• Author / Uploaded
• ArvindManoharan

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Based on the service blueprint for a restaurant dining experience, there are numerous strategic insights that can be deciphered. After careful thought and outlook from the blueprint, it can be seen that the customer satisfaction during a restaurant dining experience is dependent on if the moment of truth occurrences sit well with the customer. Moment of truth is governed by the reduction of external pain points faced by the customer and the internal pain points caused by restaurant employees during the service process. For example it is interesting to see that the customer faces an external pain point even before entering the restaurant wherein the first physical evidence is the restaurant’s parking lot. It’s important that there is convenience for the customer to park near the vicinity of the restaurant; not being able to park with ease mark the first step towards a poor customer experience. Once the customer arrives at the restaurant, here begins the true dining experience. The blueprint helps identify 4 internal pain points on the employee’s end that contribute to 4 respective external pain points for the customer. All the 8 pain points determine the judgment call for the customers – the moment of truth. At the greet between the customer and employees, the moment of truth is whether customer feels like he/she has been greeted properly by the hosts. After the greet, then it’s a process of adding name to the waiting list in order to get a spot to sit in the restaurant. The external pain point is the length of time the customer has to wait for the seat while the internal pain point is that there are no vacant tables available thus extending customer’s waiting time. This could result in losing the new customer due to long wait times (a risk in the equation). The second pain point occurs for the customer after he/she has sat down at the designated table. The customer is waiting for basic utensils, napkin and water to be provided by the back-stage employees. Due to under-staffing of employees, this may result in an internal pain point where those basic needs are not fulfilled by the staff. During the order of the food by the customer, there is a moment of truth experienced by the customer – is the server accommodating of my needs? In other words, does the on-stage employee take care of the customer’s requests when recording the order? The flexibility in making ends meet for the customer identifies with the customer’s satisfaction with the employees at the restaurant. Once the order has been made, there may be an internal pain point faced by the support employees (lead chef and staff) in that due to back orders, the current order may be delayed in production. This directly leads up to an external pain point faced by the customer, which is a longer wait time for the delivery of the ordered food. Eventually, when the food is delivered, there is again a moment of truth for the customer wherein, the customer checks whether the food that was delivered is same as the food order that was initially put in place with the server. Also, the condition of the food is also important because this confirms if the accommodation by the server actually followed through in the order and it meets customer requirements. Now, between eating the food and ordering the bill, there is an expectation from the customer that he/she continues to receive the care from the backstage employees in fulfilling additional dining needs as see fit. When the customer is finally ready for the bill, the moment of truth for the customer is if the bill provided by the server is correct with no errors or ambiguity. The error/ambiguity would be because of an internal pain point due to incorrect orders being placed or because of a faulty system; nevertheless, this would result in an external pain point, where the customer has to wait longer for the correct bill – creating a sense of frustration for the customer and hurting the overall experience. Lastly, the final moment of truth is for the customer to

judge the entire experience as he/she leaves the restaurant and back to the parking lot. This last step marks the conclusive decision of the entire dining experience for the customer and whether this is worth a second-time visit or a referral for other potential customers. Analyzing further in this blueprint shows an opportunity for improvement in the process in order to minimize or remove the external and internal points. For example, if there is space available or if there is a way to accommodate customer vehicles in a more organized fashion (e.g. valet service, shuttle service, etc.), then that would greatly reduce the need for the first external pain point faced by customer. In addition to the parking lot improvement, the other physical evidence that stands as an opportunity for improvement is the ambience and décor of the restaurant; the most appropriate design/décor would suit and make the customer experience more comfortable. In addition to these two areas of improvement, the blueprint identifies 3 other opportunities for improvement during the customer dining experience. The first helps remove the external pain point of long waiting times, where servers could be alerted using technology of vacant tables. Second opportunity for improvement is during order placement from server to chef; this could be more systematic and even use mobile technology to capture customer order in a simpler fashion. This would also help in resolving pain points concerning the delivery of the customer bill without any errors and minimizing customer frustration as he/she waits for the bill – this is the third avenue for improvement.