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Answers to Readers' Questions on Total Quality:
Restaurant Quality
The following 8 comments and questions have been sent in. They are listed according to date.
List of first 10 items
- What would you do to improve quality control?
- Why is quality service important in a restaurant?
- Project on menu engineering
- Customers aren't coming back to my restaurant
- Wants to open a new food corner
- Has an unreasonable customer
- Worried about opening an Indian restaurant
- Feels information on Sambo's quality was inaccurate
What would you do to improve quality control?
Question
July 21, 2010
What would you do to improve quality control?
Example of profit and Loss in the restaurant?
- USA
20101
Answer
The top restaurant chains have an employee manual that explains how to treat customers, as well as the proper way to handle and cook food. They also usually have suggestion cards, where customers can give feedback or voice complaints. Any complaints are dealt with and corrected immediately.
It is wise for a small restaurant to follow the example of the larger, successful chains.
Profit equals income (money taken in) minus costs (food, rent, wages, upkeep). If the cost is greater than income, there is a loss. Some reasons for losses are lack up customers, too many expenses and wasteful practices.
Why is quality service important in a restaurant?
Question
March 7, 2010
Please! I would like to know more about the quality service.my question is why the service in a restaurant is more important than food?? I want get more information about that. thank you for understanding.
Timoteo - Panama
19340
Answer
Although good food is very important to customers in a restaurant, if the service is poor or rude, they will probably not come back or recommend the restaurant to others.
However, if the food is mediocre but the service is efficient and pleasant, the customer can feel the meal was relaxing and enjoyable, even if the food was not that good.
Obviously, you want to have both good food and good service. Some restaurant owners forget that the customer wants an enjoyable experience while eating their meal.
Consider other restaurants in your area and rate them on both the quality of the food and quality of the service. Being a customer is a good way to see what is important in going to a restaurant.
I hope that helps you in your business.
Project on menu engineering
Question
March 4, 2010
I am making my project on menu engineering can you help me what are quetion to be ask by restaurant manager for collecting information regarding this topic
bhakar - India
19327
Answer
Some restaurants select a menu related to what they think customers would like to eat. Others--especially expensive restaurants--will have a menu according the the master chef's special talents.
One question is how the order of items on a menu is selected? Often they are grouped according to types of food, like noodle dishes, curry dishes, etc. But within those groups, how are the items listed? According to price or what the people like the most?
Some menus put stars next to their top selling items. Ask if there is any way to let the customer know what is best.
I hope these ideas help in your project.
Customers aren't coming back to my restaurant
Question
December 6, 2009
Hi, i opened a restaurant in Nigeria on the 1st of October. i have not been having good or I'll say increase in sales. a lot of people have patronized me but not all of them came back again. I thought it was the quality and i worked on it but i still don't have the desired result. what can i do please. I am running into debts.
ayo - Nigeria
18798
Answer
Is a bad sign if people come to your restaurant only once and did not come back. That means that something did not satisfy them. It could be the quality of the food on the menu or the quality of the service.
How well the cook prepares to food is the most important thing in a restaurant, however rude or slow service can discourage people from coming back.
Give your customers a "suggestion card" where they can suggest menu items they would like or can provide criticisms about something in the restaurant. Seek honest replies that will help you improve your business. If a customer hands in a card when he pays the bill, get a coupon for a discount the next time he comes into your restaurant. It could be a 15% to 25% discount. In this way, you can find out what your customers think, which will help you improve your restaurant, plus you will get some repeat business.
Another thing to do is to ask all your friends and relatives who have eaten in your restaurant for an honest appraisal. Tell them their honesty will not hurt your feelings. You want to find out what other people think of your restaurant so that you can improve it.
I hope these ideas to help you make your business a success.
Wants to open a new food corner
Question
October 21, 2009
I want to know about the open a new food corner and what type of quality and service provide to the customer so that they tell them other people and business increase and what type of food in vegetartian plz tell me.
I'm waiting for ur comments very eagerly.
Tanuj - India
18543
Answer
You should enjoy eating your food, as should any workers you have. If you feel the food is good and you want to share that enjoyment with others, it will show through and encourage people to want to eat at your food corner.
Being polite and friendly is important in good service. But also letting people taste free samples is a way to please customers.
You can ask customers if they have a favorite vegetarian dish that you might add to your menu.
You want to make the eating experience enjoyable for the customers. Cleanliness, quality food, tasty food, reasonable prices, friendliness, and timely service are all ways to please the customers.
I hope these ideas help. Best wishes in having a very successful food corner.
Has an unreasonable customer
Question
August 12, 2009
I work in an institution precisely a university in nigeria, in the cafeteria section where we cater for the participant that comes for serminars and different training. My question is, as much as possible we try to satisfy and exceed our customers expectations as much as we can, but we have costantly had this promblem of a customer asking for differnt things at differnt times, for instance , a customer says i need a room temperature h20, we gave, the next time i need some vegetables, we gave, can you please help me with some salad, we brought and then say oh no i actually wanted some plantain, meanwhile you have not even started clearing the tables that are filled up with all used plates, thereby not achieving your target for the day. Pls in that case what will you do?
oyebola - Nigeria
18143
Answer
It is important to be polite, respectful and friendly to customers in a restaurant or cafeteria. You are try to make sure the customer is comfortable and has his or her needs fulfilled.
However, there are customers who can be very demanding, beyond what is reasonable. The customer may expect the type of service one would get a first-class, expensive restaurant.
If this particular customer is affecting the comfort of the other customers in the cafeteria or is preventing you from properly completing your work, then it might be worthwhile to mention the problem to your supervisor. Otherwise, you can continue to try to satisfy this particular customers desires, but keep in mind that the other customers are just as important.
It is a difficult situation, and I hope these ideas will help.
Worried about opening an Indian restaurant
Question
May 13, 2008
i am about to open a new indian restaurant in good populated area, they have a lot of pizza shops that are doing well so i thought curry for a change would do great . the place is not very far from the sea, but around the esplanade are several seafood shops , and i thought it may be also catering for the tourists.
the road where i am going to be located is the main road in this suburb, as this is a suburban precinct.
id like to know what precautions im missing out on and what should i focus in this particular time and place.please adviceme. thanks , iam hazira.
hazra - USA
15947
Answer
It sounds like a good area to have a restaurant. Serving Indian food might be a good change of pace. It is good to examine the type of people that go to the various restaurants there. Are many tourists or local people? If there are a lot of pizza shops, does that mean many Italians live in the neighborhood?
Is most business in the evenings or do working people go there for lunch?
Also, it would be good to have an idea of how many people of Indian descent live in the area. These could be your core customers. Also, people like to go to restaurants that are busy, because it implies the food is good.
Offering an Indian buffet is a good way to let people try out different items and introduce them to your food. Usually that is done at lunch or as part of a grand opening.
Observing the type of people that go to the various area restaurants and the times they go to eat is a good way to get an idea of the traffic you may get.
I hope this helps. Best wishes on your new restaurant.
Feels information on Sambo's quality was inaccurate
Question
January 11, 2008
Your information about Sambo's Restaurants is inaccurate. There were in fact, strict quality control practices in place and a management training facility to ensure that their quality standards were taught and practiced. The downfall of Sambo's restaurants was due to many factors, quality was not one of them.
ken - USA
15107
Answer
Thanks for your feedback. I have added information about the civil rights protests against the Sambo's name as part of the reason for the downfall of the company.
But even before that, customers in other states were complaining about the quality of the food and service in Sambo's restaurants that were further away from the home office. Some of those restaurants may have been exceptions, but it does show the difficulty in maintaining quality control in large chains, even with strict rules and good training.
Summary
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