Restaurant Operations at Samouel’s Restaurant: Improving Relations with Employees and Customers

1. Restaurant Operations at Samouel’s Restaurant: Improving Relations with Employees and Customers Research conducted for: Phil Samouel, Samouel’s Greek Cuisine Research conducted by: AdMark International Business Research Group

2. Initial Symptoms: Samouel's Restaurant • Inadequate Revenue. • Inadequate Profit. • 100% Annual Employee Turnover. • Need to Attract New Customers.

3. Two Studies in One • Employee Survey: • Focus on attracting and keeping customers. • Customer Survey: • Focus on increasing employee commitment and maximizing productivity.

4. Overall Research Questions • Employee Study: • RQ1: Are employees being managed to maximize their productivity as well as commitment to the success of the restaurant? • Customer Study: • RQ2: What are the ways to keep and grow the existing customer base and to attract new customers?

5. Employee Survey Hypotheses: EH1 • EH1: Employee work status, age and gender are related to intentions to job search. Should consider the search intentions of: • part-time workers • younger employees • men

6. Employee Research Hypotheses • EH2: Employee perceptions of supervisory style are positively related to organizational commitment. • EH3: Employee perceptions of work group functioning are positively related to organizational commitment.

7. Customer Hypotheses: Samouel's Restaurant • CH1: Samouel’s customers report higher satisfaction than do Gino’s customers. • CH2: Customer perceptions of restaurant employees are related positively to customer satisfaction. Samouel's Restaurant VS. GINO'S

8. Customer Hypotheses: Samouel's Restaurant • CH3: Customer perceptions of restaurant atmosphere are related positively to customer satisfaction. • CH4: Customer perceptions of food quality are related positively to customer satisfaction.

9. Research Methods: Employee Study • 63 Samouel’s Employees Sampled. • off premises. • employees Not “Identified”. • General Social-Psychological Measures Used for: • work environment variables. • such as organizational commitment. • work outcome characteristics. • such as quitting intention.

10. Research Methods: Customer Study • Two Samples: • Samouel’s Customers. • Gino’s Customers. • 200 usable responses obtained from 230 total / 100 for each. • Measures: • 7-Point Likert scales assess: • Ratings of evaluative criteria; • Outcomes: Satisfaction and intention to return.

11. Results: Employee Study • EH1: Intention to Search Results. • Full versus part-time. Part-time workers are more likely to search.

12. EH1: Age and Search Intentions Search intentions become lower with age!

13. EH1: Gender and Search Intentions Men are more likely to search for another job!

14. EH1: Search Intentions by Years of Employment Newer employees are more likely to search for another job!

15. EH2: Supervisory Style and Organizational Commitment: Regression Results • Model Explains Loyalty (X13) • R2 = .41, F = 13.4, p < .001 • Work Group Cooperation and Training affect Loyalty positively. • Team Functioning negatively?

16. Caution: • Negative team functioning – loyalty relationship based on regression coefficient may be misleading. • All correlations are positive. • Further examination required.

17. Samouel's Restaurant Results: Customer Study Hypothesis Summary VS. GINO'S • Relative Satisfaction. • Determinants of Customer Satisfaction. • Effect of Atmosphere on Satisfaction. • Effect of Food Quality on Satisfaction.

18. Comparative Performance • All differences but variety are significant. • Notice Samouel’s is cleaner, has a nicer interior, and is more fun to go to.

19. CH1: Customer Satisfaction is higher at Samouel’s? Who is happiest? Gino! • Customers more satisfied with Samouel’s • = no support! • 5.96 compared to 4.76. • t = -7.79 (p< .001)

20. Customer Satisfaction at Gino’s: Regression Results • Variables together “explain” satisfaction. • Variables “explanatory” power: • X1 – 1st • X10 – 2nd • X2 is not significant.

21. Customer Satisfaction at Samouel’s: Regression Results • Variables together “explain” satisfaction. • Variables’ “Explanatory” Power: • X10 – 1st • X1 – 2nd • X2 – 3rd

22. Conclusions: Employees • Employees with higher turnover likelihood: • Younger • Part-time • Male • Supervisory approach is good. • Work group functioning is not good.

23. Conclusions: Customers • Gino’s customers are more satisfied. • Gino’s food is higher quality. • Gino’s employees are rated better. • Samouel’s customers’ satisfaction affected by: • Food quality, attractiveness of interior, and friendly employees. • Gino’s customers’ satisfaction affected by: • food quality and employee friendliness.

24. Recommendations: Samouel's Restaurant • Provide Additional Training Opportunities for Employees. • Hire Employees 25 and Over. • Hire an “Executive Chef” – improve the food quality. • Promote the importance of a clean, attractive and fun atmosphere.

25. Limitations • Samples are limited. • many more restaurant competitors – each with potentially unique customers and employees. • Questionnaires do not cover all important topics. • many more issues to be studied, such as compensation systems, full versus part-time, price sensitivities…

26. Finally . . . • Thanks for the opportunity to help Samouel’s. • Please ask any questions!