What are Clichés?

I find out that High-level situation is the stable or dominant situation of the industry or organisation that is constant for over a long period. In other words, this is the stable structure of the industry followed by the organisations involved and is unchanged for a quite long time. According to me, there are various things that are practiced by the industry and are common and unnoticed due to their inefficiency. An example of high-level situation for the matter is the works carried out in a parking station. High-level situation in that scenario are the common thing such as loading or unloading things in the cars.

I have prepared this report to focus on the food and beverage industry, where the organisations follow similar structure in every aspects of their operations. Cafeteria will be of primary focus in this paper and the high-level situation observed in the cafeteria will be discussed. My focus in shifted towards the particular section of the overall food and beverage industry to due to the similarity it presents in every organisation around the globe. The cafeteria is known for serving a wide line of beverages to its customers along with specific food products listed under the snacks category. For example, McDonalds is popular for serving a line of crushers and burgers to their customers and KFC is known to serve their range of crushers and a number of chicken items to their customers. Similarly, Starbucks and CCD are popular for serving different types of coffees along with their line of snacks. I have assessed the other companies and understood that the cafeterias presents its customers an elegant ambience to their customers. One more high-level situation observable in the cafeterias is the large dinning hall they and absence of waiting staff table service. The customers are to directly approach to the counter for ordering their meals. They are also responsible for receiving their meals from the counter and find their own table in the large dinning hall. The payment in this case is made prior to having the meal at the time of placing their order at the counter. Another high-level situation that one can encounter in the cafeterias is the payment that is made is for the food and services availed. The pricing is made according to the production cost and service cost incurred by the organisations. The visible service on the other hand is limited to the counter, where the employees takes and serves the orders received from the customers. Other services offered by the cafeterias are the washroom service, which is made available to the customers in all the cafeterias. Cleaners on the other hand is associated for keep the tables ready for the customers as soon as a batch vacant the table for providing satisfactory service to their customers. Though everything seems to be going on fine, still I feel that some more changes like booking of tables after placing the orders shall be done along with introduction of new and innovative products and services for keeping the customers influenced and make them visit the store again and again.  

Product

Clichés are the practices carried by the organizations, which are commonly evidenced around the organisationsinthe industry. According to me, there are a number of filters to categorise and identify the clichés in an industry. They are primarily categorised under product, interaction or service and pricing. These can also be identified in the cafeteria industry selected for the study.

Product

A standard cafeteria serves one course meal. The products offered by a standard cafeteria are the line of snacks and beverages. One course meals are those that are served one time; whereas, a typical three course meal is comprised with starters, main course and dessert. Unlike three-course meal, cafeteria serves one course that is snacks. From my point of view, it is also necessary to introduce breakfast items so that the customers can visit the store in large numbers as well as make sure that they can access a wide range of new products.

The types of beverages and snacks are specific for a cafeteria. For example, Starbucks serves a number of beverage items based on coffee. KFC on the other hand serves their line of crushers as beverage item in all their outlets. Moreover, KFC focuses more on their snacks, whichcaused them to line up a number of chicken items for their customers.

Interaction

Waiting staff table service is largely absent in the cafeteria industry. The customers have to approach the counter for ordering and receiving their orders.

Customers have to receive their products from the counter themselves at the time of delivery. I personally think that the customers should put their orders first and take their seats on tables, and sufficient staffs must be available for delivering the ordered items at their tables properly.

The customers have to locate and occupy their tables after receiving their meal from the counter. There is no pre-booking service available in the cafeterias and the customers can only approach and occupy their tables after receiving their meal from the counter. Neither the service providers will offer the seat for the customers, nor will they help in identifying the desired seat for the customers.

Price

The first identifiable cliché under pricing category is the charges paid by the customers that is based on products and services provided to the customers. The customers only have to pay for the product and service received at the time of billing. It is my thinking that additional surcharges and prices must not be set while providing the bill because it could not only make the customers pay a higher amount of money but would also make them unsatisfied.

Interaction

Another cliché under this category is the time of billing, which is done at the time of ordering of the products. The customers have to pay for the products and services at the time they order their meal, which means they pre pay the price before receiving the products and services.

Tax on the other hand, which is collected from the customers are included in the bills presented to the customers. The overall pricing of the product calculates the tax imposed by the government in accordance to the nation it is operating. Hence, the customer only see the overall pricing of the products and services they are liable to pay.

Lastly, the company add both product and service tax in their products. However, the service tax are optional for the customers and need to pay only after receiving satisfaction gained using the service of the organisation. By setting the right prices of products, I would be able to make sure that the customers would be kept satisfied with their needs and requirements fulfilled and even the company would be able to maintain a sustainable position in the market.

By analysing the situations and various components of marketing mix, I have developed the hypothesis to test certain business aspects and its feasibility to generate good revenue or not. Hypothesis in disruption is the ideas that challenges the established clichés in the industry, which reflects success in generating revenue for the organisation. It is the idea to change the contemporary way of doing things. This challenges the successful practices in the industry and replaces with completely new practice that might be perceived irrelevant at first attempt. This section will propose hypothesises for the above-identified clichés by inverting, denying and scaling the factors involved.

Product

It is my opinion that the Cafeterias can increase their courses from one course to multicourse using scaling technique. This will provide them the opportunity to satisfy greater need of the customers. Greater courses offered by the cafeteria will help them addressing wider range of target customers with diversified need. My focus will be on how to introduce new products and services to attract more customers and make them avail services from a wide range of options available at the stores. 

Secondly, the companies can offer wider range of product in their snacks and beverage lines for attracting greater number of customers. For instance, KFC offers different items on chicken, which can be increased using scaling technique. The company then can offer various meats such as mutton, beef, pork etc. to the diversified customers with diversified needs.

Price

Interaction

Cafeteria can offer waiting staff table that will provide greater satisfaction to the customers as they will not have to approach the counter for every order. The waiting time should be reduced and it would be important to arrange enough staffs and make them available to deliver the food items at the table for the customers who had placed those orders. 

Hypothesis formulated from the next cliché using inversion is the order will be delivered to the table. This can potentially increase the satisfaction level, as they will not have to continue with the self-service practice in the cafeteria.

Lastly, the table will be provided at the time of booking meal. This will reduce the burden carried out by the customers, as they have to look for an empty table after receiving their meal in the hand. This hypothesis formulated using inversion technique. Instead of customers looking for table, company will locate one for them.

Price

Using the deny perspective, the customers can be charged for the time spent in the cafeteria instead of the food consumed. For example, a customer ordering only a hot coffee will have to pay the same as the one with an order of coffee with snacks if they spend similar hours in the cafeteria. This will help the organisation in quick transaction and avoid overtime booking of tables.

The next cliché can be disrupted using the inversion technique, which suggests charging the customers after their consumption. This will help in reducing food wastage, as the customer in cafeteria tends to order bulk at a time without understanding their capacity to intake.

Bill structured on the other hand can be inverted by separating the tax changed for the products. This will enable the customers to understand the bill properly and help the company in maintaining transparency in their billing system.

Lastly, it can be proposed to delete the service charge from the billing, which is an optional for the customers. They shall only be charged if they perceive the service satisfactory. This will help proposing greater value to the customers, which will again draw greater customers. I also think that the charges are needed to be placed for the products and additional tax and not for any hidden price amount, which is often placed by the companies. This makes the customers pay much more than the actual cost of products and makes them unsatisfied as well. I would like to make sure that all the stores put proper prices for the products and services and make sure to influence the buying behaviours of the customers.

H₁– Cafeterias can charge their customers for time spent instead of charging for food

This innovation will help exploring new angles of product and service pricing, which is expected to attract greater number of customers for the products and services offered.

H₂– Cafeterias can nook table for the customers on booking meal.

This as mentioned above will help lifting burden from the customer of looking for table with their meal in hand.

H₃–Billing structure can separate tax from the product price.

This will help in bringing transparency in the billing process, which again will help in value proposition. This will enable the customers to verify the price they pay for the product received, which in turn increases customer satisfaction.

Hypotheses

What if the food items that are ordered have not been delivered to the customers right on time?

What if the products’ prices are lowered by excluding the hidden charges and tax rates?

What if the company provides seats to the customers and options to book a table as soon as the orders are placed?