TQM/Customer Service
Brief History
McDonald’s was originally a restaurant set up by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald in 1940’s in California. The company emerged from Ray Kroc who in 1955 became the exclusive franchising for the entire United States. McDonald’s global motto is focused on the quality, service, cleanliness and value (Q.S.C. & V.).
In 1977, opened Ireland’s first McDonald’s restaurant in Dublin’s Grafton Street. Since then McDonald’s has become hugely popular in Ireland. A second restaurant followed shortly on O’Connell Street. Today, 74 restaurants around the country and have recently opened five McCafés in Dublin, providing more variety to their service and employed over 3,500 people.
As an achievement, McDonalds Restaurants of Ireland was included in the 2005 ’50 Best Companies to Work for in Ireland’ list. Also McDonald’s supports community programs which operate and focused on family and local environment related issues. These include sponsorships of local teams, fundraising for children’s charities and educational and environmental initiatives. In addition, McDonald’s globally has extensive conservation policies applicable not only to its packaging but to the products and ingredients it sources from suppliers.
McDonald’s Ireland was the first restaurant that provides customers with complete nutritional and ingredient information which offered through nutritional leaflets. The business plays its role in promoting well-balanced diets and active lifestyle for all, especially on children. This is done through interactive menu planner available on McDonald’s website and information on the reverse of restaurant tray-liners, helping customers to make informed choices based on their lifestyles and preferences.
Many programs were created like the Scholarships and Charity. The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Ireland was founded in 1977, and many children are benefited from the healthcare, education and social welfare projects.
The entire McDonalds’ stands for the principles of Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, the combination of which is designed to achieve 100 per cent total customer satisfaction. The business operated strict specifications for all its products and raw materials and is responsible for developing as well as, implementing systems to ensure safe food of the highest quality throughout the restaurants in Ireland.
Focus on the Competition
The weakness of a business depends on system and people involved within the organization. It starts by hiring the people who can devote in the business’s objectives and can do better job. In McDonald’s, the crew or the people can make the business achieved the success and its downfall.
Investing in the value chain is a simple idea but still works. Happy employees create happy customers, which creates happy shareholders. McDonald’s value is important to adopt a good ambience that can invite the customers to come.
The automation of the process can eliminate the manipulation and corruption inside the company. In McDonald’s the automation process of the sale are introduced to make it more efficient and easy than the manually operation.
The training and re-training can leave a legacy for the future employees. The on-the-job training in the management of the McDonald’s can open the door for the opportunity and they can acquire the trainees to be part of the company.
The leadership involvement in the business is the most prominent strategy. But if a leader failed to manage the business, the problem might break the connection of the business towards the people and its customers.
The strength can start in an intensive research study where they can explore for the new extraordinary service they can offer to the customers as well on their shareholders. The strength also lies on the management’s ability to analyze where they can find the solution in their problems. Improvement of some process and systems can make the problems be solved. And with further understanding, all the issues that involves inside the business whether it concerned with the people or the system.
The Five Gaps
Gap 1: the gap between what customers want and what management thinks customers want. This gap results from a lack of understanding or a misrepresentation of the customers’ needs, wants, or desires. A firm that does little or customer satisfaction research is likely to experience this gap.
Gap 2: the gap between what management thinks customers want and the quality specifications that management develops to provide the service. Essentially, this gap is the result of management’s inability to translate customers’ needs into delivery systems within the firm.
Gap 3: the gap between the service quality specification and the service are present in every company. If both gaps 1 and 2 have been closed, then gap 3 is due to the inability of management and employees to do what should be done. Poorly trained or poorly motivated workers can cause this gap. Management needs to ensure that employees have the skills and the proper tools to perform their jobs.
Gap 4: the gap between what the company provides and what the customer is told it provides. This is clearly a communication gap. It may include misleading or deceptive advertising campaigns promising more than the firm can deliver or doing “what it takes” to get the business. To close this gap, companies need to create realistic customer expectations through honest, accurate communication about what firms can provide.
Gap 5: the gap between the service that customers receive and the services they want. This gap can be positive or negative. For example, if a patient expects to wait twenty minutes in the physician’s office before seeing the physician but waits only ten minutes, the patient’s evaluation of service quality will be high. However, a forty-minute wait would result in a lower evaluation.
Recommendations
The success of a recommendation relies on the ability of the whole organization to comprehend. These recommendations are not hard to handle because it will begin from the initiatives of the organization or the entire team.
Reliability is the ability to perform the service dependably, accurately, and consistently. Reliability is performing the service right the first time. This component has been found to be the one most important to consumers.
Responsiveness is the ability to provide prompt service. Examples of responsiveness include calling the customer back quickly, serving lunch fast to someone who is in a hurry, or mailing a transaction slip immediately.
An assurance can be experiences when the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust. Skilled employees who treat customers with respect and make customers feel that they can trust the firm exemplifies assurance.
Empathy is the act of caring, individualized attention to customers. Firms whose employees recognize customers, call them by name, and learn their customers’ specific requirements are providing empathy. Union Square Hospitality Group, owner of several popular New York City restaurants, will return items customers have left behind by messenger or FedEx so the customers do not have to return to retrieve their belongings.
Tangibles are the parts of a service include the physical facilities, tools, and equipment that a firm can use to provide the service, such as a doctor’s office or an ATM, and the appearance of personnel.
Analysis
Service firms like other organizations are realizing the significance of customer-centered philosophies and are turning to quality management approaches to help managing their businesses. An effective approach has been studied and its role in the analysis of the difference between customer expectations and perceptions has been highlighted with support of an example. The important service quality gaps associated with external customer services, it could be extended to close other major gaps and therefore, it could be developed in order to be applied for internal customers, like the employees and service providers.
Works Cited:
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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