SERVICESCAPE STUDY
KFC & Dunkin’ Donuts
Submitted to:
Prof. Ranbir Sodhi
Submitted by:
ACNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like express our gratitude to Prof. Ranbir Sodhi for his guidance in this project. We would also like to thank the staff at KFC and Dunkin Donuts to help us in our study with their valuable inputs and time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Sub Chapter
Topic
Page No.
I Introduction 1
II Servicescape Parameters 2
III Methodology and Findings
(a) KFC 3 (b) Dunkin Donuts 4 IV Analysis (a) KFC 5 (b) Dunkin Donuts 5 V Conclusion 6 VI References 7 VII Exhibits 8
LIST OF EXHIBITS
Exhibit
Topic
Page No.
1 KFC: Interior 7
2 KFC: Seats 8
3 Dunkin: Interior 9
4 Dunkin: Walls 10
5 Dunkin: Seating 11
1
I.
INTRODUCTION
Servicescape is a concept that was developed by Booms and Bitner to emphasize the impact of the physical environment in which a service process takes place. The servicescape includes the facility's exterior (landscape, exterior design, signage, parking, surrounding environment) and interior (interior design and decor, equipment, signage, layout, air quality, temperature and ambiance).
The servicescape design and its synchronization with other elements of service, has an impact of customers perception of quality. For example the customer experience in a fast-food franchise vis-à-vis a small restaurant can be strikingly different; even though the quality of the food maybe same, the customer may perceive higher quality in the latter over the former based on the environment in which the service is provided. The servicescape design can not only help the provider to charge a premium price on its service but also differentiate in the market on its unique features.
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II.
SERVICESCAPE PARAMTERS
To study the impact of physical environment on the service in case of a restaurant, following parameters were observed:
1. Ambience: a. Color b. Lighting c. Clean d. Music e. Seating f. Smell/Aroma g. Temperature 2. Menu & Signage
3. Employee response(well-received) 4. Consultation 5. Food Quality 6. Packaging 7. Waiting Time 8. Payment Flexibility 9. Billing(Easy to understand) 10. Parking Facility
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III.
METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS
The team studied the two fast-food franchise KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and Dunkin Donuts at two different timings observing as peak (evening 6 PM) and non-peak hours (Morning 11:30 AM). The parameters mentioned above were noted by each individual member separately, the below mentioned findings are collated version of the same.
(a) KFC
Parameter
Finding
Color & Decor Light colored walls (creamish) contrasting red & browns booths. Anime friends having fun together painted in the booths. (Exhibit-1)
Lighting All lights not working. Lights near the window above the seats having adequate natural light were on but those in the booth areas were off. Cleanliness Only the table cleaned after the customers left, seating area of booth
was not clean. Flies at the noon time.
Music American Pop. Adequate volume.
Seating Visibly Old. Slightly tattered. No tables for a large group of more than 6 people. (Exhibit-2)
Smell A mix of food and room freshener. Weird.
Temperature High temperature of AC when only 14 customers present in the noon time. Low temp. when crowded at 6 pm.
Menu & Signage The menu focused on the offers for today followed by combo meals, on the side walls of the counter à la carte menu was mentioned.
Signage were present in all the necessary points
Employee Response In-adequate staff during both peak and non-peak hours, thus the response was hasty.
Consultation The staff did not try to up-sell their combo meals to customers ordering à la carte
Food Quality Items cooked in-house were fresh but add-ons like brownies for dessert were not fresh.
Packaging The food was packed adequately for immediate consumption, for take-away the food was packed in paper bags which will not help it stay hot, thus in-adequate.
Waiting Time 12 minutes in non-peak hours. Under-staffing. Only 1 counter out of 5 working for ordering. The personnel handling order-taking & billing; also helping with order delivering resulting in queuing even when a few customers present.
Payment Flexibility Accept all cards, meal coupons (Sodexho) accepted. Billing Easy to understand all the taxes.
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(b)
Dunkin’ Donuts
Parameter
Finding
Color & Decor Theme decor. Light blue color walls. Black colors heads/brains in 2-D over the wall. Each brain having some ideas, some blank. Creative & unique interior. (Exhibit-3 & 4)
Lighting Adequate lights.
Cleanliness Only the table cleaned after the customers left, seating area of booth was not clean. Flies at the noon time.
Music Inadequate volume. Can’t make out which song is being played.
Seating Seating area divided into three areas. Can accommodate a large group of 8-10 people on the same table. (Exhibit-5)
Smell Pure smell of Food
Temperature Normal
Menu & Signage Clear & detailed (Exhibit-6) Employee Response Excellent
Consultation Excellent
Food Quality Good
Packaging Extraordinary
Waiting Time 4 minutes in non-peak hours. 6 minutes in the evening hours. Payment Flexibility Accept all cards, meal coupons (Sodexho) not accepted. Billing Easy to understand all the taxes.
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IV.
ANALYSIS
(a) KFC
It has the advantage of being located at Caculo Mall. Hence, provide customers the facility of parking & enjoy their meal carefree.
Understaffing which affects the service time & increases the waiting time for customers. Cleanliness needs to be paid attention towards. Old seats, dirty table & flies create the
wrong impression in customer’s mind & spoil the experience as well.
No special care taken to maintain the aroma in the restaurant. Customers can smell chicken which should be paid attention to, as vegetarians may not be comfortable about the same.
The music & interior décor targets the youth.
(b) Dunkin’ Donuts
Fast service & excellent employee response & consultation to customers.
Music remains a noise as the customers can’t enjoy anything which they can’t even recognize/ hear clearly.
The interior does not target any particular age group as the customers can interpret theme in various ways & relate to it. Moreover, the unique interior gives a unique experience too.
The provider does not have any parking space thus at peak time it becomes difficult to find parking around the store.
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V.
CONCLUSION
Various factors of the physical environment which form the servicescape for a service affect the overall experience of the customer. For restaurant services; customer’s interest, likability, and satisfaction would be affected by the parameters studied for this project.
Both KFC & Dunkin’ Donuts fair good in terms of food quality but the former one has more waiting time. The ambience for the restaurants is good but KFC should take care of the cleanliness & aroma issues. Apart from these factors, both the restaurants do fairly well in terms of providing payment flexibility, billing etc.
Also, KFC has similar interior in terms of color themes for all its restaurant chains (red/brown) whereas Dunkin’ Donuts has a different theme. Hence, for any customer walking into these stores who have visited them at other places, KFC provides the similar experience unlike Dunkin’ Donuts, which gives the customer a new experience.
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VI.
EXHIBITS
Exhibit-1
8
Exhibit-2
9
Exhibit-3
10
Exhibit-4
11
Exhibit-5
12
