Week 2: Service Experience

Week 2 > Service Experience: Comparative Analysis > Part 1| Case: Italian Restaurant 1
Week 2 > Service Experience: Comparative Analysis > Part 3| Case: Italian Restaurant 2
Week 2 > Service Experience: Comparative Analysis > Part 4| Case: French Restaurant 1
Week 2 > Service Experience: Comparative Analysis > Part 6| Case: French Restaurant 2
Week 2 > Service Experience: Comparative Analysis > Part 7| Comparative Analysis

Particularly, we will look at two services in contrast.
One is an Italian restaurant and the other is a French restaurant, both in Japan.
The Italian restaurant is considered “Casual” compared to the French.
This Italian restaurant has a course including salad buffet, a choice of main dish, and a drink.
We videotaped customer interactions with a video camera equipped with this 360 degree lens, shown here.
This lens allows to take the 360 degree view as shown here.
All customers who were videotaped agreed to participate in the study and signed the consent form.
Two customers were seated and an employee comes with menus.

Please review the video for a several times and take note of anything you notice.
Now that you have reviewed the video, write down your observations.
First, you can look at the material environment such as objects, space, clothes, and bodies.

This French restaurant is run by the same company as the Italian restaurant and is in the same location.
Two customers were seated and an employee comes with towels; in Japan, restaurants often provide wet towels as refreshment.

Please review the video for a several times and take note of anything you notice.
Just as we did for the Italian restaurant, write down your observations.

Material environment, waiter behaviors, information provided, and service organization as a whole.
How about clothes of waiters? They wear aprons at Italian while they wear a black suit and a tie at French.
How about the waiters’ behaviors? At Italian, waiters position themselves closer to customers than at French.
At Italian, the waiter asks whether the customers have come here before and then provide detailed explanations about the menu while the waiter at French gives little information and provides hints only when customers appear to take time.
At Italian, the waiter gave some recommendations on some items including extra priced items.
How about the temporal organization of the service? At Italian, a waiter brings water when guiding customers to a table.
After a brief moment, a waiter then comes with menus and give detailed explanations.
Although we did not see the scene after this, the waiter then leaves so that customers can spend more time to choose.
Once the customers are done choosing, the waiter, the same or a different one, comes back to take orders on both dishes and drinks.
Customers can go to the buffet table to pick up salad. At French, a waiter comes with wet towels and leaves.