References

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