CUSTOMER SERVICE RECOMMENDATIONS TO INCREASE SALES FOR KICHI-KICHI HOTPOT BAR ON 61 MA MAY STREET, HA NOI

ion is rectangle mirrors covering wood walls. They are all high enough for anybody’s image not to be cut. At the same time, they cause restaurant area seems to be enlarged. Specific characteristic of Kichi-Kichi is it represents an image of young, dynamic, independent, modern, and creative. Kichi-Kichi customers initiatively make their own menu. Hot pot bar makes customers feel that they hold the initiative, taking favorite food is alike taking opportunities in life. This is an eating and drinking style of youth, a style of modern Asian – always move and ceaselessly discover. Kichi-Kichi infused a fresh spirit and diversified Vietnam eating and drinking culture. 2. Problem statement From flotation, this chain of restaurant had good sales and received warmly welcome from urban customers because of its freshness and diversification. Quantity of Kichi-Kichi customer is about 100,000 people per month, accounts for 3.6% market size. Possibility of market penetration is still very high, as long as Kichi Kichi continues to open widely and guarantee to do what Kichi Kichi has committed to customer. The idea of a hot pot bar came from sushi bar invention in Japan and promptly spread out to Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. And the pioneer who initiated hot pot bar trend in Viet Nam is Kichi-Kichi. It’s very easy to have a meal in Kichi-Kichi. Customers just have to buy an opening-seat ticket, chose for themselves their favorite broth taste, and enjoy delectable food until full. Owning unique characteristics of both the traditional and the modern eating and drinking style, Kichi-Kichi brings to you not only a meal but a cultural space, a new style. This chain of restaurants provides customers with the variety of options for dinning out.  Instead of cooking so many dishes to satisfy every member’s demand, people now just need to go to Kichi-Kichi hot pot bar restaurant. Here, people can choose any among hundreds of dishes on non-stop moving bar that please not only who love fast food but also traditional customers. You like pork or beef, vegetable or sea food? Whatever you want, whatever you are interested in, you will be best served in Kichi-Kichi restaurant. Especially, if you have a passion with Japanese cuisine, you will pleasure with delicious sushi and other Japan food cooked by talented cooks. Sake is a favorite wine in Kichi-Kichi restaurant. In the case you are not interested in alcohol, fizzy drinks may be your choice. There are six tastes of broth consist of Thai or Sichuan, or Korea style for whom love sea food or peppery food, Japan style, mushroom broth for people whose taste is vegetable, and Shabu broth is the perfect choice for any food. After dinning, you can order ice-cream or fruit for dessert. However, just after several months after opening, amount of customers goes down gradually. This matter happens most seriously at Kichi-Kichi Ma May. Since flotation, sales of Kichi-Kichi Ma May is always much lower than other units despite ideal characteristics come from a famous tourist area. Below table shows total revenue of some restaurants in the first three months from opening. Thus, we can compare growth rate between Kichi-Kichi Ma May and others. Kichi-Kichi Revenue in first three months from flotation (VND) Vincom 2,987,328,500 Tang Bat Ho 2,631,484,000 Pham Ngoc Thach 2,599,085,060 Big C 2,505,310,500 Ma May 1,624,671,009 Source: Accounting Department Table 1: Revenue of Kichi-Kichi in first 3 months from flotation In this essay, the researcher will focus on studying reasons caused that decrease in the aspect of customer service and then give some proposals for sales increasing. 3. Research methodology Research information are collected by descriptive and observation methods. All the statistics are total up from customers commend cards which were drawled to table companions in all Kichi-Kichi restaurants on Hanoi market during 2009. These cards are dispensed to customers after their meal by waiters in each restaurant and then gathered in Marketing Department each Monday. Collecting, reckoning up, and comparing these figures will help the writer evaluate the effect of marketing strategy in customer service. Data of revenue and business cost are provided by Accounting and Marketing Departments. The researcher studied customer behavior with restaurant promotion program by observing at restaurant and supervising leaflet distribution in the road show around the Old Quarter and buildings. Primary data: Survey: The survey is carried out daily after customers’ meal. Each customer will fill in a comment card which consists of both closed and opened questions. The quantity of cards depends on the customer number each day. The answers for closed questions will provide researcher with customers’ data including their personal information such as name, gender, age, and communication information such as telephone number and e-mail address; customers’ evaluation to restaurant’s product and service. Through these answers, the writer will also know what advertising channels are most effective in marketing restaurant’s image as well as what features can attract most customers to restaurant. Besides, opened questions’ result voices the feelings and expectations of customers to restaurant at present and in the future. Observation: The researcher studies its major competitor F1by having lunches at F1 five times including two times in off-peak hours and three times in peak hours. The quality of product and service of F1 will be exposed, so the researcher can evaluate its competitive power and then compare with Kichi-Kichi competitive ability. In order to find out reasons that caused the decrease in sales at Kichi-Kichi Ma May, the researcher directly comes to restaurant and observes purchasing behavior and feelings of customers and service manner of employees. Because of special characteristics of a busy tourist site, working and relaxing and eating hours in the Old Quarter are later than other area. Peak hours at Kichi-Kichi Ma May at lunch time is from 12h30’ to 14h, at dinner time is from 20h to 21h30’. After two weeks (from 15th March to 28th March) observing in both off-peak hours and peak hours at weekdays and weekend, researcher can know the strengths that need to be upheld and weaknesses that should be improved. Secondary data: All the data about each restaurant turnover and result of promotion program are provided by Marketing and Accounting Department from Golden Gate Trade & Service JSC. The writer will collect and analyze these data. 4. Research scope This research will just study customer service activities that are applied for Kichi-Kichi on 61 Ma May Street, Ha Noi because the researcher got familiar with it during internship time. CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 1. Customer care or customer service definition Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase. According to Jamier L. Scott (2002), “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation." www.wikipedia.com In opinion of this customer, customer service can be a high quality product with suitable price. However, another customer can consider it on-time delivery while other customer measures it through service attitude of staffs. In fact, a huge range of factors can contribute to customer satisfaction, but your customers - both consumers and other businesses - are likely to take into account: how well your product or service matches customer needs; the value for money you offer; the professionalism, friendliness and expertise of your employees; how well you keep your customers informed; and the after-sales service you provide. 2. The importance of customer service to business Customer service is normally an integral part of a company’s customer value proposition. Every time you have contact with your customers you have an opportunity to improve your reputation with them and increase the likelihood of further sales. From the point of view of an overview sales process engineering effort, customer service plays an important role in an organization's ability to generate income and revenue. From that perspective, customer service should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic improvement. Customer service plays an important part in keeping existing and making loyal customer, attracting potential customer, thenceforth helping company reduce cost and increase turnover. Keeping existing customers and making loyal customers Firstly, customer service is an effective tool in keeping existing and making loyal customer. Generally, customer is divided into two kinds: existing and potential customer. Your sales and profitability depends on keeping your customers happy. It is also cheaper than attracting new customers. According to the Customer Service Institute, 65% of a company's business comes from existing customers, and it costs five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one satisfied. Losing a customer is even more expensive. According to studies by the Technical Assistance Research Programs Institute, 91% of unhappy customers will never buy again from a company that has displeased them and will also voice their dissatisfaction to at least seven other people. Thus, the goal of customer service is customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is what customer feels subjectively and sometimes irrationally. www.eDigitalPhoto.com When ordering a new service or maintaining an existing service, consumers must take into account the following three key factors: the quality of the service, the price of the service, and the customer service of the service provider. The first two factors are relatively objective and usually easy to control. As shown by Figure 1, the graphical representation of a market research study done a few years ago, customer service dissatisfaction is the most important key factor when a consumer decides to change service providers. Figure 1: Reasons for Switching to another Vendor (www.iec.org) Retaining existing customers mean making them keep buying company product or service. It means they are less likely to go to your competitors in the increasingly competitive markets where customers have more choices than ever. As satisfied customers, they will recommend you to other, resulting in an increase in new business. It is said that it costs up to ten times as much to win a customer than to keep an existing one. When being satisfied, they are less likely to tell other people of bad experiences. Customers experiencing poor service are likely to tell up to twenty people about their experience, which is not good advertisement for your business. This may deter other from even trying you out, and so you will not get a chance to impress them, even with the best or most innovative products and services. 2009, The Chartered Institute of Marketing, 10 Minutes Guide: Customer Service Program Businesses can improve profitability by focusing their attention on their customer that has the highest potential lifetime value. In their book Rules to Break and Laws to Follow (2008), Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. write that “customers have memories. They will remember you, whether you remember them or not." Further, "customer trust can be destroyed at once by a major service problem, or it can be undermined one day at a time, with a thousand small demonstrations of incompetence”. All the customers want to receive the highest attention from supplier, want their supplier considers their demand as the top priority. Only the fastest and most effective service can satisfy customers. Once companies provide an excellent customer service, they can retain their customer and make them loyal. These loyal customers help company retain a fixed income and even make more profit because when customers are pleasured, they will buy not only more but more regular. Existing customer relationships are opportunities to increase sales because your customers will already have a degree of trust in your recommendations. Employees who deal with customers' orders should be fully aware of current offers and keep customers informed. Sometimes brochures and other marketing materials are the best way of getting word out about a new customer incentive. Don't forget though that your customers' view of the overall service you provide will influence their loyalty much more than short-term rewards will Attracting new customers Loyal customers are so important to every business. However, to exist and develop in this competitive environment market, business must try its best to win new customers. The first step in attracting new customers in any economic climate is pleasing your regulars because the word-of-mouth buzz you gain from them will be a huge boon in attracting new business. Satisfactory customers will tell others about excellent service you provide that is more effective and trustworthy than anything you advertise or broadcast on public media. Next, you could reach your target groups by some direct means such as sales promotion, meeting, and free consultancy, etc. have function is to provide new customers with more information about company as well as product and service, along with gain sympathy and trust from potentials. To begin with, you have to let people know you exist – advertise yourself. If people don’t know where you are and what you do, they can’t buy from you and you will never make enough money to stay open. Advertising greatly increases your chances of success if you know who your customer is. Then you can tell them what they want to hear. However, good advertising techniques are useless without an effective message. An effective message gives people reasons to spend their money with your business. There are a number of free or nearly free ways to advertise your business or service. You could rely on word of mouth, that does not cost anything, but it might take a long time before word spreads. The second inexpensive method would be flyers. This method can be very effective for certain business, but the effect does not last long. Chances are the person will take one look and throw away the flyer. The third relatively inexpensive advertising method is newspaper advertisements. You could place a small ad that runs for a few weeks in a few local newspapers. This will give you great exposure to your selling area. However, the ads do not run forever unless you want to keep paying. An effective way to advertise that has a relatively low initial cost is with sales promotion. Sales promotion covers a wide variety of short-term incentive tools such as coupons, premiums, contents, buying allowances that are designed to stimulate consumers, the trade, and the company’s own sales force. Sales-promotion spending calls for setting sales-promotion objectives, selecting sales-promotion tools, developing, presenting, and implementing the sales-promotion programs, and evaluating the results. Philip Kotler, Principle Marketing In the sales promotion strategy, promotion products are a difficult question to many businesses. What are promotional products? Promotional products are items that proudly display your company's name and information. Sure, the initial cost is more than using flyers or newspaper ads, but, unlike the other methods, the promotional product makes a lasting impression. Every time customers use your promotion items, they will see and think about your company’s name. Then when they are ready to make a purchase, your company's name is at the top of their mind. With the right promotional product, a small business owner will see a great return on their investment. 2009, Reducing cost and increasing sales Good customer service can help company reduce cost. It is true. When customers aren't happy with your business they will complain. They, however, usually won't complain to you - instead, they'll probably complain to just about everyone else they know and take their business to your competition next time. As a result, you have to find solution to solve the trouble, and that task costs your budget. On the other hand, as mentioning above, satisfactory customers easily become loyal customers, and so you will save budget for attracting new users. Customer care is a tool increases your sales promptly. Your existing customers are among the most important assets of your business - they have already chosen you instead of your competitors. Keeping their custom costs far less than attracting new business, so it's worth taking steps to make sure that they're satisfied with the service they receive. Existing customer relationships are opportunities to increase sales because your customers will already have a degree of trust in your recommendations. Satisfied customers will contribute to your business for years, through their purchases and through recommendations and referrals of your business. 3. Requirements on customer service. Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy, happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers. If you’re a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that determines whether or not you’ll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers, a relationship that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue. For all these above reasons, a business’s top priority task is a good customer service. How to deliver a good customer service? Put your customer first Firstly, be up front, even bold, in stating how your goods or services make things better for your customers, so that they can make a decision about whether to ask for more information. This respects their time and attention by answering the question, "What can you do for me?" A customer service is considered prompt when it is carried out on time and in time. When a problem related to customers’ interests appears, they want it to be solved immediately. To satisfy clients, you have to set them first. The first step is to set standards. Then, make certain everyone in the company understands them. Finally, reward employees for achieving your service goals. Seek out and solve any annoyances they might have that could lead to poor morale. Stay close to your customers Besides, staying close to customer is a decisive factor to quality of a business’s customer service. If you want your business to be successful, you must listen to and talk with customers as well. The best business owners are not only committed to staying close to their clientele, but also identify with them. They give their customers the level of service they themselves would expect to receive. Moreover, a good relationship with customers necessitates paying attention to every link in the distribution chain. That means listening to everyone who helps get your products to market and asking them for suggestions on improving your service. Pay attention to the details It means that all the information about your products or your service and other plans you provide customers must be accurate. The purpose of this accuracy is to avoid misunderstandings that can make further problems to your business. Monitor the quality of your services and products constantly. Satisfied customers who spread the word about your business are the best source of new customers. Pay attention to pricing, customer service, product availability and prompt delivery. Besides, you should be clear about what it takes for you to deliver consistent value. How much time? How much money? How much energy? What kind of commitment? What support? What resources? What else? When you know what you need in order to deliver good customer service, set your price, policies, and procedures accordingly and make it easy for your customers to understand them. Give Your Customers What They Want To succeed, you must give your customers what they want, not what you think they want. And, as you never know who might eventually become a customer, that means providing courteous, friendly service to your suppliers and others with whom you come in contact, as well as current customers. Critical to keeping customers happy is to understand them and the way they think. For example, customers do business on the basis of emotional desire - they want what they want when they want it. Customers also tend to gravitate toward a company or group of people they like. And, most customers have a strong tendency to stick with businesses with which they are familiar, and are slow to change buying habits unless given a very good reason. CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS AND FINDING 1. Real state of using customer service activities at Kichi-Kichi Ma May – Customer satisfaction evaluation All the product and price policies at Kichi-Kichi Ma May and other units are the same. The first month of opening is the promotion month with price at about VND 99,000 excluding VAT per person. In addition, each customer will be tasted for free a dish of Australia beef and fizzy drink and fruit and ice cream in dessert. Proceeds that month were good. After opening month, stable price is VND 130,000 each serving (exclude drink). In February, turnover is down VND 217,744,291 - from VND 794,322,400 to VND 576,578,109; the number of customers decreases from 3,394 people in January to 2,965 people in February, 2010. “Eat 5 Free 1” program For increasing in purchasing power, in the first half of February, company applies a promotion program at Kichi-Kichi Ma May called “Eat 5 Free 1” which will last on 15th, April 2010. Objectives of program are to increase turnover by 50%; attract new customers to Kichi-Kichi Ma May, especially in lunch time. Mechanism of voucher delivery: There are two ways to deliver promotion voucher to customer. Firstly, customers will receive a voucher when buying open tickets at reception room. The second way is based on leaflet. Voucher is printed on about 10,000 leaflets that will be distributed at buildings around the Old Quarter and at the night market area. Schedule: 1st Feb-15th Mar: deliver vouchers From 9th Feb: validate vouchers 15th Apr: close the program Expected voucher: 10,000 units Content of program: Cashier will put a seal for each ration on customer’s voucher when they pay the bill. Once customers collect enough five stamps on their voucher, cashier will gather that voucher and give customer a free helping at Kichi-Kichi at lunch time. This program is not available for children ration. The voucher consists of two sides. Program name “Eat 5 Free 1” and logo of Kichi-Kichi are printed on the front side. There are five blank square coupons to add date, manager’s sign, and stamp; customer’s information including name, email, telephone number; series number; and content of program on the other side. Management mechanism: In order to control and evaluate the effect of each service channel, the series printed on voucher which is delivered at restaurant is different from series printing on leaflet voucher. Only if the voucher has the company seal and expire date is that voucher considered valid. Restaurant manager will resend these vouchers to Marketing and Accounting Department to monitor, collect, expand customer base. Communication: Sticking banners on glass and putting tent cards on reception desk to draw customers’ attention. Organizing a road show including five promotion girls who will ride bicycles around the Old Quarter to introduce the promotion plan and deliver leaflets at buildings. In the first period of campaign when vouchers are just delivered at reception desk, the increase in customer quantity is negligible. Only when leaflets are distributed, the situation becomes better. However, if the restaurant just aims at office area, it could not produce the desired effect because the Old Quarter is full of merchants and tourists, office staff is just a very small proportion. Thus, management determines a special direction for Kichi-Kichi Ma May. Realizing that “Eat 5 Free 1” campaign is so fit for the Old Quarter inhabitants, the second leaflets distribution is conducted by the writer along crowded streets in the Old Quarter including Hang Ngang, Hang Dao, Cau Go, etc., and up to West Lake area. People express their great interest to the promotion plan by asking so many questions about it for the writer. After 61 days from 10th Feb to 15th Apr 2010, the number of sent-out vouchers is 2,968 vouchers and return vouchers is 817. So, average 48.66 vouchers are sent out and 13.39 vouchers return each day. Returning voucher quantity accounts for 28% of send out voucher. Result of this whole program is shown in below table. Before campaign (13th Jan to 19th Feb, 2010) After campaign (10th Feb to 15th Apr, 2010) Revenue (VND) 494,694,600 1,352,410,509 Customer number (people) 3,703 10,197 Time (day) 27 61 Average of customer number a day (people) 137 167 Average of revenue a day (VND) 18,320,356 22,170,664 Source: Accounting Department Table 2: Effect comparison Cost for marketing in this program is VND 27,154,500 including VND 240,000 for poster, VND 2,500,000 for voucher, VND 7,000,000 for leaflet, VND 4,000,000 for e-PR, VND 300,000 for banner, and VND 13,114,500 for leaflet distribution and road show. Budget spent on marketing is VND 445,156 each day. Profit brought by “Eat 5 Free 1” campaign can be found here: Sales daily-average increase a day 3,850,309 Cost for free meal a day 1,580,426.23 Marketing cost per day 445,156 Turnover increase a day 1,824,726.56 Net profit increase a day 1,094,835.94 Net profit of whole campaign 66,784,992.07 Unit: VND Source: Accounting Department Table 3: “Eat 5 Free 1” effect So, after deducting expenses company gains VND 66,784,992.07 with an increase in customer quantity of 6494 people, average 30 people a day. However, the problem is that when the sales promotion is closed, customer number decreases again. Opinion poll summary Before, during, and after this promotion program, company holds an opinion poll in order to collect customer opinions and feedbacks about restaurant service (you can see the comment card sample in “Appendix” part). The card consists of two sides, one side is printed in Vietnamese and English on the other. Red is the major color on both sides. Contents of card comprise customer information including name, gender, age, and telephone number and email address. Then there are questions in closed and open forms for customers to score, comment, and give proposals. Through these questions, company will know what people think about food’s variety, freshness, and taste and service quality at Kichi-Kichi Ma May. The result from the survey allows company to know how well advertising channels effect, what features are decisive reasons for customers’ purchasing behavior, and frequency rate of visiting restaurant. Open questions provide company with customers’ expectation about Kichi-Kichi promotions and what they want restaurant to improve. Restaurant manager has responsibility to fill date on each card to make it easy for marketing staff to collect and classify information. Figure 2: Result of survey in week 4, January, 2010 Figure 3: Result of survey in week 2 and week 4, April, 2010 From data collecting from comment cards from Kichi-Kichi Ma May (as you can see in Figure 2 and Figure 3), the researcher sees that more than half quantity of customers (62%, 58%, and 64%) is female who are at the age from 26 to 30 (42% in week 4 January, 2010) and from 18 to 25 (43% in week 4 April, 2010). Besides, clients who are under 18 and over 45 years old are very few. Because of these majority female customers, on woman’s days 8th Mar and 20th Oct restaurant gives small gifts such as a free dish or a rose to their liking as a complements from restaurant. Alike other Kichi-Kichi, most of customers at Kichi-Kichi Ma May know it by their friends’ recommendation: 51% of customers in January, 2010. This number increase to 60% in week 2, April, 2010 and 74% in week 4 April, 2010. Eyes-catching hoarding and decoration also have use of attracting customers’ view. You also can see that advertising on LCD or frame at buildings and on radio brings no one to restaurant. In general, these figures do emphasize the importance of customer care to existing customers who play major role in word-of-mouth communication method. Besides, coming-back customer number to Kichi-Kichi is quite good. 27% among these polled go eating at Kichi-Kichi once per two week, just less than first-time-customer 4%, while quantity of customers who come back once a month accounts for 24% in week 4 January, 2010 and 48% in week 4 April, 2010. This result partly thanks to the “Eat 5 Free 1” program. Figure 4: Result of survey in week 4, January 2010 Figure 5: Result of survey in week 2 and week 4, April, 2010 In Figure 4 and Figure 5, we easily realize really good news for company that 100% of customers highly appreciate service attitude of all workers. This has proved the service quality high at Kichi-Kichi. Variety in food and broth taste satisfies almost all customers. Among those polled, just 11% score “average” for variety rate of food and 9% measure taste at “average” level. It can be seen new and fresh of conveyor hot pot, food variety, and price are the most attractive factors of Kichi-Kichi. However, looking at customer feedbacks, the researcher finds almost complements for variety of food come from first-time customers. People who are coming-back customers often score this rate at “average” level, even “need to improve” level by frequent customers. It means that new and fresh factors just have strong attraction in the first period, as for keeping customer and making them loyal require innovation exertion from restaurant. Following after these factors, 24% of customers select Kichi-Kichi for their gathering while other 20% consider Kichi-Kichi an original style that is suitable for them. One weakness of Kichi-Kichi is the freshness of food. There is too much frozen food. The lack of fresh food makes 26% customers disappointed. A joyful signal is that Kichi-Kichi six broth tastes satisfy 80% of customers, and no one scores them at “need to improve” level. The result from open question part tells the restaurant what customers want and expect it to do. The majority of opinions (about 80%) suggest restaurant to publish member card like Ashima system, discount for groups over ten and frequent customers, and enlarge and cool the room, promote drinks or add more fresh drinks, and diversify fresh food, etc. They all satisfy with service manner of Kichi-Kichi waiters and want restaurant to hold by that high quality. 2. Reasons for sales decrease Kichi-Kichi faces with follower’s competition As showing in Table 1, the quantity of Kichi-Kichi customer is about 100,000 people per month, accounts for 3.6% market size. Possibility of market penetration is still very high, as long as Kichi-Kichi continues to open widely and guarantee to do what Kichi-Kichi has committed to customer. Product Price Place Promotion Combine between fine dining and conveyor hotpot. Pay attention to all you can eat concept in conveyor hotpot Average check 119,000 VND/ person (included VAT) Good location for business and advertising, Hanoi city Free 1 dish of New Zealand beef for a month of opening Strength: As a follower, F1 does not take time to open new market Not have to spend expense for R&D, marketing Weakness: Also as a follower, customer would notice that and brand F1 would be very hard to reach the leading position Brand identity is not clean, not elegant Source: Marketing Department Table 4: Competitor analysis: Ha Noi – F1 In Table 4, you can see strengths and weaknesses of major competitor of Kichi-Kichi on Ha Noi market – F1. F1 has advantage of price – 119,000 VND each person (included VAT) - 10,000 VND lower than at Kichi-Kichi. Besides, as a follower, F1 doesn’t take time to open new market and doesn’t need budget for R&D and marketing as Kichi-Kichi. Being the first-mover, Kichi-Kichi makes conveyor hotpot and “all you can eat” concept familiar with Vietnamese consumers. The follower F1 which develops with similar products and concept can easily penetrate the market. Researcher made a research in order to understand more about Kichi-Kichi major competitor in Hanoi – F1. After five times go eating at F1, researcher find that F1 room is cooler and the price is more attractive. The price at F1 - 119,000 VND per person included VAT - sounds more attractively than the price - 118,000 VND per person excluded VAT at Kichi-Kichi. The design in F1 is inspired from the idea of F1 race-track with black and white checked floor that is paved under seats. In two times go eating at off-peak hours on Tuesday and Sunday, the researcher sees that customers are served quite well. Waiters and waitresses give customers great care. However, they seem not to be professional when asking the writer for drinks three times just within ten minutes while the quantity of customers there is not so crowded. In other time, the researcher has to wait them 20 minutes for drinks. The environment at F1 is boring without music. Furthermore, customers cannot find any handmade dish such as sushi, sausage, shrimp tempura, etc. like at Kichi-Kichi. Other food here is not diversified as at Kichi-Kichi, customers have fewer choices when eating. Moreover, while the representative of Kichi-Kichi is an image of dynamic youth, F1 has no special image. Customers coming to F1 have the same feeling like any other hotpot restaurant. In fact, marketing activities such as advertising and promotion of F1 are much less than Kichi-Kichi. It has no other sales promotion but a free dish of New Zealand beef for a month of opening that is imitated Kichi-Kichi sales promotion policy which provides customers a free dish of Australian beef for the month of opening. From all these features, it can see that Kichi-Kichi can be confident on its competitive power. Brand positioning of Kichi-Kichi is “non-stop moving”, expresses an image of modern, active and friendly youth. Kichi-Kichi builds impression of differences: Conveyor of Kichi Kichi is started from sushi bar idea, but hotpot value added; focus on conveyor as center of restaurant; eating hotpot, but buffet paying. Developed by Ashima, a leading brand name in hospitability business, along with its core competitive advantages including delicious food; convenient place for travelling; comfortable space; affordable price; enjoyable style and promotion; and professional service, Kichi-Kichi is confident of its ability to give customer the convenience and an enjoyable cuisine style. You can know more about Kichi-Kichi position on market and development ability by studying SWOT model below: Internal Strengths Opportunities Threats Weaknesses Negative Positive External Create and lead the trend of all you can eat conveyor hot pot in VN Consistence in branding development Focus on conveyor hot pot Chain of many restaurants in VN System of menu controlling New product adding up fast Fast speed of opening outlets Officer has high demand of place for lunch and dinner outside of working place Style of all you can eat is popular in modern society Despite of the world economic crisis, demand of eating out is still high in cities Competitors appear and penetrate KK market share Appearance of new style that more attractive than hotpot conveyor Short timing on the market (10 months), not enough for brand’s strength yet, especially in Ho Chi Minh City – only 3 months Model is easy to be copied Low cost limits quality of food Lean on the conveyor too much: in case of broken, everything will be stopped Restaurants require strictly controlling system, otherwise the brand identity will not be unique Source: Marketing Department Figure 6: SWOT model Being the first-mover, Kichi-Kichi has advantage of a leader of the trend of all you can eat conveyor hot pot in Viet Nam. Fast development speed of Kichi-Kichi on large scale sticks its image to a large quantity of customers. Although being the leader of the conveyor hotpot trend, Kichi-Kichi just is a newcomer in the Old Quarter – a well known area for its diversified eating and drinking culture. In order to strengthen its competitiveness, Kichi-Kichi needs sound marketing strategies. Kichi-Kichi Ma May fails to retain existing customers and attract new customers because of the wrong place and the lack of employees Firstly, Kichi-Kichi Ma May place, the most important factor to the success of a restaurant, is wrong. The Old Quarter is famous for traditional and modern eating and drinking culture and streets always crowded with tourists. This is favorable condition to restaurant business. However, it seems not to be suitable with Kichi-Kichi. Firstly, target customer of Kichi-Kichi is office staffs circle while buildings and offices in the Old Quarter is quite far from Ma May Street. Consequently, that potential group doesn’t even know the restaurant existence. If they want to have lunch at a Kichi-Kichi restaurant, they will go to Kichi-Kichi on 1A Tang Bat Ho Street. Besides, there is no car parking near the restaurant. Thus, car driving customers have to pass a long distance from car parking to have meal. Merchants, tourists and local people have custom to eat at old, small, make ship shops on the sidewalks. Secondly, a subjective source of this fall is the lack of employees. Kichi-Kichi Ma May is a medium size restaurant with 112 seats. However, it just consists of 25 employees while each restaurant needs at least 30 employees on standard. Therefore, the restaurant used to be short of waiter at peak hours. Most of customers there are foreign travelers, so English is compulsory requirement to all employees or to receptionist at least. According to researcher’s observation, English level of Kichi-Kichi workers is very low, so they are often embarrassed whenever a foreign customer appears. Sometimes, employees witness customers’ leave just because of language difference. CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS TO INCREASE SALES 1. Satisfying customers by suitable product, price and promotion policies A good customer care activity needs support and combination of many factors such as product, price, and promotion policies. Product policy: The company needs to process new flavors along with uphold delicious taste of hotpot broths to meet various demands of customers. Vegetarian hotpot can be a good idea with its vegetarian dishes. Carry out food diversification. More fresh food and drinks need to be added. Mushroom is various but vegetable is still limited. Cabbage, mustard green, and water dropwort are not enough for a hotpot. Many customers including the writer do not like fizzy drinks, what they want can be orange juice, coffee, or even ice tea. Customers’ feedbacks are the grounds for Kichi-Kichi cooks make new dishes. Do not ignore customers’ complaints because restaurant can make opportune modification and innovation to improve product quality by studying these complaints. Price policy: A new product can successfully penetrate a market or not depends apart on its price, especially in inflation environment today. All the customers just want to pay the price on menu. No one wants to give extra cost for VAT when paying the bill. So company should fix the price that included VAT (VND 129,800) on all banners, leaflets, advertisings, and other channels. Moreover, a new dish that wants to be warmly welcomed needs to let people try it first. A special offer for a new dish can encourage customers buy it. Then whether it can make customers continue to pay out their pocket is conditional upon cooks’ talent. Besides, price policy must be unified on the whole system. Promotion policy: In general, there is less sales promotion program apply to Kichi-Kichi than to Ashima. There is no fixed promotion policy for Kichi-Kichi. The company should encourage customers to come to restaurant by below the line communications or promotions like giving freebies with goods, trade discounts given to dealers and customers, reduced price offers on products, giving coupons which can be redeemed later etc. A discount for a group consisting 8 people and over or a reduction, for example 5% below normal on holidays, are effective methods to draw customers’ attention. 2. Finding new target groups and satisfy them After two weeks (from 15th March to 28th March) observing in both off-peak hours and peak hours at weekdays and weekend, the researcher at last finds one thing: conveyor and individual style at Kichi-Kichi win children’s favor because Kichi-Kichi makes them feel confident and mature, and not depend on parents anymore when allowing them choose menu themselves. Thus, the restaurant should issue some special policies for children only such as provide higher seat, give particular price to children ration, or promote ice cream for dessert. Our objective is children’s accompanies such as their parents, brothers and sisters, and other relatives. As mentioning above, the Old Quarter’s most crowed elements are merchants and tourists (both domestic and foreign), so Kichi-Kichi Ma May needs new policies to aim at these potential customers. With merchant circle whose income is not too high, the restaurant can give them sales promotions, especially below the line promotions, a free dish each Tuesday for example, to stimulate their consumption. With domestic and foreign tourists, the restaurant cannot just wait for them without doing anything. It needs to find customers itself by communicating to tourism agents. These agencies will bring customers to Kichi-Kichi and in turn the restaurant will pay them commission. An introduction and advertising from the tour guide seems much more effective than any others come from restaurant employees. With each tourist party, the tour guide will get 5% commission, for example, on everything that tourist party consumes. This commission will not be in the bill but in deposit slip published by Accounting Department. The preference or commission towards travel agencies will be paid monthly. This project can bring restaurant a big source of revenue. Tourists are people who have big passion on Vietnamese culture. Thus, Kichi-Kichi Ma May can attract them by building a special image that can nowhere but Kichi-Kichi Ma May. Developing new traditional food such as green rice flakes, rice ball with sesame and salt, etc. beside those that are familiar with Kichi-Kichi customers will make them pleasant. Company may base on suggestion of eating and drinking experts to add suitable food with each broth style. In addition, dealing with foreign customers requires staffs that are good at English. The lack of good English speaking employees is the weakness of Kichi-Kichi Ma May presently. To win foreign customers, the company has to concentrate on recruitment and training activity. 3. Training for employees English is the compulsory requirement for every business in the Old Quarter including Kichi-Kichi. Training activity at Kichi-Kichi is not effective because of occasional density while the key to learn a foreign language is the regular and constant study and practice. These training courses need to be carried out more often, two times a week, two hours each time after lunch and relax time for example. Besides English, the trainer has to provide employees with detail information about products such as name of food and its ingredients, etc. to answer customers when they ask to. Waiters and waitresses need to know thoroughly all the price and promotion policies of restaurant such as their contents and mechanism to announce them to customers. 4. Saving marketing budget by investing in selective channels In 2009, marketing budget for Kichi-Kichi spent 81% on above the line advertising because Kichi-Kichi hotpot bar was a new brand at that time and need to attract first trial from customer and position Kichi-Kichi brand name on market. Cost for advertising on internet accounted for 58% total budget. Company should continuously boost e-marketing activities because Kichi-Kichi target customers are paper work staffs who often spend time on internet. The second expensive advertising channel is radio, cost for advertising on Xonefm and VOV3 alone occupied 26%. However, the survey showed that customers know Kichi-Kichi by radio just makes up 1%, so company should consider forthcoming marketing plan if reject this advertising channel. In the last week in January, 2010, 38% of customers go eating at Kichi-Kichi because they see eyes catching hoarding and banner of the restaurant. This number increases to 60% and 74% in week 3 and week 4 in April, 2010. Therefore, the restaurant should pay more attention to this form of advertising. For example, marketers make opportune replacement for banners that are tattered or lost color. CONCLUSION In the strong competitive environment today, a high quality good is not enough for a business’s development. From the point of view of an overall sales process engineering effort, customer service plays an important role in an organization's ability to generate income and revenue. From that perspective, customer service should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic improvement. An excellent customer service must be accurate, prompt, polite, and convenient for customer. Good customer service means profit because once customers satisfy with customer service quality they will ready to pay more for that added value. Being a part of Kichi-Kichi system, Kichi-Kichi Ma May helps company expand market share to one of the most important area to restaurant business: the Old Quarter. The company solves the sales decrease problem at Kichi-Kichi Ma May by applying a sales promotion program “Eat 5 Free 1”. After the program, company expands Kichi-Kichi brand name and image. Turnover at Kichi-Kichi Ma May rocket up afterward. In order to maintain this sales, the restaurant needs to adjust itself to the Old Quarter condition and environment. Product, price, and promotion policies are the first factors that need to be adjusted. Then, it’s necessary for restaurant to find out new target customers and use suitable policies to satisfy them. The labor force of restaurant needs to be trained carefully not only on English but also on knowledge about the restaurant’s product and other programs, so they can answer all the questions of customers. Reducing marketing cost is a way to increase profit. The marketers have to define what channels are effective methods and what channels are the wastes to make suitable adjustment in marketing policy for budget saving. . APPENDIX 1. Comment card 2. “Eat 5 Free 1” leaflet 3. Result of the survey in January, 2010 Kichi-Kichi assessment Reason for coming Kichi-Kichi Restaurant Week Total Variety Freshness Suitable taste Hospitality & courtesy Food on conveyor Variety of food Delicious food Reasonable price Suitable style Friend gathering Good Average Need to improve Good Average Need to improve Good Average Need to improve Good Average Need to improve Kichi-Kichi Ma May 4 45 36 5 0 26 11 1 36 4 0 45 0 0 20 19 6 21 9 11 80% 11% 0% 58% 24% 2% 80% 9% 0% 100% 0% 0% 44% 42% 13% 47% 20% 24% `4. The result of survey in April. 2010 Restaurant Week Total Gender Age Know Kichi-Kichi by Frequency of visiting Kichi-Kichi Male Female Under 18 18-25 26-30 31-45 Over 45 Internet Leaflet Radio Tivi Friends Pass by LCD Other First time Once per 2 weeks Once per month Other Kichi-Kichi Ma May 2 91 36 53 5 27 21 24 7 6 1 2 2 55 21 0 11 29 24 23 14 40% 58% 5% 30% 23% 26% 8% 7% 1% 2% 2% 60% 23% 0% 12% 32% 26% 25% 15% 4 23 8 14 1 10 4 5 1 7 2 2 1 17 12 1 0 7 2 11 2 35% 61% 4% 43% 17% 22% 4% 30% 9% 9% 4% 74% 52% 4% 0% 30% 9% 48% 9% Kichi-Kichi assessment Reason for coming Kichi-Kichi Restaurant Week Total Variety Freshness Suitable taste Hospitality & courtesy Food on conveyor Variety of food Delicious food Reasonable price Suitable style Friend gathering Good Average Need to improve Good Average Need to improve Good Average Need to improve Good Average Need to improve Kichi-Kichi Ma May 2 91 66 19 6 65 16 4 67 18 0 89 2 0 44 50 21 51 40 26 73% 21% 7% 71% 18% 4% 74% 20% 0% 98% 2% 0% 48% 55% 23% 56% 44% 29% 4 23 13 7 3 13 10 0 14 6 0 22 0 0 16 12 4 9 5 3 57% 30% 13% 57% 43% 0% 61% 26% 0% 96% 0% 0% 70% 52% 17% 39% 22% 13% REFERENCES Books: Kotler, P. (1996), Principle Marketing Peppers, D., Rogers, M. Ph.D. (2008), Rules to Break and Laws to Follow The Chartered Institute of Marketing (2009), 10 Minutes Guide: Customer Service Program Entrepreneur review, Art of restaurant business www.tailieu.vn Articles: Ban da quan tam den chinh sach san pham? 8 rules for good customer service - By Susan Ward, About.com Guide www.ashima.com.vn www.wikipedia.com www.iec.org www.eDigitalPhoto.com 2009, www.scandmedia.com Series of Kichi-Kichi article on sites: www.dantri.com.vn, www.ngoisao.net, www.24h.com, www.vnexpress.com