Public Observation in Olive Garden, Case Study Example

Introduction

I and my friends are food lovers and plan a dine-out almost every weekend. Our primary goal is to visit as many different restaurants and try as many different types of food as possible. But once in a while, you come across restaurants that really blow you away due to delicious food and unrivaled customer service and Olive Garden is one such establishment for me and my friends. We visited Olive Garden over the weekend because it had been a while since our last visit.

The Situation

Olive Garden is appropriate for almost every kind of customer whether it’s families, romantic couple on a date, or simply a group of friends. I and three of my friends went around 8 pm which is a busy hour so that I will have several opportunities to observe and analyze staff-customer interaction. I had already told my friend I would not be participating much in their conversation due to college assignment. As soon as we entered the restaurant, we were met by the shift manager who gave us a smile and asked for the number of seats desired. It didn’t take long for her to find a table with four seats but she did make sure we were fine with the location of our table. One of the waiters immediately came to us and filled our glasses with water and another waiter provided us with menu. I left it to my friends to choose an item with shrimp for me and began observing the environment. I noticed few waiters had jugs of water in their hands and would be constantly looking around to fill empty or half-filled glasses. They would rush to a table to fill glasses even when the table participants might not have asked for water refills.

The customers who had just arrived would start looking at the menu and some of them would turn to one or more of their fellow diners for suggestions or better explanation of the menu items. Some customers even found themselves struggling with pronunciation of few menu items. Sometimes they would get satisfactory explanations from fellow diners otherwise they would wait for the wait staff member to come to take the order as well as answer their questions. There would be some customers who would ask the waiter for special of the day or just ask them to make suggestions. After the waiter has left, some customers would engage in conversation with their fellow diners while others would simply look around as if engaging in people-watching. From time to time, I also observed few individuals leaving the table to make a special request or remind the shift manager of a prior request. Some of these tables would than receive surprise birthday cake or dessert after the dinner, taking some of the table participants by complete surprise.

During the meals, the waiters would keep checking on their customers to inquire about their experience and ask if they may need anything. I also noticed that many customers engaged in what I may call food-tasting with their fellow diners so that they could taste what others on the table had ordered. After the customers had finished their meals, waiter would ask some of the customers whether they want single or separate bills. Once the customers had paid, I would see the waiters checking the receipts on their way to the cashier and some of them would smile while others would have neutral reaction on their face.

Situation Analysis

Shift manager would assign herself to ensure efficient management of operations but the manager would ask customers if they were ok with the seating arrangement to make them feel valued and increase customer loyalty. Another sign of focus on efficient operations was the fact that waiters had already been assigned specific roles as some were responsible for filling water glasses while others were responsible for taking and fulfilling orders. I noticed this arrangement allowed the manager to run operations with smaller staff than what would have been required by the number of visitors.

As I observed customers, I could tell that those who would ask fellow diners or waiters for suggestions or answers to their questions were either new or infrequent customers while the ones providing the answers were loyal or frequent customers. I also felt that Olive Garden thrives on word-of-mouth marketing because in most cases, there would only be one or two diners at each table who appeared knowledgeable about the menu items and it is possible that these frequent customers might have persuaded their fellow diners to try Olive Garden.

As far as the customers who would leave the table to talk with manager are concerned, it seemed they had bought friends, family members, or a romantic partner for a birthday or anniversary dinner but kept it a surprise. The fact that the manager always smiled or assured the customer regarding the special request convinced me that Olive Garden often receives such requests and has arrangements to accommodate such requests on short notice.

Surprisingly, I didn’t hear a single customer seated around my table complaining about slow service or unresponsive wait staff because the waiters would keep checking up on their customers from time-to-time. While it was not possible for me to check how much customers would tip their waiting staff, I did observe that some of the waiters would smile after looking at the paid tab which might be due to generous tip by the customer.

Recommendation and Conclusion

If I am a member of Olive Garden’s management, I would survey the customers to figure out the respective importance they give to three factors which are price, food, and customer service. Depending upon the outcome of the survey, I may either reduce or expand the scale of the operations because restaurant sector is extremely competitive and long-term competitiveness can only be ensured through sustainable core competency and extremely loyal customer base.

If I am given another opportunity to survey, I would ask for a seating in as much center or the restaurant as possible because being able to hear the conversations of customers would have significantly improved my analysis. My overall conclusion of the experience is that Apple Bee strives to set itself apart from the competition through both exotic food items and exemplary customer service. Overall, customers liked the professionalism of the wait staff even if the food might not have been to their taste.