Improving the Service Operations of Fast-food Restaurants

In the food industry, it is important for an organization to leverage their customer's satisfaction and this can be achieved through superior customer service. The goals of this study were to investigate the causes and problems faced by the selected restaurant and to provide suggestions on how to improve the slow customer service based on the numerous domains of operations management. A local restaurant in Kuching (Malaysia) was selected for the case study. Slow customer service has been identified as the main problem. The causes of this problem were identified and classified into four categories which involved people, environment, equipment/materials and method/procedure. This study also offered ways to improve its operational performance and overcome the problem of poor service operations. The alternatives offered include (1) Quality Function Development which helped in determining what will satisfy the customers and where to put the quality effort, (2) Total Quality Management (TQM), (3) process focus which uses service blueprint to strengthen the interaction between customers and the restaurant, (4) layout, (5) human resource management, (6) practice of good supply chain management, and (7) maintenance to get the most benefits and trouble-free services out of the restaurant equipment by performing regular maintenance. This paper hopes to provide relevant insights for service quality and customer satisfaction improvement for restaurant service operations.