Review Essay: Wake Up Coffee Shop In La Trobe Street Melbourne.

Question:

The National Franchising headquarters for a large Coffeehouse chain has received Complaints about the service, quality, and cleanliness of one of its cafés in your area. You have been sent to Inspect and to report on what you see.

Wake Up coffee is one of the leading coffee shop chain in Australia. One of the franchisee operates in La Trobe street Melbourne which is one of the famous and busiest streets of Melbourne. It has been two years that the coffee house in La Trobe street have started the operations. Initially the operations of the company was good but from the past six months the customer complaints have increased, the complaints were based on the quality of services provided to the customers are not up to the mark. Some of the customers complained about the mismanagement due to lack of staffs, they complained about delays in their deliveries and also the quality of coffee, beverages and the snacks provided in the coffee house have been deteriorating. The complaints of the customers have raised concerns and the authorities in the headquarters in Sydney are worried about the fall in the sales and increase in customer complaints. To understand the depth of the issue an investigation was conducted, which followed two visits to the coffee shop.

The main problem that led to the investigation was the customer dissatisfaction. The increasing number of complaints regarding the food and the service quality at the coffee shop has been identified as the main reason that led to the investigation. Another reason was the fall in sales of the franchisee so the business owners decided to cooperate in the investigation so that proper strategies can be implemented for resolving the issues (Mahadevan, 2015).

• The purpose of the report is the identification of the issues within the coffee house
• In-depth analysis of the problem
• Knowledge of the feedback of the customers and their satisfaction level from the product and services provided by the company
• For finding solutions of the problems and making an operational plan that would consist activities to increase operational efficiency at the coffee shop.

This report is very for the national franchising headquarter of the coffee chain and to the franchisee as well. This report will find the limitations of the operations. It would help the franchisee to implement measures to improve the customer service. After this report the business owners would be able to find the actual reason for the decline of the sales. They can train the employees and lead them towards the right direction so that good quality customer service can be provided aiming at increasing the customer satisfaction level. For any business to gain sustainability, it is very important to gain customers’ trust. Loyal customers are the key to sustainability of the business. A happy and satisfied customer will always bring customers that are more new and thus business will grow. So, it is very important to keep the existing customers happy. In the present scenario of the organization, mismanagement has led to customer dissatisfaction and fall in sales of the coffee house. This review report will guide the management while making strategies and operational plan for the business.

Limitations of Operations

The report focuses on the problem and issues found out from the inspections done on the coffee house. Apart from identifying the issues, the report also analyzes the problems within the organization. After the analysis have been done solutions would be given so that proper measure are taken for combating the crisis situation that the coffee house is currently facing.

The data collected for the review report was based on personal investigation that was carried out in two different occasions. The investigations aimed at finding the problems that caused problems within the organization. One of the visits was made during the month of August after the increase in the customer’s complaints. The method used for data collection was investigation. Therefore, the data used for this report are primary data because they have found out through field research and customer feedback. One of the visits was a surprise visit so that the operation procedure can be evaluated properly. Paying a visit by informing the franchisee might alarm them and there are chances that some of the issues might not be highlighted. Maximum issues came into light during the first visit to the coffee house. In the second visit in  the month of September, the focus was mainly on the inventory management of the coffee house and customer feedback because these two things were left in the initial investigation.

The report starts with introduction that contains background detail describing the scenario that led to the issue. It contains problem identification, followed by purpose of the report, the next thing included in the introduction section is significance of review reporting. There is a detailed discussion on the type of data and method for data collection is used. The next section of the report contains discussions from the findings of the investigation. The last section  of this report contains recommendations and conclusions.

This part of the report consists detailed discussion of the findings and the impact of the findings to the business.

Finding 1. Less number of employees- During the first visit made to the Wake Up coffee shop it was found that there were less number of employees to to manage the operations. The customers were comparatively much more in number than the employees. In such case it is pretty obvious that there would be mismanagement. The employees found it difficult to take the orders from the customers and deliver the orders on time. There was a situation of chaos within the coffee shop. The time gap between a placed order and its delivery was too much and the customers were frustrated. Some of the customers were seen walking out of the coffee house. Only five staffs were seen on the first visit two were taking orders, two were engaged in preparation of coffee and one was at the front desk as concierge. It was noon and rush hour, so less number of employees caused chaos.

Recommendations and Conclusions

Analysis- Less number of employees in rush hour causes mismanagement. More employees are required to be hired for working in the rush hours of the day because there are more number of people that would be visiting the coffee shops in the rush hours.

Finding 2.  Quality of the service – The mismanagement was so much that wrong orders were placed to the customers.

Analysis- The service quality was very poor, the inspector also placed an order and it was found that delivery time of a cup of coffee was 25 mnts, which was too late. The cup that for serving coffee was not properly cleaned. For service industry it is very important that the quality of service is of high standard, if the company wants to create a  competitive advantage in the market or else even the existing customers will prefer other service providers.

Finding 3. Quality of products- The quality of the coffee served was not up to the mark, it is completely different from what is being committed to the employees. Even other customers were complaining about the quality of coffee and snacks, were very poor. The muffins that were being served to the customers were not fresh.

Analysis- The quality of the food or coffee that is being served is not as per the quality that is being committed. Some of the loyal customers complained that initially the quality of the snacks like, muffins, cakes, pastries and other desserts was much better than what is being served presently. It is very important that the customers’ expectations are always met, failure to providing the quality that has been committed often becomes the reason for complaints.

Finding 4. Cleanliness

Another major issue that came in to light during the second visits was the cleanliness was not maintained. All the restrooms were dirty and were smelling that made the customers very agitated. Tables and chairs were not properly kept. The windows were not dusted, the table cloths and curtains also were not properly cleaned. The whole atmosphere was not not appealing and rather it seemed very gloomy. When the refrigerators and the kitchen of the coffee shop was inspected it was found that the refrigerators were very dirty and stale food products were also found.

Analysis- Ambience of the coffee shops are also important, a soothing atmosphere makes the customers to visit the place repeatedly seeing it from the perspective of a first time visitor it would give a bad impression to the company. They would never prefer to visit the place again and will also spread negative word of mouth. A dirty place always gives a bad impression and it is also risky for the customers in terms of their health. Hygiene is the most important factor for any organization.

Finding 5. Decreased number of customers- During the second visit, it was found that the number of customers has quite decreased. Even in the second visit the investigator preferred to visit in the rush hour but there were very less customers.

Analysis- Decrease in the number of customers is the clear sign that the business of the company is running in loss. Compared to the previous visit the number of customers had significantly reduced.

Finding 6- Looking at the sales reports of the company it was found that from the past six months the sales of the company was falling considerably. The operating cost of the coffee shop  was still the same but the revenue had decreased

Analysis- It is very clear that the fall in sales was because of the poor quality of service and other factors that compelled the customers to switch to other service providers.

Finding 7- From the customer feedback during the second visit it was found that most of the customers were dissatisfied with the either the service or the ambience of the coffee shop. Some of the customers even complained that they are not getting the value of the services that they are being provided by the company.

Analysis- Customer satisfaction is the most important criteria for business growth and it the determinant that either brings loss to a business or profit. In this case, customer dissatisfaction has been the root cause for all the issues.

Conclusion

Thus from the following report it can be concluded that there are severe issues that are being faced by the coffee house chain Wake up. The coffee chain has many outlets and franchisee in Australia. The good will of the coffee chain will be lost if the situation remained same. The headquarter of the WakeUp has been getting complaints, from the past six months the complaints have been increased. The complaints are not just one issue there are multiple issues that are faced by the customers. Poor quality of food products and services has been one of the consistent complaints from the end of the customers. Customers have also been complaining about issues like, late delivery of orders and they have to wait for around 25 mnts for a cup of coffee. The complaints raised the concerns of the authorities in the National franchising headquarter of the coffee shop and therefore two visits were paid. The aim of the visits was to investigate the reality of the complaints and the reason behind the inefficiency at the coffee shop. After the visits, one was pre-notified and in the other visit the investigator visited as a customer. It was found from the investigation that most of the complaints of the customers were true. There was mismanagement because there were very few staffs in the rush hour. Hygiene was not maintained properly. Customer service and the food products including the coffee served at the coffee shop was not of good quality. Therefore, there is a need for an operational plan that could increase and improve the overall efficiency of the coffee shop.

Looking at the condition of the coffee shop and the decline in the sales, certain measures have been taken so that the efficiency of the coffee shop can be improved and it achieves its goals and objectives. The recommendations aims at helping the business gain its previous position.

Increasing the number of the employees- This was the first finding that the number of employees were very less. During rush hour, it is suggested that the  coffee shop should have at least 4 staffs who would be taking the orders from the customers and 5 people who would be engaged in preparing the orders of the customers.

Improvement in the preparation methods- One of the reasons behind late deliveries of orders are inefficiency in preparation procedures. Among the five members two of the staffs would collect the orders from the staffs in the dining  area and assemble them, they will communicate the orders to the other three staffs in the preparation section. The order would be prepared accordingly. Unless and until an order is not completed another order would not be processed.

Training and development- The employees should be trained so that they can provide quality of service as well as quality of coffee and the desserts provided. Generally the desserts are not prepared within the coffee shop but ordered from a local bakery, so it is the duty of the staffs in the kitchen to see that stale products are not delivered to the customers. A standard preparation technique needs to be followed so that the standard of the coffee servings are same as the main outlets of Wakeup coffee shop. For this purpose the standard methodology should be send to the franchisee and it is the duty of the franchisee to see that it conducts training for its staffs members. Training should also be given for providing quality customer service (Heizer, 2016).

Cleanliness- Another issue that was found in the investigation and also in the customer complaints was regarding cleanliness. The coffee shop should hire employees who would clean the coffee shop, change the table clothes and curtains regularly. Dusting should also be done regularly. The restrooms should be kept clean and there should be availability of water and toiletries. The ambience of the coffee shop should be made as soothing as possible by using beautiful lights and modern furniture. A slow music might make the atmosphere more pleasing.

Increase of sales- For increase in sales the company needs to focus on many things like customer relationship, promotion and advertisements. For customer relationship the coffee shop needs to improve its customer service and customer handling, an efficient manager should be hired for handling the customer grievance and resolves issues related to orders, so that no customer walks out of the coffee shop. For advertisements it is not necessary that the company spends too much on advertising activities it can simply use print media for advertising. Flyers and brochures stating would be enough for advertising.

Promotion- For promotion also the coffee shop does not need to spend much they simply can plan a re-launch of the coffee shop, where few offers, discount coupons would be enough for making for attracting customers on the re-launch. Seeing the image of the coffee shop and the decrease in sales, in order to gain its previous position the coffee shop will have to take a re-launch as a service development measure. The re-launch should be planned and the customers should be informed in advance with the help of flyers that will have information about the revised menu and offers or discounts for the customers so that the re-launch of the coffee house is successful (Davis et al., 2013).

For re-launch of the coffee shop a number of resources would be required that the company. One of the most important resource that would be required for the coffee-shop are human resources. More employees would be hired, five more employees would be hired including, and a quality manager would also be hired who would be looking at the customer service quality provided to the customers.  Fund for the re-launch, promotional activities and for buying equipments including a new coffee machine and refrigerator, will be raised from the financial institutions, a loan of dollar 5000 would be sufficient for re-launch and promotional activities.

The key performance indicators would be the feedback of the customers and increase in sales. The feedback from the customers will be taken through the help of questionnaires of customer feedback diary where they can write their feedback and rate the coffee shop, this will help a lot in knowing the feedback of the customers and their level of satisfaction which would also be an indicator for performance of the coffee shop. Another key indicator for performance would be the increase in sales and the number of customers that visit the coffee shop. If customers would visit the coffee shop on several occasions then it would simply mean that the customers are satisfied and happy with the service of Wakeup. Increase in profit would also be a key indicator that the coffee shop is performing well after the implementation of the operational plan.

A contingency plan will be made if the re-launch fails. The alternative plan is that  if the re-launch fails. Wakeup will start a bakery for the growth of its business the operational plan will be communicated with the help of e-mails and letters.

A memo would be circulated would be circulated among the employees to communicate them about the weekly activities that would be carried out in the coffee shop.

Gantt chart, timeline for showing the weekly activities of the coffee shop

The recruitment of the employees will be done according to the hr policy of the company

References

Davis, B., Lockwood, A., Pantelidis, I., & Alcott, P. (2013). Food and beverage management. Routledge.

Freed, S. (2017). FIRST IMPR ESSIONS. Professional Builder.

Galliers, R. D., & Leidner, D. E. (Eds.). (2014). Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.

Heizer, J. (2016). Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.

Jahanshani, A. A., Hajizadeh, G. M. A., Mirdhamadi, S. A., Nawaser, K., & Khaksar, S. M. S. (2014). Study the effects of customer service and product quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Mahadevan, B. (2015). Operations management: Theory and practice. Pearson Education India.Torres, E., & Kline, S. (2013). From customer satisfaction to customer delight: Creating a new standard of service for the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 25(5), 642-659.