SITXCCS016 – Develop and manage quality customer service practices :
| ASSESSMENT TASKS | |
| There are five (5) tasks to complete for this unit of competence: This assessment is based on ACA Restaurant Café’ Business Plan and uses several scenarios to complete the 5 (five) Tasks. Certain tasks contain sub-tasks with written questionnaires, case study analysis report, role plays and policy development. These tasks comprise the assessment of the application of ACA Restaurant Café’ customer service standards and policy knowledge and identifying and addressing the needs to improve and support organisational effort to enhance customer value. You will need to demonstrate your management skills in applying the customer services standards and policy of the restaurant café’ with fostering how staff should perform so as to improve the overall experience for customers and promote the benefits of a good customer service as a key point of differentiation that aids to entice new customers in competitive business environments. The implementation of the customer services policy must reflect the business summary of ACA Restaurant café’ and should state relevant experience/exposure with such workplace environment. You are required to respond to all the tasks by demonstrating your skills and knowledge within the assessment guidelines and requirements. Certain tasks have been developed with templates, tables and sections with appropriate spaces, in which you will have to complete and/or provide information to ensure you demonstrate the skills and knowledge of the units. Marking criteria have been provided to support the student’s understanding of the requirement for each task. To be deemed competent in this assessment each student must demonstrate through written reports and provide information in given templates, the knowledge, and understanding of what actions are necessary to obtain and keep current with the legislative requirements for their industry and specific business. You will have to respond to all the tasks by demonstrating your skills and knowledge within the assessment guidelines and requirements. In Task 3B and 5C there are templates provided, in which you will have to utilise to ensure you validate the required skills and knowledge. Your responses must comprise: Evidence of the following is important: Task 1 – Research and analysis This activity has been designed to assess your knowledge and understanding of the need of research for managing and applying customer services in the workplace. This task consists of questionnaires which associates with the knowledge of the customer services standards and policy through reviewing the policy to apply, manage and improve quality services of the ACA Restaurant café. The responses should include the following: Task 2 – Development of survey This activity has been designed to assess your knowledge and understanding of seeking customer service feedback procedure in the workplace. This task consists of designing and conducting a post service questionnaire which associate with the knowledge of measuring and determining existing customer needs, wants and expectations from the work practices of ACA Restaurant Café. The responses should include the following: Task 3 – Role play and formal business document development This activity has been designed to assess your knowledge and understanding of resolving customer complaints and the need to retain the customers with enhanced business performances. This task consists of conducting a role play followed by the development of a formal business document which associates with the demonstration of responsiveness, ethical and transparent customer services. The execution of the task should include the following: Task 4 – Role play and written responses This activity has been designed to assess your knowledge and understanding of managing quality customer services through measuring and evaluating the staff performances. This task consists of conducting a role play followed by written responses for dealing and resolving issues and grievances of unsatisfactory performances with the intention of fostering supportive approaches to initiate changes to improve customer services delivery within the business. The execution of the role play and responses should include the following: Task 5 – Written responses, flowchart and policy development This activity has been designed to assess your knowledge and understanding of developing and implementing adjustments to customer service processes, policies and procedures within the business. This task consists of written responses and a flowchart to assist in the development of customer services policy and its continuation that supports the internal procedure of ACA Restaurant Café. Delivering in a report format, questionnaires and policy development delivery associates with the demonstration for benchmarking and performing widespread investigations to remove the inconsistencies. The responses, flowchart and the policy development should include the following: | |
TABLE OF CONTENT
| CONTENT | PAGES | MARKS | MARKS ACHIEVED |
| Task 1 – Research Analysis to Plan for Quality Service (Total of 10 marks) | |||
| Written Responses (Total of 10 marks) | |||
| Q1: Methods of market research | 1 | ||
| Q2: Addressing neglected areas of customer service | 3 | ||
| Q3: Formal and informal research to benchmark | 3 | ||
| Q4: Record innovative approaches to improve service delivery | 3 | ||
| TASK 2 – Customer Feedback Surveys (Total of 5 marks) | |||
| Develop Post Customer Feedback Survey | 5 | ||
| TASK 3 – Customer Complaint Resolution Role Play and business letter (Total of 8 marks) | |||
| Phone Call Complaint Resolution Role Play | 5 | ||
| Prepare a formal business apology letter | 3 | ||
| Task 4 – Development of Customer Service Practices and Communication (Total of 7 marks) | |||
| Conduct a Team Briefing Role play | 5 | ||
| Written Responses (Total of 2 marks) | |||
| Q1. Significant causes of issue/opportunities that must be prioritised | 1 | ||
| Q2. Evaluating feedback and importance of staff involvement | 1 | ||
| TASK 5 – Adjustments to policies and procedures (Total of 20 marks) | |||
| Written Responses (Total of 2 marks) | |||
| Q1. Critical examination of existing customer service policies | 1 | ||
| Q2. Consideration of changes to existing customer service policy | 1 | ||
| Organisational restructure for complaint handling | 1 | ||
| Develop three polices for customer service (Total of 15 marks) | |||
| Policy 1 | 5 | ||
| Policy 2 | 5 | ||
| Policy 3 | 5 | ||
| Written Responses (Total of 2 marks) | |||
| Q1: Documentation, accessibility and communication of changes to service practices | 1 | ||
| Q2: Initiating improvements and monitor staff performances to meet standards | 1 | ||
| TOTAL MARKS | 50 | ||
The learner is required to update and adjust the page numbers and topics based on the amount of their content and the responses made to each task.
Develop and Manage Quality Customer Service practices
As stated in the Business details above, ACA Restaurant Cafe’ is owned and managed by partners Emma Supreme and Rufus Clarendon. It is located within ACA Hotel.
The Restaurant Café’ is currently open:
Monday – Friday: 6:00 am – 9:00 pm
Saturday: 8:00 am – 9:00 pm
Sunday 8:00 am – 9:00 pm
The owners of the restaurant have decided to start opening on more hours on Saturdays and Sundays due to increased business operation and customer demands as follows:
Saturday: 6:00 am to 11:00 pm
Sunday: 6:00 am to 11:00 pm
ACA Restaurant Cafe’ has been experiencing consistent growth in sales and numbers of customers over the last two years.
The Owners of ACA Restaurant Cafe’, fosters an environment of energy, skills, and determination to exceed the customer’s expectation. Understanding the need for quality customer service being a vital element of the business operations, they cater to improve the implementation of innovative strategies and service policies that address every conceivable aspect of the customer experience. Establishing a strong customer standard by delivering quality products and services has been a drive to retain their customers and increase profits throughout the years.
BACKGROUND
John Smith is the CEO of Clarendon College, Level 1, 123 Martin Place, NSW 2000 that has multiple branches across Australia. With its growth in partnership with leading organisations, Mr. Smith fosters to support and empower positive student engagement, and bring together community resources to enrich their learning and wellbeing.
To ensure the business builds relationships, trust and expands unceasingly, from time to time he would host occasions for clients from all around Australian, with the aim to exchange values and establish new professional relationships and strengthen existing ones. He had been very happy with the services of ACA Hotel and having ACA Restaurant Café’ within its facility, it has fulfilled his needs in looking after his guests in the past. His Clients would stay-over in the Hotel and enjoy dining at ACA Restaurant Café’. Only once, he had a trifling issue with ACA Restaurant Café in the past, but that was looked after well and immediately solved. He was satisfied with the overall experience.
Just recently, he has made a new contract agreement to collaborate a project with Pacific Training & Consultancy Firm.
SCENARIO 1
Mr. Smith decided to celebrate the success of the new contract with Clarendon College and Pacific Training & Consultancy Firm from Melbourne. He had already booked in for accommodation, 2 months prior, with ACA Hotel for 10 people, and equipped to make arrangements for an exquisite dining experience at the ACA Restaurant Café.
To ensure a nice table had been booked for his 10 guests, he contacted the Restaurant Café’ via phone to make a reservation on the 12th August 2019. He contacted them straight after he made the booking at the ACA hotel for one night on the 15th October 2019. It was lunchtime at 12:30 pm, when he contacted the ACA Restaurant Café’. The initial conversation started with a female staff (Imogen O’Hara) of the restaurant. While she was taking the order, it seemed that she was not sure of the items he was ordering and notified that she preferred Mr. Smith spoke to another experienced staff, as she was a new recruit and was still learning the booking for events.
Mr. Smith was getting quite impatient as he had a meeting to attend soon and that a similar case with taking delayed order has happened in the past with this restaurant Café. But the Restaurant Manager, Joe Roux had taken full control immediately and compensated. The outcome of that event ended really well.
To appreciate his loyalty as a customer, Mr. Smith was keen to celebrate this event again with this restaurant café’, and also having the hotel adjacent, it would be easier for his colleagues from Melbourne for accommodation.
He was put on hold over 10 minutes. The phone was then passed to Sally. She did not apologise to Mr. Smith for the wait and asked him straight away ‘Yes? How can I help you?”
Mr. Smith started to place the order, but it seemed that Sally was rushing in taking the orders and making errors in recoding them. Being very frustrated Mr. Smith asked if there was anyone else who could take the order as it seemed, she did not know the products and did not know how to order. “I have repeated myself three times! I don’t know why you cannot understand?” said Mr. Smith.
To that, Sally got very angry and said, “It’s just very busy here and I am taking the order and I don’t understand your accent! I am trying my best!”
Mr. Smith felt very offended and thought that being a racist comment. However, decided to ignore her remark. But mostly what bothered Mr. Smith the most was, that she was talking to other staffs in between taking his orders. She kept on saying that it was very busy in the restaurant and that the new system the restaurant has implemented is too complicated and that she was having difficulty placing the order. Irritation was clearly evident in her tone of voice.
It took over 20 minutes to finalise the order, which had already delayed Mr. Smith’s meeting. Sally declared the total amount and asked him to make the payment. Mr. Smith did not want to further deal with Sally, as he was finding her very rude. He avoided informing her that in the past he had to pay only 50 % in advance and the remaining would be billed at the end of the event. But it was a bit surprising to Mr. Smith that the amount billed was much higher than his expectation.
When asked to clarify, Sally stated, “I don’t know what you ordered last time. The prices of the items have gone up but sorry, I don’t know by how much, and if you don’t want to pay that much, you can order something cheaper maybe, if you know what you ordered before, or cancel any item”.
She was getting agitated and sounded very abrupt to Mr. Smith. She did not even bother to offer any other options or any other substitute suitable items for Mr. Smith to decide, rather waited for him to reply.
“I had been to your restaurant before and have had similar events there, you should have my previous orders in your system. Why is it not there?’” Which is what Mr. Smith queried.
“No, I can’t see it. It’s a new system, there is no record”, Sally snapped.
Being extremely disappointed with the customer service, Mr. Smith paid for the items. He was astounded she put no effort to even look for his records within the system. He receives regular emails and notifications; his records must be within their database. He decided not to speak her again in the future. He will ask for some else or even call later if needed. But he took note to let the Manager know about his experience when he attends on the day of the event.
Mr. Smith had reserved for the event to happen at 7 pm on the same night he had booked for the night his guest will stay at the ACA Hotel, which was a Tuesday 15th October 2019. He chose the day purposefully, to avoid the busy or peak rush periods that will allow some quality time conversing with his new clients. They will perform corporate purposes by visiting Clarendon College and finalise business contracts during the day and celebrate the new business relationship at night. The guests plan to return back to Melbourne the day after just before noon.
Just one week prior to the event, Mr. Smith contacted the restaurant Café’ again, during the breakfast period just after 8:00 am, to confirm his reservations. One of the staff members, Long, confirmed that his table has been confirmed for 8 people and not for 10. Mr. Smith was annoyed, as after spending so much time ordering, which delayed his meeting that day, Sally had still made an error. Mr. Smith expressed his severe disappointment. The staff apologised for the error and guaranteed to fix immediately as it was just adding two more guests. Mr. Smith also requested to confirm if the food that was ordered was entered correctly for 10 people. The staff confirmed that all has been taken care of.
On the day of the event, Mr. Smith was surprised to see the restaurant was full of customers and found the table he reserved was set up for 8 people. It was just 10 minutes to 7 pm. Staffs (Bill, Jack, Long and Imogen) present were unable to locate any booking was done for 10 people. They said it had the reservation for 8 people in the system. Mr. Smith had already been waiting for 10 minutes and feeling very embarrassed in front of his guests, he was getting very frustrated and demanded to see the Manager, Joe Roux.
Joe had taken a day off for personal reasons and the Second Manager, Tony Baldwin was attending a meeting and was running late in returning. So, the Team leader, Bill Cruise had been asked to attend. He quickly made arrangements for all his quests to have a seat and listened to Mr. Smith’s complaint. Bill apologised and that he will ensure the food will be served for 10 people. While Bill was investigating, he arranged for the staff to serve some complimentary drinks to make up for the error. As the restaurant was so busy, the Bartender struggled to keep up with the orders. Mr. Smith and his guests waited for a further 15 minutes until the drinks had arrived.
Bill returned stating that is was an unusually busy day for a Monday and that the delivery of the food might be 10 – 15 minutes late, as the system showed dinner for only 8 people, and now they have to make two extras. Mr. Smith was furious and demanded to speak to the Managers as he cannot risk his guest waiting for that long.
“Why is there no Manager available if it’s a busy day?” – asked by Mr. Smith. Bill explained that the Managers are always present, but they had been away for a personal reason, and knowing that Monday is usually not a busy night, the Second Manager had a meeting but was running late. Rather than apologising Bill was defending the situation and seems not to care.
The food arrived late as near to 8 o’clock. Each time the staffs (Long and Sandra) placed food on the table and would hastily leave. There was no courtesy in their mannerism, and it seemed that they all were in a rush clearing their table, as well other tables so that other customers could get a seat. Two main dishes were served much delayed and they were cold. No staff were available to inform them the situation.
The food was not up to the level of Mr. Smith’s expectation and he was very embarrassed in front of his new clients for such a poor dinner arrangement.
At the end of the event, on his way out, Mr. Smith asked Bill for a refund. “I am very displeased with your services today. The food was not great at all. Two dishes were just cold. And all your staff are just unprofessional! They don’t seem to be qualified at all. This experience has severely impacted on my image towards my business associates today. I came here because last few times the services and food were great and having the hotel adjacent makes it easier! I want a full refund! “
Bill stated that he does not know the refund policy for events, “I can only process the walk-in bills but not events or parties”. He added that only the Managers can process it, however, none of them were present that night.
In response to that Mr. Smith outraged that he will formally complain to the Owner. “What is the process to complain?” Bill ran and handed him a plain A4 paper and pen and asked him to write it down his concerns. Mr. Smith looked that the blank paper and asked “You do not have any complaint form? What is the guarantee that this document will reach the Owner? I need a more confident way to contact the Owner. Can I complain online?”
Bill plainly responded “I am not sure about the online, you can try searching at our website. Usually there should be a place where you can complain. I am not too sure. But if you write down your concern; I will pass it to the Managers”.
Mr. Smith left the restaurant feeling disgusted with the poor quality of customer service and mortified that his new Clients had to experience such. It was way past 10:30 pm when they had left.
SCENARIO 2
The General Manager of ACA Hotel had notified you (as Joe Roux) , the Manager of ACA Restaurant Café’ the next day of the occurrence stated in Scenario 1, that he was directly addressed a complaint from Mr Smith during the check-out of his guests about the incident the night before. He has written a formal complaint letter against ACA Restaurant Café’. As both the Managers of the Restaurant Café’ had not been present that night, and as the staff could not provide him accurate information on how to lodge the complaint, he decided to hand over the written complaint to the Hotel Manager. He requested that he brought forward this issue to the Owners of the Restaurant Cafe’. The General Manager added that Mr Smith was very upset and declared that he wishes not to ever return to the restaurant due to its poor-quality customer service and inappropriate staff behaviour. This will impact in losing loyal customers for ACA Hotel as well. The General Manager of the hotel apprehends that if he posts any negative review online, this can lead to possible reputational damage for the hotel and loosing potential customers including existing ones (economic downturn). As the restaurant café and hotel have worked in collaboration to support customer retention, he contemplates that ACA Restaurant Café’ should take the full responsibility to rectify this situation to avoid escalation of more an unpleasant direction and ensure that such negative experience should not reoccur. This matter has been addressed to the Owners of ACA Restaurant Café by you and they have called for an immediate resolution action to be exercised for reviewing, redesigning, validating and implementing changes to the customer service standards, policies and practices. This is to reduce and avoid any adverse experiences – both for the internal and external customers.
| Task 1 – Research Analysis to Plan for Quality Service |
ACA Restaurant Cafe’ Owners strive in providing high service quality and endeavour to deliver a quality service in accordance with the highest standards of effectiveness, efficiency and integrity. Meeting the needs and expectations of their customers and by keeping in touch with the customers, they have gained valuable feedback and loyalty on their service.
The Owners continue regularly to monitor and report on the Restaurant Cafe’s performance and customer satisfaction levels to ensure they are reaching the required standards and are delivering a high-quality service to all the customers. The results prove the relationship between service quality scopes and customer satisfaction. The Owners always ensure the standards and policies are available within the website and internal database of the business to all staff member to reflect on procedures for quality service delivery.
However, since the incident occurred stated in Scenario 1, the Owners are apprehended that they are in despairing need to criticise their research data about the customers as they believe if appropriate and accurate data is gathered it will assist the Restaurant Café’ learn more strategies to contribute in the work operation to refine and grow the business. The research being conducted before, during and after sales is very important as changes may occur from time to time. This can attract new customers as well as retain existing customers.
You, as the Manager of ACA Restaurant Cafe’ have been given the responsibility to locate the ACA Restaurant Café’ Customer Service Standards policy, which can be located on e-learning, and to enhance quality service by reviewing the policy as well as the internal and external environment. Aim is to identify and integrate any findings into planning improved customer service practices. The ACA Restaurant Café’ Customer Service Standards policy is available on e-learning.
As an initiative you have decided to conduct customer research yourself about ACA Restaurant Café’s customers and its market or competitors. This can help setting targets and goals for customer service.
Your task is to:
Written Responses:
Respond to the following queries in the appropriate spaces below:
All responses must:
- be relevant to the customer service standards and policy of ACA Restaurant Café’ and Scenario 1, unless otherwise stated.
- demonstrate that you can or have applied what you have learned from acknowledging the policy
- theory answers without reference to ACA Restaurant Café’ business will not be assessed as satisfactory
<50% marks of the allocated marks for the questions and answers in Task 1 (Q1 – Q4), will be given for providing theoretical aspect and remaining 50% marks for providing the relevancy on how the information fits in with business operations of ACA Restaurant Café’. Only theoretical responses will not be accepted, and 50% marks will be allocated, should that be the case. However, Assessor to assess if relevant theory has been provided by the student as per the requirement of the tasks. Non-relevant answers will be considered not satisfactory>
10 Marks
| Question 1: State what basic market research methods can be done by you to identify the customer needs and wants? <0.5 marks for stating the research method and 0.5 marks for the explanation. Total of 1 mark> 1 Mark |
| Question 2: As the Manager, you have identified that utilising market research can assist ACA Restaurant Cafe’ in pursuing opportunities to overcome poor customer service and enhance quality service and product offering. Based on your chosen research method/s stated in Task 1 Q1 above, identify any businesses that operate as similar to ACA Restaurant Café of your choice, and conduct a research to address what areas were neglected, or not adequately addressed within the customer services standards based on the situation stated in Scenario 1? 3 Marks You may also choose to use the following website links to support your findings if needed: www.crestaurant.com.auwww.billandtonis.com.auwww.restauranthubert.comwww.eaudevie.com.auwww.quay.com.au <0.5 mark allocated for identifying similar business, 1 mark for stating the neglected areas and 1 mark for explanation and 0.5 mark relating to Scenario 1. Total of 3 marks> |
| Question 3: Give a brief outline of 250-300 words of how you, as the Manager, may use the various methods of formal and informal research to benchmark against leading competitors and best practice organisation to provide a basis for setting standard of excellence to establish within the policies and procedures of ACA Restaurant Café. 3 Marks You are to consider the following: Primary or secondary sources for gathering informationAnalysis of competitive environment and service trendsUse of Focus groups for data collectionQualitative and Quantitative researchFeedback from internal colleagues and customersService providers can provide valuable information about customers <1 mark allocated for stating your reason of usage of formal and informal research methods and 2 mark for explanation with relevancy to the ACA restaurant café’ business. Total of 3 marks> |
| Question 4: Discuss in 100-150 words, from the research evidence you have gathered from Task 1 Q2 as stated above, how you can create and record any innovative approaches to improve the customer service delivery reflecting the situation as stated in Scenario 1. <1 mark allocated for stating innovative approaches and 2 marks for explanation with relevancy to the ACA restaurant café’ business. Total of 3 marks> 3 Marks |
| Task 2 Customer Feedback service survey |
Your task is to:
Design a post service customer feedback online (to post on the business’s website and/or to send via email) for all of ACA Restaurant Cafe’s customers ( both internal and external which includes corporate clients, suppliers etc.) which must include 10 questions that ensures situation stated in Scenario 1, does not reoccur.
5 Marks
This feedback will elicit useful information that will guarantee ACA Restaurant Cafe’ to meet the customers wants and needs.
For the post customer survey, you may use a variety of questioning methods including
- Open-ended question
- Closed – ended question
- Structured or semi structured
- Semantic differential scale
- Rating Scaled queries
- Likert typed
- Dichotomous questions
- Multiple-choice questions
- Rand ordered questions
You may visit the following link in order to develop a better comprehension of the type of survey questions that seem suitable for ACA Restaurant Cafe’ and its customers.
https://www.questionpro.com/article/survey-question-answer-type.html
You must ensure the questionnaires reflect its business objectives, areas of trade, service periods and strategic direction that fosters effective customer services standards and that they associate to the situation as stated in Scenario 1. A tabular form of the survey may be used.
Templates can also be found from the following link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/restaurant-feedback-survey-template/
<3 marks allocated for providing total of 10 questionnaires for the survey (Total of 3 marks for all 10 questions), 2 marks for the reflection of the business objectives, areas of trade and service periods within the questionnaires and 1 mark for connecting to Scenario 1. Total of 5 marks>
Overall, how would you rate your dining experience at ACA Restaurant Cafe’?
- Excellent
- Good
- Average
- Poor
How satisfied were you with the quality of food served?
- Very satisfied
- Satisfied
- Neutral
- Dissatisfied
- Very dissatisfied
Did the menu options meet your dietary preferences and requirements?
- Yes
- No
- Not applicable
Were the waitstaff attentive and responsive to your needs?
- Yes, they were excellent
- Yes, they were satisfactory
- No, they were inattentive
- No, they were unprofessional
How would you rate the ambiance and atmosphere of the restaurant?
- Very inviting and pleasant
- Somewhat inviting and pleasant
- Neutral
- Somewhat dull or uninviting
- Very dull or uninviting
Were your food and beverages served at the right temperature?
- Yes, they were perfect
- Yes, but they could have been warmer/cooler
- No, they were cold/hot
- N/A (did not order food)
Did you experience any delays or issues with the service?
- No, everything was timely and smooth
- Yes, there were minor delays
- Yes, there were significant delays
- N/A (no comment)
Were you greeted and seated promptly upon arrival?
- Yes, without any delay
- Yes, with a slight delay
- No, there was a noticeable delay
- N/A (takeaway order)
How likely are you to recommend ACA Restaurant Cafe’ to others?
- Very likely
- Likely
- Neutral
- Unlikely
- Very unlikely
Please provide any additional comments or suggestions to help us improve our services.
<Create your survey template here>
| Task 3 – Formal and Informal Customer Complaint Resolution |
ACA Restaurant Cafe’ nurtures in designing complaints process to encourage fast and efficient resolution of any issue at the first point of contact provide a fair and reasonable outcome to all parties involved. The Owners always aim to provide all with splendid customer service and recognises that customers have the right to express displeasure with any of their products, services, staff or procedures.
However, recently, after the incident occurrence as stated in Scenario 1, a comprehensive post customer service survey was conducted as stated in Task 2, in which the results, (replies to post customer feedback survey) depicted a negative trend. The Owners have decided to take prompt action dealing with the complaint in a positive and constructive manner to retain the customers that will result in improved business processes and repeat business.
According to the result of the survey, common complaints, securing the highest numbers of negative feedback, including from Clarendon College (Mr Smith, Appendix 1) were related to bookings and ordering over the phone, late food delivery and staff hosting and presentation. Second to this includes that response time of the waiters/waitress during peak hours, followed by unawareness of team members regarding returns and refund raised quite attention. The result was quite alarming to the Owners and you, as the Manager have been given the accountability to look into the matter and resolve the issues.
So as an initial start, you have decided to contact Mr. Smith via phone (informal) two days after the incident occurred as stated in Scenario 1, followed by a formal written apology letter. You aim to make him develop a sense of respect and feel important about taking the time to discuss the raised issue with him and appreciate to gain the opportunity to put things right ensuring non-reoccurrence of the incident, as stated in Scenario 1, and achieve his trust on the services of ACA Restaurant Café’ again.
Your task is to:
- Conduct a 5-minute phone-call roleplay with Mr Smith (played by your partner based on information stated in Appendix 1) to discuss his complain addressed to the General Manager of ACA Hotel and his feedback provided in the post customer feedback survey (online). This is to ensure appropriate method of continuous improvements of customer services are implemented and monitored to meet the expected standards. 5 Marks
During your roleplay, you must address the following within your discussion with Mr Smith (played by one of the classmates – Please see Appendix 1 for details);
- Prepare a formal business apology letter addressing to Mr Smith: 3 Marks
Please ensure your letter contains the following:
- Letter to be written within the given space (template) below
- 100% accuracy is maintained to achieve a competent grade covering the criteria as per the letter marking guide given below
- Business formal letter with mistakes will not be overlooked
| Letter of Apology |
Assessment Criteria Letter (Trainer Use Only)
| Assessment criteria | Explanation of the criteria | Marks Allocated | Marks Achieved |
| Format | Consistent with professional letter format | 0.25 | |
| Addresses and date | Correctly placed and formatted | 0.25 | |
| Use name and position of victim in the address | Include prominently as required | 0.25 | |
| Reference the Customer’s Complaint (e.g. date of complaint lodged, time and date of occurrence) | State detail of complaint, time and date of occurrence and lodgement | 0.25 | |
| Appropriate greeting and ending | E.g. “Dear Ms Jones” not “Dear Ms Emma”, ending “Yours sincerely” <first name> <surname> | 0.25 | |
| Opening information | Expressing appreciation for time | 0.25 | |
| Convey repentance | State regret of act expressing the conscience perceiving to have gone against their subjective wisdom of right and wrong | 0.25 | |
| Confirm taking ownership | Declare ownership of mistakes and include empathy to demonstrate understanding of feelings | 0.25 | |
| Assure making amendments | Explain how you plan to right the situation and the drive to include changes | 0.25 | |
| Confirmation of non-occurrence | Include reassurance that what happened will not reoccur with assurance stating actions to be taken | 0.25 | |
| Plain English | Clear, concise, accurate | 0.25 | |
| Grammar and vocabulary | No grammar or vocabulary mistakes | 0.25 | |
| Total | 3 | ||
| Task 4 – Development of Customer Service Practices and Communication |
After the phone conversation with Mr Smith as conducted in Task 3A and from the analysis of the overall result outcome of the customer post survey (Task 2), you, the Manager, have identified and reported to the Owners the overall under-performance customer service delivery of the Restaurant café’ and that likely, the outcome will negatively affect productivity and ultimately, the bottom line. You have emphasised the need for urgent rectification for consistent and objective methods for evaluating the staff performances. This should foster gathering sources of information on current service trends and consider how much changes may need to be implemented to recover the service delivery within the restaurant café ‘as per their expected standards.
Seeing the corollary benefits of innovation and higher profits is not enough to gain success, if the restaurant café cannot sense the sheer satisfaction of standing at the helm of an entirely engaged workforce. It is significant to explore for mutual trends in which staffs are executing good work and where they are failing which nurtures evaluation of practices for quality service provision.
The Owners consider that while decision-making in changes or strategies to improve the business is in within their hands, staff participation and communication to them can reach out for their valuable input. They spend a great which can add value in towards the business.
You, as the Manager have been assigned the duty to create an environment for the involvement of the staff members to furnish supportive strategies for developing and instigating any changes to improve the performance of customer services within the restaurant café’ .
Your task is to:
- Conduct a Team Briefing role play 5 Marks
You, as the Manager, are required to conduct a team briefing, assuming the work environment where you have invited all the staff members of ACA Restaurant Café’, in turns to be present during the course of a business day, as you sense communication regarding the unsatisfactory customer service must be addressed to all team members. This should underpin stronger awareness, understanding and ownership of outcome and for staff to feel cooperation in the workplace.
Your task will be to conduct a role play with two of your classmates (based on information stated in Appendix 2), who will take the role of any of the staff members of ACA Restaurant Café’ as stated in Scenario 1. Whilst you present the team briefing, they (your classmates) will provide feedback or express their complaints or issues faced within the business. Your classmate must refer to the situation stated in Scenario 1 and the issue they have faced which resulted of poor customer service.
Your role play must consider:
- Reference to the complaint lodged by Mr Smith (Scenario 1, Task 3A) and results of online feedback (Task 2)
- phone conversation with Mr Smith (Task 3A)
- recap of issue to clarify
- identified poor customer services and management of behaviour
- product and pricing knowledge
- review the understanding of policies and standards that the business provides convenience to staff within the business’s database and website and also use of feedback survey
- management decision for change of work operations: reflect the followings:
- to review, evaluate and adjustment to policy and its development
- work operation to be revised with considering of any organisational restructures to suit business needs if required
- monitoring customer service policies and procedures
- application of innovative approach applicable to all business areas and for all service periods, which includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and any events
- relevant training to be provided if needed
- ensure consensus of all parties involved to influence sense of ownership takes place and to be more acceptable of any changes made
- Please refer to Marking Guide in Appendix 4
- Written Responses:
Respond to the following queries in the appropriate spaces below:
All responses must:
- be relevant to the customer service standards and policy of ACA Restaurant Café’, Scenario 1, with reference to the phone conversation as stated in Task 3A, and team briefing as per Task 4A, unless otherwise stated.
- demonstrate that you can or have applied what you have learned from acknowledging the policy
- theory answers without reference to ACA Restaurant Café’ business will not be assessed as satisfactory
<50% marks of the allocated marks for the questions and answers in Task 4B (Q1 & Q2) , will be given for providing theoretical aspect and remaining 50% marks for providing the relevancy on how the information fits in with business operations of ACA Restaurant Café’. Only theoretical responses will not be accepted, and 50% marks will be allocated, should that be the case. However, Assessor to assess if relevant theory has been provided by the student as per the requirement of the tasks. Non-relevant answers will be considered not satisfactory>
2 Marks
| Question 1: List at least 3 (three) significant causes of issue/opportunities that must be prioritised for immediate action, identified during the Team Briefing meeting in Task 4A with your team, and explain your analysis for such causes as per the complaints and/or recommendations from staff. <0.5 marks allocated for stating 3 (three) causes of issue/opportunities and 0.5 marks for explanation. Total of 1 mark> 1 Mark |
| Question 2: As the Manager, state in 100 -150 words how you would evaluate the feedback received and/or staff suggestions, after the team briefing meeting as stated in Task 4A, and what methods would you implement to ensure they understand their involvement have been considered given importance for the development of customer service policies and practices for ACA Restaurant Café’ . <0.5 marks allocated for your response and .5 marks for explanation. Total of 1 mark> 1 Mark |
| Task 5 – Adjustments to Policies and Procedures |
ACA Restaurant Cafe’ focuses in regularly developing and implementing adjustments by reviewing and evaluating the customer service processes, policies and procedures within the Restaurant Cafe’ to refine the way things are done for effective and efficient work practices. This helps improve the retention of existing customers as well as staff members and also manage risks and minimise conflicts and legal disputes.
Since the customer service issues raised as stated in Scenario 1, ACA Restaurant Café’ has taken immediate action conducting research for benchmarking and executing extensive investigations to eliminate the discrepancies identified and improve the failings in customer service delivery.
In discussion with you, the Owners recognised the necessity to review ACA Restaurant Cafe’s service standards and to integrate policies and procedures within the workplace operations to support overall organisational goals in line with all customers’ needs (internal and external) and uphold the consistency of quality customer services outcome at all times.
You have been given the accountability to review the policy to diagnose areas of improvement and establish new policy standards to fill the significant gaps that may have been ignored within the existing standards.
Your task is to:
- Written Responses:
Respond to the following queries in the appropriate spaces below:
All responses must:
- be relevant to the customer service standards and policy of ACA Restaurant Café’, Scenario 1, with reference to the phone conversation as stated in Task 3A, and team briefing as per Task 4A, unless otherwise stated.
- demonstrate that you can or have applied what you have learned from acknowledging the policy
- theory answers without reference to ACA Restaurant Café’ business will not be assessed as satisfactory
<50% marks of the allocated marks for the questions and answers in Task 5A (Q1 & Q2), will be given for providing theoretical aspect and remaining 50% marks for providing the relevancy on how the information fits in with business operations of ACA Restaurant Café’. Only theoretical responses will not be accepted, and 50% marks will be allocated, should that be the case. However, Assessor to assess if relevant theory has been provided by the student as per the requirement of the tasks. Non-relevant answers will be considered not satisfactory>
2 Marks
| Question 1: Identify the customer service policies and standard of ACA restaurant Café’ as given in e-learning and critically examine it. Reflecting to the complaints, issues identified and from the team briefing outcome, list areas of gap within the policy. <0.5 marks allocated for listing the gaps and 0.5 marks for the explanation. Total of 1 mark> 1 Mark |
| Question 2: What changes would ACA restaurant Café’ consider based on your review of the existing policy. State at least 3 (three) changes. <0.5 marks allocated for stating 3 (three) changes and 0.5 marks for the explanation. Total of 1 mark> 1 Mark |
- Based on your review of the current customer service policy of ACA Restaurant Café’ and the complaint handling issue raised as stated in Scenario 1, you as the Manager, in discussion with the Owners, have considered for an organisational restructure for complaint handling.
Identity a general responsibility flowchart of whom to be contacted during any complaints stating the procedure.
<1 mark allocated for providing the flowchart of complaint handling and 1 mark for the organisational relationship with relevancy to ACA Restaurant Café’. Total of 1 mark> 1 Mark
Figure 1: Restaurant operations flowchart
- Once the existing policy has been reviewed and evaluated, you, as the Manager have created policies that must be applied within all service periods of the business including breakfast, lunch, dinner and any event to be implemented for quality service provision to all customers. The Owners ensured that development of the policy should align with bench marking researches as well. 15 Marks
<5 marks for each policy developed. Total of 15 marks>
Your task is to:
- To develop the 3 (three) policies for ACA Restaurant Café’ by choosing any 3 (three) areas of work operations from the following:
- Booking over the phone
- Online ordering and monitoring
- Staff presentation/hosting
- Dealing with customer complaints
- Customer service procedures – order timeline and attendance
- Develop the policies using the templates given below: (Policy 1, Policy 2 and Policy template – suggested examples are given for your understanding)
- Consider the followings:
- any industry schemes and codes of practices and reflect on the competitor’s policy regarding customer service standards to further enhance its brand.
- include appropriateness and specific context to the business needs and stated in “plain language” for the same reason.
- expectation and authorisations are clear in specific circumstances to increase the customer’s experience.
- time frames to ensure staff is aware of response times and anticipated resolutions and the associated procedures for such act (what to do during each step along the way). Also include when responses are considered untimely or unacceptably delayed
- should be based on the actual experience, expectations and needs of the customers.
- Policy 1 Template: <Total of 5 marks>
| <Policy 1> |
- Policy 2 Template: <Total of 5 marks>
| <Policy 2> |
- Policy 3 Template: <Total of 5 marks>
| <Policy 3> |
- Written Responses:
Respond to the following queries in the appropriate spaces below:
All responses must:
- be relevant to the customer service standards and policy of ACA Restaurant Café’ as developed in Task 5C with reference to Task 4A and Scenario 1, unless otherwise stated.
- demonstrate that you can or have applied what you have learned from acknowledging the policy
- theory answers without reference to ACA Restaurant Café’ business will not be assessed as satisfactory
<50% marks of the allocated marks for the questions and answers in Task 5D (Q1 & Q2), will be given for providing theoretical aspect and remaining 50% marks for providing the relevancy on how the information fits in with business operations of ACA Restaurant Café’. Only theoretical responses will not be accepted, and 50% marks will be allocated, should that be the case. However, Assessor to assess if relevant theory has been provided by the student as per the requirement of the tasks. Non-relevant answers will be considered not satisfactory>
| Question 1: Once the policies have been finalised as stated in Task 5C and ready for usage, outline methods on how you will document, ensure its availability for ease of access and communicate the newly added changes to service practices to the all the staff members of ACA Restaurant Café’?< 0.5 mark for providing the methods for documentation, accessibility and communication and 0.5 mark for stating the reason. Total of 1 mark> 1 Mark |
| Question 2: State how you as the Manager will implement strategies to initiate improvements and monitor staff performances to ensure the newly developed policies and standards as stated in Task 5C, will be met?< 0.5 marks for providing the strategies to initiate and monitor customer services and 0.5 mark for explanation for meeting the standards. Total of 1 mark> 1 Mark |
END OF ASSESSMENT
Appendix 1
Mr. Smith (Played by one of classmate. This person will not be assessed)
You will receive a phone call from the ACA Restaurant Cafe’ Manager (played by student who will be assessed on performance criteria) to discuss the complaint he made to the General Manager of ACA Hotel as stated in Scenario 2, based on his experiences , as stated in Scenario 1.
Your written feedback included;
- Poor booking and order taking via phone call – multiple errors in booking
- Staff unaware of using the system and knowing the products and price
- Phone etiquette not present during conversation
- Waiting time on hold on the phone
- Inappropriate behaviour by staff (Sally) while taking the orders – commented on accent, talking to others while taking orders, abrupt approach, rushing, no support with options of products or substituting suitable products when not available, not aware of prices of products, and complaining to customer about busy periods
- Poor staff presentation, etiquette and hosting – not trained
- Response time slow on promised actions
- Delayed food delivery and cold food items
- No Managers on floor to address any concerns
- No support for refund and complaint procedure – info unknown to/ not trained by the staff
Appendix 2
Team Members Role (Played by 2 (two) of the classmates. They will not be assessed) for Team Briefing role play in Task 4A.
Roles of the team members: to be chosen from Scenario 1 – may consider the following roles:
- Bill Cruise – Team Leader
- Jack Fry – Senior Wait Staff
- Long Nguyen Thanh – Wait Staff
- Sally Thompson – Wait Staff
- Imogen O’Hara – Junior Wait Staff
Team members are distressed that due to sudden growth in business, the restaurant café’ has been dealing with increased number of customers and thus the business is putting a lot of pressure on their work schedule and expecting they adapt to the new innovative changes within a short time period. They have shared their concerns with the Manager (played by the student being assessed) during the team briefing role play in Task 4A.
Issues raised by staff may include:
- Lack of staff are working on the floor
- Not a user-friendly new system incorporated within the business and should consider to install more a less complicated nevertheless an up to date compatible new technology
- Not enough training provided
- Unexpected excessive workload
- Managers not available at all times
Appendix 3
Marking Guide for Role play – Task 3A
Phone conversation for complaint follow up – Manager (Joe Roux) and Mr Smith 5 Marks
The marking allocation for this task will be catered in the following way:
| Observation checklist | |||
| Did the student: | Marks | Marks Achieved | |
| 1 | Prepare for the role play | 0.5 | |
| 2 | Use language that is suitable for the scenario of survey follow up and obtain information on the customer expectations and satisfaction levels | 0.5 | |
| 3 | Use tone and strategies/style appropriate for business setting and take accountability for service results and dispute resolution | 0.5 | |
| 4 | Offer suitable resolution within constraints of policies and procedures to maintain business relationships | 1 | |
| 5 | Communicate in a positive manner for a suitable outcome through interpersonal skills ensuring professional standards expected of service | 0.5 | |
| 6 | Detail monitoring procedures for future benchmarking by seeking feedback to improve customer service provisions | 1 | |
| 7 | Ensure agreement on information discussed to design a tailored outcome. | 1 | |
| Total | 5 | ||
Appendix 4
Marking Guide for Role play – Task 4A
Team Briefing for staff participation and communication to assist in developing customer service improving strategies– Manager (Joe Roux) and ACA Restaurant Café’ team 5 Mark
The marking allocation for this task will be catered in the following way:
| Observation Checklist | Marks Allocated | Marks received |
| Alignment with the business context | 0.5 | |
| Purpose of communication and reference | 0.5 | |
| Identified issues and causes of unsatisfactory outcome | 1 | |
| Addressing strategies to evaluate and develop policies and procedures including seeking suggestive ideas/feedback | 1 | |
| Ways of inclusive practices to assist improvements including innovative approaches and changes within all business areas and service periods | 1 | |
| Decision of business for quality customer service provisions | 1 | |
| Total | 5 |
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