The role of people training and development in delivering service quality in uk based thai restaurants

Oxford Brookes of Hospitality Management Oxford Brookes University THE ROLE OF PEOPLE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN DELIVERING SERVICE QUALITY IN UK BASED THAI RESTAURANTS Trang Ngo Thi Quynh Academic Year 2014- 2015 This dissertation is submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s Degree in International Hotel and Tourism Management Tai ngay!!! Ban co the xoa dong chu nay!!! !1 DECLARATION This dissertation is the result of my own independent work Where material other than my own work has been used it is appropriately attributed and reference in the text I agree that this dissertation may be made available for reference and photocopying at the discretion of the Head of School, who will only give permission for such reproduction to the text which s/he considers fair and reasonable Trang Ngo Thi Quynh Page i
 !2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is a result of my Master journey at Oxford School of Hospitality Management I would like to send thanks to all lecturers and professors who are part of the School, for the passion and contribution for teaching and supporting students in their academic and professional experiences I would like to thank Dr Judie Gannon for all her help and guidance throughout my project A significant “thank you” to owners and managers in eight Thai restaurants I interviewed for their supports during the time I did my research Last, but not least, I spend my sincere thank for my family and my friends for their support throughout all these years of studies Thank you very much Page ii !3 ABSTRACT Literature review Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of people training and development in delivering service quality in UK based Thai restaurants The study focuses on small and medium sized Thai restaurants in the UK, particularly in London, Oxford and Bath city These restaurants are independent, family- run business and brand Thai restaurants Design/ method/ approach Based on a choice of phenomenon philosophy, the researcher conducted a small- scale qualitative research with one observation and twelve interviews of owners and managers in a sample of eight Thai restaurants As applying a purposive sample technique, the research carried out the study in chosen small and medium size Thai restaurants, both run by families and brands in three cities such as London, Oxford and Bath In terms of interview, the researcher chose semi-structure interviews to explore the views of Thai owners and management team on the impact of people training and development in the delivery of service quality These chosen interviewees hold positions such as operation, business, training managers, assistant managers in chosen Thai restaurants One nonparticipating observation was taken place at one specific restaurant site in Oxford to observe how service was delivered by staffs Findings This study will add to the existing knowledge by addressing the impact of people training and development on deciding which dimension of service quality (technical or functional level) Research limitations The study used qualitative research, semi-interviews, observation which leads to a limitation of generalization and data validity Practical implications Implications from the study could assist Thai restaurants, both run by families and brands to benefit from how to conduct training method and content to influence staff performance and customer perception of service quality Originality/ value This paper is the first study to explore the role of training and development in the delivery of service quality in selection of Thai restaurants in the UK !4 Keywords: Service quality, Ethnic restaurant, human resource development, people training and development !5 Table of Contents Table 1: A summary of restaurants attributes to customer dining experience in full-service restaurants Table 2: Research design summary Table 3: Constructing question content following the research objectives Table 4: Time schedule interview Table 5: Data order and display Table 6: Cluster of data collection Table 7: A summary of data cluster collected from interview and observation !6 Table of figures: Figure 1: A conceptual framework of the thesis Figure 2: Model illustrating alternative philosophical approaches to research (Shepard et al., 1993) !7 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Rationale ………………………………………………………………….……………….11 The context of the study ……………………………………………………………… 12 The significance of the study…………………………………….… ………… …… 14 Aim and objective……………………………………………………………….……… 15 Scope …………………………………………………………………… ……………… 15 The overall structure of the thesis ……………………………………………………15 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………….…….17 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….… 18 2.1 Service…………………………………………… ……………………………….…… 19 2.3 Service quality………………………………………………………………………… 20 2.4 Customer satisfaction ……………………………………………………………….…21 2.5 Restaurant attributes to customer experiences………………………………… 21 2.6 Restaurants attributes to customer dining experience in ethnic restaurants…………………………………………………………………………………… 25 2.7 Delivery service quality through people ………………………………………… 26 2.8 Human resource management approach ……………………………………… …27 2.8 Human resource management in service industry…………………………….… 31 Human resource management in SMEs in service industry Relationship between human resource management and the delivery of service quality ………………………………………………………………………………………… 29 2.10 Training ………………………………………………………………………………… 30 2.11 Training approach ………………………………………………………………… …33 2.12 Practice of training in SMEs …………………………………………………….… 35 !8 2.13 Conceptual framework ………………………………………………………… ……34 2.14 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………… 35 CHAPET 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….…… 37 3.2 Research philosophy ……………………………………………………………….….37 3.3 Research approach and strategy…………………………………… ………………39 3.3.1 Research approach ……………………………………………………………………39 3.2 Research strategy…………………………………………………………………… 40 3.4 Research design…………………………………………………………………………40 3.5 Research sample…………………………………….………………………………… 41 3.6 Data collection technique………………………………………………………………45 3.6.1 Observation…………………………………………………………………………… 45 3.6.2 In- depth interview………………………………………………………………….… 47 3.7 Analysis of data ………………………………………………………………………….50 3.8 Ethnics consideration ………………………………………………… ………………55 3.9 Limitation of the research methodology…………………………………………… 55 3.10 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….…… 55 Chapter 4: FINDINGS 4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….… 56 4.2 Findings from interview …………………………….…………………………….….…57 4.3 Findings from observations ……………………………………………………………68 4.4 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………… …69 Chapter 5: Discussion !9 5.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………… 71 5.2 Cluster 1: Restaurant attributes to customer experiences in Thai restaurants ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……… 71 5.3 Cluster 2: The role of staff interaction in customer experience …………….….74 5.4 Cluster 3: Practice of training and development ……………………………….…77 5.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………… 79 Chapter 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 6.1 Introduction……………………………………………….……………………………… 81 6.2 Accomplishing the aim of the thesis……………………………….……… ……… 81 6.3 The unique of the study …………………………………………………… …………82 6.4 Recommendations for further research …………………….……………………….83 6.5 Limitation …………………………………….…………………………… …………… 83 6.6 Conclusion ………………………………….……………….…………… …………….84 REFERENCES APPENDICES Appendix 1: Observation guide Appendix 2: Observation note Appendix 3: invitation to join the interview Appendix 4: Interviewee Engagement Participant Information Sheet Appendix 5: A consent form Appendix 6: Interview guide Appendix 7: Interview transcript Appendix 8: Example of data coding Appendix 9: Basic design of case studies undertaken in the research Appendix 10: Demographic data about Interviewees !10 Appendix 7: Interview transcripts I: Interviewer P: Participant [General Introduction to the reason for the interview guide Interview read through the informed consent form and signed] I: To begin with my interview, the first question is, can you introduce briefly your restaurants? P: Oh, basically, the organization is called Thai Leisure Group (or TLG) which we have 13 restaurants across the UK We have four different types of sectors for Thai restaurants here in the UK We have Thai Kun which we have now four units, and we have Chaophraya which has three units, and we also have Chaoya with one unit, Chaobaby with other two units We also have some small brands called Bam Sugar which is a kind of bar attached with Chaophraya or Thai Kun at the moment Our restaurants locate more outside of London such as in the North side The Oxford unit, the one now I am working for is the Southern unit in the UK I: Interesting So what are your position and responsibilities in this unit, Thai Kun restaurant at the moment? P: My position here is the business manager who runs the unit on the site, looking after all business for the site, like running everything Instead of restaurant manager, we call business manager, we don’t have restaurant manager here Besides business manager, we have assistant manager who supports the business manager, and we have bar manager and floor supervisor.Basically, everything here relates to performance is under my responsibility Starting from the sales, it is like, the company has a budget for the sales and we have to set the target for the sales for our own site So basically, I am responsible for making sure the site is run probably without any problems, any issues, any interruptions So to make sure we deliver the sale to whatever target we set I: So how long have you been working for Thai Kun? P: Basically I joined the company ( Thai Kun) for one year and a half But before, the first time I joined the company, I looked after Chao Paiza unit in Birmingham, and then after four months, I was promoted to the Operation manager looking after three sites of restaurants, which are in Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield And four months ago, we !110 had a new plan to open more units in downside of the UK, which is Oxford So I decided, vontunteer myself to be the business manager here because I have my family in London So it is quite convenient for me to go back to see my family in London So yah, only four months working for Thai Kun until now I: So the next question, please tell me what in your views makes a great restaurant experience for customers when they come to have dinner or any meal here in Thai restaurant? P: Yes, here in Thai Kun, our concept is fun, funky and authentic and great customer services Staff need to be energetic So we need to make sure who come to the restaurants, customers that they have what they expect That is great quality of food, something authentic, because we target our restaurant is to provide street Thai food It is very important for us to make sure when they come here they get what they expect for, which is the real Thai street food in Thai Kun Yeah, that is in terms of food In terms of the service, like I said, we make clear here that we create an atmosphere, which is fun and funky place so we train our staff to make sure when they come here, they get very good customer service, make sure they relax when they are here We tend to be fun and funky, make sure they feel like, they are at home We need to look after the staff, look after the family, look after customers I: And the question number five, what is the role of the menu in making a great Thai restaurant experiences? P: for Thai Kun, like I said, we aim to deliver street Thai food So the theme of the menu, the role of the menu gonna be something street food If you to Thailand, or have a chance to go to Thailand, almost of the items in the menu here, all of them you can find on street site restaurants, something every popular or normal to Thai people And we try to deliver the Thai taste, the flavor, which is what Thai people is expecting for and it is what we aim for I: Yeah, and what is the role of the design and decoration of the restaurant in Thai restaurant experiences? P: Oh… talking about Thai Kun Thai kun is more something different with all restaurants in Oxford Like a said, for us, it is more to make people to feel when they come here, they are in Thailand or to remind them the life in Thailand Something like Tuktuk( a name of popular vehicle in Thailand) As you can see here, I have TukTuk standing in the front to make sure they are in Thailand at the moment And we have many kind of !111 decorations around here Most of the items for decoration here have been used in the real situation in Thailand And we bring them here to make people remember when they see them, or remind them of something they see in Thailand We make the atmosphere like real Thai street, to make fun and funky Yeah I: So the next question, how you evaluate the role of staff in delivering a great service quality here in your restaurant? Can you give me some examples? P: Yes, basically, we start from training We have a lot of training done through the team since before we opened already In terms of training, we have two different ways The first one, we online training like online course, online module for staffs Staffs need to training on customer service, complaining and also knowledge of staff to make them aware of what is going on And also we have customer service training which is done by group training manager The training manager comes to support us all kind of trainings we are looking for, to make sure staffs are aware Normally here we have service, the service we are doing here, we call it, Thai Kun way So the training manager supports us to make sure all staffs are trained in Thai Kun way Thai Kun way, like I said, to make sure people come here, they feel fun and funky, friendly, this kind of thing Yeah And then we have the follow- up section which is to observe and support on day-to-day basic, which is done by the person called Restaurant Ambassador We have one person running this role, it means, the person works very closed with the training manager to make sure, whatever the training is delivered by training manager, the Ambassador and myself ( the business managers) to make sure they follow up what they have been trained, to make sure they make it probably I: Interesting, so how you think are they key interaction when staff deliver quality service in Thai restaurants? P: Yes, it is very important as well Observe to make sure your staff is running probably, doing probably their service that they are trained And also, the other thing is, we have the daily briefing and weekly meeting, which is very important to discuss the service to make sure is there anything we can improve or anything new we have to be aware and update among the team I: So for example, when staffs interact with customer such as speaking with customers, what are the key things staffs have to, let say, express or have any way to talk with customers? !112 P: Yes, we try very hard to make sure customers to come here, they feel like, they are home and looked after by staffs Staffs look after customer like they look after their family We allow staffs to talk with people at the table, sometimes we allow them to seat at the table if they really need, I mean, not to interrupt them too much Staff to make sure they are relaxed, to make sure it is fun and funky and friendly for customers And staffs are always there when they need And we have staff looking after their own sections, which is at maximum 24 seats per person I think it is quite a right number at the moment because we have quite a big restaurant and we have many areas to look after So we try to put customer in every section, you know, one by one, I meant, not put people on the same section at the same time So staffs, they have sometimes to make sure they time to have some conversations, some follow up, talk with customers, make friend, not not in terms of friend, I mean, to be friendly with customers, like one of their family to look after customers I: Yes, very interesting So as a manager of the restaurant, what can you to ensure staffs deliver the right the level of service Can you give me some examples? P: we have quite some levels of staff here starting from the floor staff, they have certain level that they can And then we have supervisor level and the manager level For staff level, more likely, we allow them to whatever in terms of contact with customer to make sure customer happy, to make decision straight away without waiting Because like I said, we have meeting, we have discussion, we have training before we put staff in the floor And more likely, they know what their level are, something for example, if customers want to change curry from green chicken curry to green beef curry, this is kind of thing staffs can make decision straight away But apart from, if something further up, something is to deal with discount or complaint or something like that, it is another level of supervisor We have supervisor to look after the area to deal with these kinds of things And then, if we have more problem, or something is to deal with, you know, something the supervisor cannot deal with, it will be managers We have three manager person doing the manager role here I: So the next question is, what is the role of staff training and development in delivering the service quality in Thai restaurants? P: The role of staff training, like I said, when we recruit new people to join the team First of all, we recommend them to go for floor hospitality staff training which is we have 13 modules for staffs, and 16 modules for the supervisor role and modules for the bar person So in those modules, we have four compulsory modules which staffs need to !113 finish the module in one month, food hygiene, fire and safety, food allergy and alcohol These modules they need to finish in one month to make sure they know everything before they can provide service efficiently to customer And later, after one month, we continue to training for both bar and floor supervisors in terms of service through the hospitality training This is, they need to be involved and make sure they are on top of it all the times And we have one of these managers to support and make sure staffs, let them know where they are at the time It is one section The other section is induction for new staffs, which is also we training by person, not just by computers This person will make sure people need to know what exactly we are looking for, in terms of rules, regulation, service and customer relation and knowledge as well Normally, we it within the first month Newcomers need to join the section, probably it takes about four hours for training And after that, we have the training which is food training with the chief involved in We have beverage training and bar supervisor involved And we have service training which we have a member of management team, sometimes done by myself This is to make sure people aware of and they need to get involved as well And latter we have follow- up section, like I said, Ambassador manager or senior manager, like I said, to support training manager to training I: who is involved in training and develop staff in your restaurants? P: Yes, this is, like I said, we are talking about the company first The company, we have the training manager And then on very site, we have trainee manager, actually, the trainee manager, is who recruited and trained to be a business manager in the future It means, this person has very good skill and was trained before and we have a lot of support from training manager work with trainee manager, which is doing training on the site And another person, Ambassador, the person has been trained also from training manager to make sure staff provide service from their heart It is the Thai way, special thing of Thai Leisure Group More likely here, we have myself (business manager) to lead the team, trainee manager, or training manager and Ambassador who provide proper service But more than that, we have the supervisor in the floor or bar supervisor to day-to-day service Those people, they pick up any issue from day-to-day service to bring into meeting, or team briefing We have team briefing every day in the morning And whatever issue happen in the night before, or week before, the supervisor pick up the issue, come to discuss with me and training manager and we can have proper training to make sure whatever we miss in serving service I: Yeah… So what are staffs trained to be able to do? Can you please give me some examples? Staffs here can be staffs in the front As you said, you have many levels of !114 staffs So my question will be more staffs who interact, deliver the service directly to customers P: Basically, the staff who interact with customer are more likely floor staff So in terms of this level, they are trained to talk with customer, deal with small complaint with customer such as with food such as the curry is really hot, or not up the standard This is the level of staff who can take the food, bring back to the kitchen and ask the chief to make another food I: So as a business manager of the restaurant, how can you evaluate that the service delivered in the restaurant is of the right service that the restaurant hopes to deliver to customers? P: yes, we have quite a few ways to measure the service We have in terms of the company, we have 13 sites across the UK, we have the head office which is the operation team We have service performance which is done by outside audit We have mystery dinner which comes to restaurants for dinning every month we don’t know In terms of booking by phone, we have mystery phone call which is done by a team to check that And we are required to have up to 95 score or more If we have the score come to us lower than 95, it means we fail in terms of measuring service quality from the head office Also we have KPI, like I said, performance which is check by head office We also have inside audit The person from the head office comes to check the site to see, such as cleanness, service and also we have the score to make sure our standards More than that, we measure from the feedback which is we have booking system When customer book table with us, they book in a system or we put into the system by ourselves When customer come and seat in the table, we click in the system, then after that, three or four hours, we have email sent to customers to give their feedback for their experiences And in the feedback, customer have space to give feedback But we have one topic to measure, to give score from one to ten Normally, we have one category, see you again, this is not my place or give it blank We need to make sure that, out of ten, customers choose see you again with mark nine If we fail, it mean, the mark is below nine, within score of ten of see you again Because for example, normal standard, if we have ten people, they feel happy when they come happy, they will tell, only one people tell one people If one people are not happy, they will ten people That is why we need to make sure we have nine of the person who gives us score And we also measure from tripadvisor which is very important, because it is more likely standard to customers, when they come to new place, they keep searching, looking for comment, review So we keep a little bit alert about that !115 I: the last question, what are challenges in delivering service quality to customers in Thai restaurants? P: To me, you know, people know Thailand is the land of smile People come to visit Thailand, they see people smile all the time So customer come to Thai restaurants, they expect, have high expectation of the service to represent some kind of Thailand Sometimes, when we are busy, we cannot provide kindness, smile, whatever to make them relax Sometimes, customers expect services in Thai restaurants to make them calm, more kind of relaxation This is our challenge to make sure they get what they expect I: so are there any challenges apart from service smile? P: Well, at the moment we have cosmopolitan style, we have Thai and non Thai staff Sometimes, the culture is an issue to train them to understand Thai culture of smiling Like I said, when customer comes here, they expect to see staff smiling, kindness, calm Sometimes to manage non- Thai to make sure they are aware of what customer wants, it is quite challenging as well That is why in the training, before we put staff in the floor, we make sure staffs who are non Thai, they are aware of Thai culture We showed them the video, let them see how Thai people and culture are The end of recording [Thanks given to the respondent and the issue of confidentiality was further discussed Appendix 8: Example of data coding Questio Representative quotes Key themes n and patterns !116 Q5 Interviewee No.7: “…for Thai Kun, like I said, we aim to D i s p l a y deliver street Thai food So the theme of the menu, the authentic Thai role of the menu gonna be something street food If food you to Thailand, or have a chance to go to Thailand, almost of the items in the menu here, all of them you can find on street site restaurants, something every popular or normal to Thai people And we try to deliver the Thai R e s t a u r a n t taste, the flavor,which is what Thai people is expecting concept for and it is what we aim for…” Interviewee No.5: “…our menus introduce different Thai culture foods, each food has different taste so that customers can easily choose following their taste We list special food, real Thai food in the menu with description of ingredient When customers look at our menu, we think they can have an idea of our eating culture as well” !117 Appendix 9: Basic design of case studies undertaken in the research No Name Location N o Nationality Ye a r s o f M a r k e t Business o f of service operations segment type staff s t a f f s (waiters) Thai Basil Bath 10 Thai 12 (full- time) T h a i Bath 12 Bacony B a n g k o k Oxford At Thai dinning 10 (full- time) 12 house Thai Oxford 15 Thai Casual FamilyF i n e Familydinning 10 run run F i n e Family- (full-time) dinning run Thai (full- F i n e Family- time) and dining run non Thai (part-time) T h a i Oxford 20 Angrid Thai (full- Casual Family- time) and dinning run non Thai (part-time) Thaikun Oxford 55 Thai and C a s u a l Company non-Thai dinning (full-time and parttime) P a t a r a London 40 Soho P a t a r a London Oxford 45 Thai (full- 20 F i n e Company time) dinning Thai (full- 22 F i n e Company time) dinning Circus Appendix 8: Thai restaurant background No Name, website and picture description !118 Thai Basil, Bath Website:http://www.thaibasilbath.com/index.php ! Thai Bacony, Bath Website: http://www.thai-balcony.net/ ! !119 At Thai, Oxford Website: http://atthai.y4f.co/ ! Bangkok House, Oxford Website: http://www.bangkokhouse.co.uk/ ! !120 Thaikun Website: http://thaikhun.co.uk/ ! Thai Angird Website: http://angridthai.vpweb.co.uk/ ! !121 Patara Soho and Patara Oxford Circus Website: http://www.pataralondon.com/about/ ! Appendix 10: Demographic data about Interviewees Interviewee Job title Y e a r s o f Unit Responsibilities Nationality experience Owner T h a i Operation, recruiting Thai Basil and training staffs, managing profit and loss, dealing with suppliers Restauran T h a i R e c r u i t i n g a n d Thai t manager Basil training waiters, customer services, dealing with suppliers and bookings !122 Restauran T h a i Customer services, Thai t manager Bacony managing profit and loss, training waiters, dealing bookings with and suppliers Restauran At Thai t manager Tr a i n i n g w a i t e r s , Thai services, dealing with bookings, training waiters Owner T h a i O p e r a t i o n , Thai Angrid managingprofitand loss, dealing with suppliers, recruiting and training staffs Owner Bangko Operation, customer Thai k house service, recruiting and training staffs, managing profit and loss, dealing with booking, promotion Business T h a i Managing operation, Thai manager Kun sales, services, profit and loss, training staffs Training T h a i Training staffs manager Kun U K operation P a t a r a Managing operation, Thai Group manager 10 Thai sales of five restaurants G r o u p months P a t a r a Managing beverage Thai Beverage Group manager sale for five restaurants !123 11 Assistant manager P a t a r a Accounting (bank Thai (Soho) statement, cash flow, invoice); training staffs 12 Restauran P a t a r a Operation, customer Thai t manager (Oxford s e r v i c e , s t a f f s , Circus) managing profit and loss,training staffs !124