Performance Gap
After conducting formal and informal interviews and analyzing the results of the survey, the research team deducted that there was a performance gap between the performances of the entire Special Events (SPEV) catering department and the communication from sales office subsystem. The sales office is the main point of contact with the customers in need of an event on-campus as well as serving as a liaison with the staff and kitchen subsystem. They ensure that the clients’ needs and desires are followed through throughout every aspect of their event. The gap lies in between the customers’ expectations and the general overwhelming nature of the ordering process. SPEV’s main strengths are that they are the exclusive provider to the entire JMU campus and they strive to provide a high level of personalized service to each event. Both of those are hard to do at the same time considering the nature of the industry and that a client can make changes or cancel the event up until the actual day of the event. There was a gap between the client and sales office’s levels of expectations for the event and the actual event result. How could SPEV close this performance gap while still maintaining exceptional service to each customer and event?
Performance Proposal
In order to eliminate the current performance gap between the client, sales office and the other subsystems of SPEV, a proposal for modifying the communications between each SPEV department is recommended. The first area of communications that needs to be corrected has to do with the ordering process. The research team believes that the proposal shouldn’t be to take away or limit any of the types of events that SPEV will do for organizations and departments since that will take away one of their main core competencies as a business. Instead, they should create a ranking system within their online ordering system that either the customer can check on their own or the sales manager can click on when a client calls in an order. The ranking system would resemble the ordering system in the Olympics with “platinum, gold, silver, and bronze.”
This ranking system would increase the understanding of each event both within the sales office to the clients, but also with the standards of performance among the subsystems within SPEV. Each ranking would relate to the type of event, the amount of wait staff, the quality of the dishes, the food served there, and any other main criteria. Without this system in place, the event is organized by the title. This creates a lot of inconsistency and miscommunication since the interpretation of the event’s standards fluctuates and is dependent on each person’s connotation. For example, a “banquet” or “receptions” have different meanings based on each person past work and personal experiences. If the sales managers approve this proposal, an intricate ranking system would be created which would sort every event they have had or expect to have in the future so the classification system would be seamless. An example of the classification system would have the platinum have the more intricate and expensive events, such as a formal banquet or events with over 200 people. These events would involve a large wait staff of over 25 workers, full china, and large guests. A bronze event would be a donation or a delivery that involves 1 or 2 workers with paper and plastic silverware. This would establish sets of standards that every employee in either the sales office, kitchen, or wait staff would understand the criteria needed to successfully pull off an event in either category. The customers would be able to personalize certain aspects of their ordering, but certain criteria would be set in place to establish a consistent structure to eliminate the performance gap. The ranking system would be implemented after it was tested among a trial of frequent clients. Those clients would be surveyed to rate their satisfaction after ordering with their ranking system to see if their expectations of the event were met and if the communication gap was eliminated in the ordering process. If the survey results of the clients and employees were positive, then a permanent change in the online ordering system, Catertrax, would be applied.
This ranking system would increase the understanding of each event both within the sales office to the clients, but also with the standards of performance among the subsystems within SPEV. Each ranking would relate to the type of event, the amount of wait staff, the quality of the dishes, the food served there, and any other main criteria. Without this system in place, the event is organized by the title. This creates a lot of inconsistency and miscommunication since the interpretation of the event’s standards fluctuates and is dependent on each person’s connotation. For example, a “banquet” or “receptions” have different meanings based on each person past work and personal experiences. If the sales managers approve this proposal, an intricate ranking system would be created which would sort every event they have had or expect to have in the future so the classification system would be seamless. An example of the classification system would have the platinum have the more intricate and expensive events, such as a formal banquet or events with over 200 people. These events would involve a large wait staff of over 25 workers, full china, and large guests. A bronze event would be a donation or a delivery that involves 1 or 2 workers with paper and plastic silverware. This would establish sets of standards that every employee in either the sales office, kitchen, or wait staff would understand the criteria needed to successfully pull off an event in either category. The customers would be able to personalize certain aspects of their ordering, but certain criteria would be set in place to establish a consistent structure to eliminate the performance gap. The ranking system would be implemented after it was tested among a trial of frequent clients. Those clients would be surveyed to rate their satisfaction after ordering with their ranking system to see if their expectations of the event were met and if the communication gap was eliminated in the ordering process. If the survey results of the clients and employees were positive, then a permanent change in the online ordering system, Catertrax, would be applied.
Proposed Sales OFFice flow chart
The flow diagram for the sales office starts with the customer contacting the sales office to place their order. Then the customer either orders online or calls in their order. Then the sales office follows up with the customer with their receipt of the order. Next, the sales office assigns a number to the contract and assigns the contract with either a silver, gold, or platinum label. After, the sales office distributes the order on a pink contract form, delivering the contract to the kitchen and staff. Then the sales office meets with events and conferences for room availability and set-ups. If the room is available they contact the customer about their special event (description in figure #1). Then the sales office meets with the staff manager to make sure there are enough workers for the event. Next, the sales office draws a diagram of the room. Lastly, the sales office sees if there are any last minute changes made to the order. This description is in figure #2. Finally, the event is conducted.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
We feel based on our observations of the ordering process that the ranking system should reduce the overall time that the sales managers deal with taking orders and making changes to orders. This will be due to the fact that the ranking system will set standards that allow the sales manager to match a customer to a particular level and make some customizations, rather than building a whole order from scratch. Also the new system should reduce the amount of communications between the sales manager and the other department managers, due to standardization and fewer changes.
The benefits of our groups’ intervention within Special Events Catering at JMU will concern opportunity costs rather than any monetary costs. According to the salary website Glassdoor, an ARAMARK catering sales manager makes approximately between 44 and 47 thousand dollars in salary, which breaks down to 21.15-22.60 dollars an hour (based on 40 hr weeks). This hourly wage is the value of the sales manger’s time, and for every hour that the sales manager saves due to the new system there will be an added value back to the organization that can be used to help other customers or do other tasks such as marketing.
Due to the fact that the implementation of the new ranking system only involves the introduction of new vocabulary, and does not require any materials or labor, there will be no cost to implement.
The benefits of our groups’ intervention within Special Events Catering at JMU will concern opportunity costs rather than any monetary costs. According to the salary website Glassdoor, an ARAMARK catering sales manager makes approximately between 44 and 47 thousand dollars in salary, which breaks down to 21.15-22.60 dollars an hour (based on 40 hr weeks). This hourly wage is the value of the sales manger’s time, and for every hour that the sales manager saves due to the new system there will be an added value back to the organization that can be used to help other customers or do other tasks such as marketing.
Due to the fact that the implementation of the new ranking system only involves the introduction of new vocabulary, and does not require any materials or labor, there will be no cost to implement.