Business Assesment on the Jolly Cricketers

The Jolly Cricketers (Pub)

Ownership and Management of the organisation and its Service Concepts

This assessment is based on different service aspects that are on offer at the Jolly Cricketers and how they achieve the high levels of service to the customers. The Jolly Cricketers is a relatively small pub located in Seer Green, Buckinghamshire. The pub has been running as a pub since the 1800's there is no definitive date, the pub is now owned by Chris and Amanda Lillitou who purchased the free house of the pub in February 12th 2010 from Punch Taverns before previously having a lease with them for the pub.

Johnston and Clark (2008, P.40) give the following on service concepts. Service concepts focus on a market segment and offer advantages for both the customer and the operation; some services are unfocused and aim to do everything for everyone. The customers are buying a concept and this is intangible so they are putting faith in the organisations service concept to produce up to there standard and please them.

The Service Package

The pub offers the 2 main service aspects of the pub industry these being drinking and dining on one side of the pub there is a smaller room, which is the restaurant side of the pub and on the other side there is a larger bar area for people who are just interested in the drinking aspect of the pub. The average price of a pint of beer in the pub is £3.60 this changes in line with the government increasing tax and vat. Amanda has experience in the hospitality industry though running an outside catering company that she established in 1995 called Amanda Baker Catering. The Jolly Cricketers has a saying which is 'We do not serve fast food we serve good food as fast as we can' this shows that they are prepared to inform the customer that they are there for the whole experience and with this saying it shows how much they are committed to providing the best possible service to the customer.

The service that is offered by the Jolly Cricketers is perishable as it cannot be stored for later use that's why it's crucial that the time they have with the customer is to the highest standard possible for example a restaurant cannot sell yesterdays experience and food. "Despite more than 25 years of study, scholars in the field of services management do not agree on what a service is" (Haywood-Farmer and Nollet 1991). The Jolly Cricketers has Heterogeneity because each service time that happens is going to be different and they can' replicate the same experience twice but can always try for consistency which is the next best thing. Every customer is different giving rise to inherit variation in the service operations activities (Morris and Johnson 1987).

In trying to provide the best service possible it can impact upon the staff and owners as there is constant pressure to do your best but this can be made into a successful strategy if all the right systems are in place for the company to show that they can succeed and achieve there best possible work. The quality on offer can exceed customer's expectations or disappoint them this varies based upon the type of customer and what they expect to receive from the experience. ¨Service quality can be understood as the degree of fit between customers' expectations of the of services to be provided and the actual service as perceived by the customer (after Grönroos 1984)

When I visited The Jolly Cricketers I soon realised that they are very limited on space in the winter months as the garden becomes unavailable to them and this impacts on how many covers they can take, but after speaking to the management they made it clear that they have a maximum amount of people they know on one night that will ensure they have a good service offered to them and they don't exceed this as it can ruin the evening for everyone. The Jolly Cricketers team have systems in place for service at lunch and evening times and these are little things like greeting the customers on arrival offering to take there coats to the cloakroom and also saying goodbye once the customer has paid there bill as this increases the chance of repeat visits if you look after your customers and show them a high level of service and things like this improve the whole experience for the customer. Ensuring that the customer is happy is key as this can result in more business through recommendations to friends and family of the customer who visited and this is a key way in which The Jolly Cricketers gets its business.

I visited the hospitality venue on numerous occasions and one thing was apparent to me and that was the fact they are always moving and changing as standing still as a business is never going to help them achieve what they want. The staff at establishment are all very driven and committed to the cause and they all push themselves to the maximum while working as this is the only way that the hospitality venue can be as successful as they want it to be.

There are 3 chefs who are full time at the Jolly Cricketers along with a handful of part-time staff and 1 full-time front of house who is the lead person on the bar this is clear as they are at the forefront of every service that happens and this is key to bringing consistency and stability to the Jolly Cricketers. The part-time staff are made up of university students and this is a good opportunity for them to learn and see what happens in the hospitality industry at the highest level they can, there are also opportunities for them to learn about the various foods being made and served along with improving there knowledge of the various fine wines on offer to people who visit the Jolly Cricketers.

I think that the Jolly Cricketers offers a very good standard of hospitality and with the resources they have and with the area they are in I believe that they are exceeding expectations as to what they should be achieving. The only downside for them is that they don't have the space or time to expand and grow which is a shame but I know they are currently looking at a few possible options, which may help them with achieving this in the future.

Service Processes

The service process involves everything within the business to complete its role in achieving and doing everything they can to ensure the process works. I see service process defined as: The various steps and processes in the provision of a service to a customer. In an organisation there are a whole host of things that contribute towards a service process and it starts with the information leading onto the goods the staff and then the customers of the business this