Evaluate effectiveness of customer service activities in increasing sales for Kichi-Kichi hot pot bar restaurant on 61 Ma May street

em, even with the best or most innovative products and services. By focusing your attention on your customer that has the highest potential lifetime value, you can improve profitability. Your staff will have a “feel good” factor because of the environment and atmosphere that lead to happy customer. This can help to attract new customers over time. In their book Rules to Break and Laws to Follow, 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. A study by United State Management Association shows loyal customer account for 65 percent of company total proceeds (Nguyen Thac Minh), especially in price sensitive market or market that exist similar products and service. If you currently retain 70 percent of your customers and you start a program to improve that to 80 percent, you'll add an additional 10 percent to your growth rate. The more the number of your frequent customer, the less cost you spend on advertising and marketing. Information collection is the core phase in “loyal-making” process. By studying existing customer information, you can find business opportunities, customer categories and their demand. Once having a firm grasp on hobbies, behavior of your best customers, you can build marketing campaigns aim at potential customers who have similar characteristics. In business-to-business trading, providing a high level of customer care often requires you to find out what your customers want. Once you have identified your most valuable customers or best potential customers, you can target your highest levels of customer care towards them. Another approach, particularly in the consumer market, is the obligation to treat all consumers to the highest standard. Information about your customers and what they want is available from many sources, including their order history; records of their contacts with your business such as meeting, phone call, and so on; direct feedback - if you ask them, customers will usually tell you what they want; changes in the overall success of specific products or services; feedback about your existing range - what it does and doesn't do; enquiries about possible new products or services; feedback from your customers about things they buy from other businesses; changes in the goods and services your competitors are selling; feedback and referrals from other, non-competitive suppliers. While good overall service is the best way of generating customer loyalty, sometimes new relationships can be strengthened or old ones refreshed, using customer loyalty schemes. These are programs that use fixed or percentage discounts, extra goods or prizes to reward customers for behavior that benefits your business. They can also be used to persuade customers to give you another try if you feel you have successfully tackled past problems with your customer service. You can decide to offer rewards on the basis of repeat custom, cumulative spend, orders for large quantities or with a high value, prompt payment, length of relationship. You can also provide key customers with loyalty cards that entitle them to a discount on all their purchases. Particularly because of the high cost of landing new customers versus the high profitability of a loyal customer base, you might want to reflect upon your current business strategy. These four factors will greatly affect your ability to build a loyal customer base: Products that are highly differentiated from those of the competition. Higher-end products where price is not the primary buying factor. Products with a high service component. Multiple products for the same customer. Reach Out To Your Customers! Contact . . . contact . . . contact with current customers is a good way to build their loyalty. The more the customer sees someone from your firm, the more likely you'll get the next order. Send Christmas cards, see them at trade shows, stop by to make sure everything's okay. Send a simple newsletter to your customers-tell them about the great things that are happening at your firm and include some useful information for them. Send them copies of any media clippings about your firm. Invite them to free seminars. The more they know about you, the more they see you as someone out to help them, the more they know about your accomplishments-the more loyal a customer they will be. Building customer loyalty will be a lot easier if you have a loyal workforce-not at all a given these days. It is especially important for you to retain those employees who interact with customers such as sales people, technical support, and customer-service people. Many companies give a lot of attention to retaining sales people but little to support people. I've been fortunate to have the same great people in customer service for years-and the compliments from customers make it clear that they really appreciate specific people in our service function. 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. Attract new customer 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 to 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. Getting close to your regular customers in an economy that is tough for both of you may involve offering longer warranties and easier return policies on products, or special deals and discounts for your most valued patrons. Your customers have to bear with bad economic times just as much as you do. It is so clever to let them know you're in it together by reaching out to them and making your relationship as hassle-free as possible. Show some empathy and you'll receive it in return. 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. Explore various types of traditional advertising methods such as classified ads, yellow page ads, television and radio spots, and display ads in magazines and on other Web sites, go with what meets your budget and best reaches your target group. Whatever type you chose, you must make five important decisions when developing an advertising program: setting advertising objectives, budget, message, media, and finally, evaluate the result. Message decisions Message strategy Message execution Campaign evaluation Budget decisions Affordable approach Percent of sales Competitive parity Objecives and task Objective setting Communication objectives Sales objectives Communication impact Sales impact Media decisions Reach, frequency, impact Major media types Specific media vehicles Media timing Figure 3: Major advertising decisions Advertisers should set clear objectives as to whether the advertising budget is supposed to inform, persuade, or remind buyers. The advertising budget is based on what is affordable, on a percentage of sales, on competitors’ spending, or on the objectives and tasks. The message decision calls for defining reach, frequency, and impact goals; choosing major media types; selecting media vehicles and scheduling the media timing. Finally, advertising evaluation calls for measuring the communication effect and measuring the sales effects of advertising before, during, and after the advertising is placed. There are a number of free or nearly free ways to advertise your business or service. You could rely on word of mouth. Sure, that does not cost anything, but it might take a long time before word spreads. A second inexpensive method would be flyers. You could print out flyers at your local print shop and distribute them throughout your area by putting them on cars or in mailboxes. 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. Hopefully, the flyer will be memorable enough that they remember your business' name. A 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. In the sales promotion strategy, promotion products are a difficult question to many businesses. What are promotional products? Promotional products are items as diverse as pens, golf balls, bags, key chains, shirts and coffee mugs 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 some uses your pen, drinks coffee from your mug or wears your polo shirt, they will immediate think of your company's name. Then when they are ready to make a purchase, your company's name is at the top of their mind. Not only are you helping people remember your company's name, but you're also giving your potential customers something they can actually use. With the right promotional product, a small business owner will see a great return on their investment. Reduce cost and increase 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. There are a number of techniques you can employ, including: providing a free customer helpline answering frequently asked questions on your website following up sales with a courtesy call providing free products that will help customers look after or make the most of their purchases sending reminders when services or check-ups are due offering preferential discounts to existing customers on further purchases Existing customer relationships are opportunities to increase sales because your customers will already have a degree of trust in your recommendations. Cross-selling and up-selling are ways of increasing either the range or the value of what you sell by pointing out new purchase possibilities to these customers. Alerting customers when new, upgraded or complimentary products become available – perhaps through regular emails or newsletters - is one way of increasing sales. To retain your customers' trust, however, never try to sell them something that clearly doesn't meet their needs. Remember, your aim is to build a solid long-term relationship with your customers rather than to make quick one-off profits. 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. Customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but if you cannot get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long. 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? 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?" Secondly, 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 prices, policies, and procedures accordingly and make it easy for your customers to understand them. Moreover, you should show up in your business. Use language, imagery, colors that are consistent with the way you naturally serve your customers. It's almost certain that lots of people do what you do and do it as well or better. However, it is highly unlikely that anyone else relates to their customers and serves them quite like you do. Make it easy for prospective customers to tell how well you're likely to fit. Besides, offering a test drive is an important step. If you sell products, give samples. If you sell services, give samples. What does that look like? An eight-page special report, a newsletter, reprints of articles, audio of speeches or seminars. Keep your eyes and ears and mind open, and your samples may add up to a product and a new income stream. And finally, make it easy for clients and customers to pay for your work. When your just-right customer pays for a service, they are making a conscious commitment to getting their money's worth. This makes it a lot more likely that they will do what it takes to benefit from what you offer. Customers often have assumptions about a business through their first impression which usually come from advertising, company website, or even from staff habiliment. These assumptions can be right or not. Quality customer service begins with your employees. You need to care about staff’s attitude also because each staff is a representative of your company. Remember 95% of elements that decide your company reputation and sales depend on your sales people (Nguyen Thac Minh). There are maybe hundreds of employees in a company, which means that there are hundreds of representatives for it, and the problem is how it makes these employees a consistent image which can express company’s business manner, vision, and mission. Buyers can never meet company management; they often still score company through these representatives. 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. An employee with a complaint cannot be completely effective in dealing with customers. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers. Hiring the best people means trusting them. Your employees should be able to do what is necessary to make the customer happy without fear of reprisal. Policies and procedures are helpful only as guides toward an end result. When employees run out of possibilities to make the customer happy, they must have the latitude to improvise to make it right. Most employees operate in a state of fear that their own generosity with a customer will be viewed as foolishness by their boss. This situation can stifle flexible customer service. Staying close to customer is a decisive factor to quality of a business’s customer service. In the smartest companies, asking questions and listening carefully to the answers is an important part of customer service. These firms train their employees to focus on what the customer is saying, and then tailor products or services to meet customer needs. Says one corporate executive, "Knowing what's on the customer's mind is the smartest thing we can do." 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. This responsibility to be receptive does not lie solely with your employees, however. If you want your business to be successful, you must listen to and talk with customers as well. There is no substitute for getting out "where the action is" to learn from the customers themselves how you might serve them better. 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. Be sure to take advantage of feedback from employees, especially those whose everyday job is dealing with customers. They can serve as tremendous reservoirs of information. You have also to pay attention to the details. Many owners search for a special touch that will make them stand out from the crowd. Discount coupons, longer hours, home delivery or free coffee, for example, all show customers you want to take that extra step to please them. Some of the most effective "extras" are really very basic adages of conducting good business, although customers are often surprised when they take place. These include answering the phone by the third ring; treating customers respectfully and courteously at all times; greeting them by name; promptly answering their questions and, if you can't, getting back to them with an answer as quickly as possible; and manufacturing high-quality goods that work the first time and keep working. Customer service is definitely worth pursuing. It's no longer the domain of a few clever companies that have made it synonymous with their names. No business, whatever its size, can afford to take customers for granted, because it's without question a buyer's market and becoming more so every day. 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. An important key to serving customers well is this - don't try to change them. Here are five specific steps to help you take full advantage of the critical element of customer care: Conduct your own survey. Profit from the ideas, suggestions and complaints of your present and former customers. Talk and meet with your customers. Ask questions. Learn their attitudes, what they want and what they dislike. Check employees' telephone manners periodically. This link is particularly important for small businesses, as bad telephone handling can undermine other constructive efforts to build a profitable enterprise. Rules such as prompt answering and a cheerful attitude of helpfulness are of critical importance. Have someone whose voice is unfamiliar play the role of a customer or prospective customer, preferably a difficult one. Make customer service a team effort. Use group meetings, memos, posters and in-house publications to build customer consciousness throughout the organization. Continually drive home the crucial rule that getting and holding customers requires team play, and invite employee ideas. Extend your efforts after hours. It's the friendly feelings people have that draw them to you and your business. Take advantage of the relaxed atmosphere of social occasions or a neighborly chat over the back fence to turn friends into customers, or to reinforce the loyalty of existing ones. 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. An important task of customer care is dealing with complaint from customers. Every business has to deal with situations in which things go wrong from a customer's point of view. However you respond if this happens, don't be dismissive of your customer's problem, even if you're convinced you're not at fault. Although it might seem contradictory, a customer with a complaint represents a genuine opportunity for your business: if you handle the complaint successfully, your customer is likely to prove more loyal than if nothing had gone wrong people willing to complain are rare - your complaining customer may be alerting you to a problem experienced by many others who silently took their custom elsewhere Complaints should be handled courteously, sympathetically and - above all - swiftly. Make sure that your business has an established procedure for dealing with customer complaints and that it is known to all your employees. At the very least it should involve: listening sympathetically to establish the details of the complaint recording the details together with relevant material, such as a sales receipt or damaged goods offering rectification - whether by repair, replacement or refund appropriate follow-up action, such as a letter of apology or a phone call to make sure that the problem has been made good If you're proud of the way you rectify problems - by offering no-questions refunds, for example - make sure your customers know about it. Your method of dealing with customer problems is one more way to stay ahead of your competitors. Chapter 3: Analysis and Finding 1. Define position of Kichi-Kichi hotpot bar on market. The first Kichi-Kichi restaurant was opened in Feb, 2009 and there are 22 units over country up to now, and 11 units among them are placed in Hanoi. Target customer is class B people who live in city, for example, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and other potential cities in Vietnam: Danang, Cantho, Nhatrang, etc. at the age from 20 to 40. Company aims at administrative staff circle - accounts for about 20% population, mostly in HCMC and Hanoi – who has tendency to go eating outside, meeting with guest, colleague, friend, and family at lunch and dinner time; and who is interested in a restaurant with clean environment, that is good at food and service, that is convenient for their travelling, parking and the price is affordable. HCM C Population Ha Noi Population Total Class B (20%) 7,200,000 6,400,000 13,600,000 2,720,000 Source: Statistic of VN Economy, 2009 Figure4: Market size 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. Company also studied carefully major competitors: Cocaxuki in Ho Chi Minh City and F1 in Ha Noi, analyzed 4Ps element, strengths as well as weaknesses of both company and competitors, in order to from that point of view, marketers can give opportunities and threats for Kichi-Kichi development. You can see the result of that study in below tables. Product Price Place promotion Combine between fine dining and conveyor hotpot. But Cocaxuki does not follow all you can eat concept, but pay by color of plate average check is 130.000 VND/ person (included VAT and drink) located in big cities such as HCMC, Hanoi and Haiphong, mostly follow department store – Parkson. not have promotion program Strength: Combination between fine dining and conveyor can meet various demand of customer Can utilize fine dining to diversify food menu of conveyor Weakness: Not clear in brand positioning Short conveyor Food is not good at quality and diversification Depend on quantity of department store’s customer Source: Marketing Department Figure 5: Competitor analysis: Ho Chi Minh City - Cocaxuki 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 Figure 6: Competitor analysis: Ha Noi – F1 Researcher made a research in order to understand more Kichi-Kichi major competitor in Hanoi – F1. After several times went eating at F1, researcher found that beside F1 has advantages of a follower, it does not take time to open new market and does not need budget for R&D and marketing as mentioning above, it attracts customer by lower price and cooler room. However, it is not as creative as Kichi-Kichi, everything made by Kichi-Kichi would be followed by F1 afterward. Furthermore, customer cannot find any handmade dish such as sushi, sausage, shrimp tempura, etc. In addition, waiters are unprofessional, just within ten minutes researcher was asked for drink three times. From all these features, researcher affirms 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 food is delicious; place are convenient; space is comfortable; price is affordable; style and promotion are enjoyable; and service is professional, Kichi-Kichi is confident of its ability to give customer convenience, 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 Hochiminh 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 7: SWOT model 2. Overview of Kichi-Kichi Ma May problem. Kichi-Kichi Ma May was opened in January 2010, founded in a beautiful location in the old quarter area. 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 Figure 7: Revenue of Kichi-Kichi in first 3 months from flotation The sales of Kichi-Kichi Ma May surprises everyone. A comprehensive research was carried out to find a cure for this headachy trouble. The board of director judges Kichi-Kichi 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 along with 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. Besides, there is no car parking near restaurant. Thus, car driving customer has 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 sidewalk. Secondly, it was the ideal condition of the Old Quarter that causes trouble to Kichi-Kichi. There are so many restaurants and bars in all kinds and forms strongly compete with the newcomer Kichi. A subjective source of this fall is the lack of skillful employees. Most of customer there are foreign traveler, 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 customer leave just because of language difference. To solve the problem, company need to make good its shortcomings and overcome all obstacles and difficulties at once. 3. Customer service activities at Kichi-Kichi Ma May-Evaluate customer satisfaction rate. All the product and price policies at 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 head. In addition, each customer will be taste for free a dish 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 customer decrease from 3,394 people in January to 2,965 people in February. “Eat 5 Free 1” program: For increasing in purchasing power, in the first half of February, company applied 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, customer will receive a voucher when buy opening ticket at reception room. Second way is based on leaflet. Voucher is printed on about 10,000 leaflets distributing at building around the Old Quarter and at night market area. Schedule: 1st Feb-15th Mar: deliver voucher From 9th Feb: validate voucher 15th Apr: close 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 customer collect five stamps on his/her 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 printing on voucher which is delivered at restaurant is different from series printing on leaflet voucher. Only if the voucher has 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: Stick banner on glass and put tent card on reception desk to draw customer’s attention. Organize a road show including five PGs 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 leaflet is distributed, situation is better. However, if just aim at office area, it could not produce the desired effect because significant characteristic in the Old Quarter is full of merchants and tourists, office staff just is a very small proportion. Thus, management determines special direction for Kichi-Kichi Ma May. Realize that “Eat 5 Free 1” campaign is so fit for the Old Quarter inhabitants; company conducts a second leaflets distribution along crowded streets including Hang Ngang, Hang Dao, Cau Go, etc., and up to West Lake area. The writer takes part in this second turn. People express great interest to promotion plan by asking so many questions about it for the writer. And the figure after campaign proves that judgment right. After 61 days from 10th Feb to 15th Apr 2010, the number of send 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. Return voucher quantity account 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 494,694,600 1,352,410,509 Customer number 3,703 10,197 Time 27 61 Average of customer number a day 137 167 Average of revenue a day 18,320,356 22,170,664 Unit: VND Source: Accounting Department Figure 8: Effect comparation 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 Figure 9: “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. Opinion poll summary: Before, during, and after this promotion program, company holds an opinion poll in order to collect customer opinion and feedback about restaurant service (you can see the comment card sample in “Appendix” part). The card consists of two sides printed in Vietnamese on one side and English on the other. Red is major color on both sides. Content comprises customer information including name, gender, age, and telephone number and email address. Then there are criterion in close and open forms for customer 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 survey allows company to know how well advertising channels effect, what features are decisive reasons for customer to come to Kichi-Kichi, and frequency rate of visiting restaurant. Open question provides company with customers’ expectation about Kichi-Kichi promotion 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. From data collected from comment cards from Kichi-Kichi Ma May (as you can see in table 1), research sees that more than half quantity of customers (62%) is female who are at the age from 26 to 30 (42%). Besides, clients at interval between 18 and 25, 31 and 45 are much more than who is under 18 and over 45 years old. These groups are the target company aims at. Because of these majority female customers, on woman’s days 8th Mar and 20th Oct restaurant gives small gifts as a complements from restaurant such as a free dish or a rose to their liking. Alike other Kichi-Kichi, most of customers at Kichi-Kichi Ma May know it by their friends’ recommendation. Eyes-catching hoarding and decoration also have use of attracting customers’ view. We also see 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, customer number come back 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 customer coming back once a month account for 24%. Source: Marketing Department Table 1: Customer base Source: Marketing Department Table 2: Customer comment In table 2, we easily realize really good news for company that 100% customers highly appreciate service attitude of all workers. This has proved service quality at Kichi-Kichi high. 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, look at customer feedback researcher find 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 factor just has strong attraction in the first period, as for keeping customer and making them loyal require innovation exertion from restaurant. Queuing right after these factors, 24% of customers select Kichi-Kichi for their gathering while other 20% consider Kichi-Kichi a original style that is suitable for them. One weakness of Kichi-Kichi is 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 get from open question part says company what customer wants and expects it to do. The majority of opinions suggest restaurant to publish member card like Ashima system, discount for groups over ten and frequent customers, and enlarge and cool 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. Chapter 4: Recommendation 1. Orientation of marketing in 2010: Marketing objective: Year Sales amount (billion VND) Quantity of customer (person) Average check (VND/person) 2010 98 4000,000 98,000 Supposed that price will be kept for whole year and average of seat turnover is 2.5, the sales amount will be 98 billion vnd/ year 2010; top of mind of Kichi Kichi: 15% at the end of 2010. Kichi-Kichi Ma May is a member of Kichi-Kichi system, contribute an important part to the system development. With all special characteristics mentioning above, Kichi-Kichi Ma May need to find direction to develop on its own. Marketing solution: A good customer care activity needs support and combination of many factors such as product, price, and promotion policies. Product policy: Company needs to process new flavors along with uphold delicious taste of hotpot broths to meet various demands of customers. Carry out food diversification. Customers’ feedbacks are the grounds for Kichi-Kichi cooks make new dishes. Do not ignore customers’ complaint because it helps restaurant make opportune modification and innovation to improve product quality. Price policy: A new product can successfully penetrate a market or not depends apart on its price, especially in inflation environment today. A new dish wanting 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 set for Kichi-Kichi. Company should assign some to promote customer come to restaurant such as a discount for a group consisting 8 people and over or a reduction some percent below normal on holidays, etc. 2. Some proposals to increase sales for Kichi-Kichi Ma May: Company should continuously boost e-marketing activities because Kichi-Kichi target customers are paper work staffs who often spend time on internet. In 2009, marketing budget for Kichi-Kichi spent 81% on above the line advertising because Kichi was a new brand and need to attract first trial from customer and position Kichi-Kichi brand name on market. Cost for advertising on internet accounts for 58% total budget. The second expensive advertising channel is radio, alone cost for advertising on Xonefm and VOV3 occupied 26%. However, the survey shows customers know Kichi-Kichi by radio just makes up 1%, so company should consider forthcoming marketing plan if reject this advertising channel. Next, below the line communications or promotion 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. should be applied more often at the low income restaurant Ma May. Researcher study purchasing behavior of Kichi customers by observing at restaurant in a month, at last find one thing: conveyor and individual style at Kichi-Kichi win children’s favor because Kichi makes them feel confident and mature, and not depend on parents anymore when allow them choose menu themselves. Thus, in researcher’s opinion, 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. It’s a pity to lose domestic and foreign tourists in the Old Quarter. To aim at this potential group, restaurant staffs need some English training courses. Besides, restaurant can find customer itself by communicating to tourism agents. These agencies will bring customers to restaurant, in turn restaurant pay them commission. An introduction and advertising from the tour guide seems much more effective than any others come from restaurant employees. The Old Quarter is originally well-known for eating and drinking culture. So Kichi-Kichi Ma May can build a special image by providing some traditional food such as green rice flakes, rice ball with sesame and salt, etc. Company may base on suggestion of eating and drinking experts to add suitable food with each broth style. This all aim at foreign tourists who have big passion on Vietnamese culture. This project can bring restaurant a big source of revenue. CONCLUSION In the strong competitive environment today, a high quality good is not enough for a business 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. Through this research, researcher wants to approach and practice marketing theory to increase sales and build a special image for Kichi-Kichi Ma May. Because of the lack of fact understanding as well as limited research skill, the study exist mistakes. The writer is waiting eagerly estimation, comments, and advices from teachers. APPENDIX 1. Comment card: 2. “Eat 5 Free 1” leaflet: REFERENCES www.ashima.com.vn www.scandmedia.com Ban da quan tam den chinh sach san pham? www.wikipedia.com 8 rules for good customer service - By Susan Ward, About.com Guide Series of Kichi-Kichi article on sites: www.dantri.com.vn, www.ngoisao.net, www.24h.com, www.vnexpress.com 10 Minutes Guide: Customer service program – The Chartered Institute of Marketing Project Coordinator Project Coordinator Kichi-Kichi North Mr. Vuong South Mr. Sy Ashima North Ms. Lan South Mr. Huy Operation Director: Mr. Hai North: Ms. Binh, Dung South Ms. Khanh North: Ms. Mai, Diep South Ms. Luu, Huyen South: Ms. Duong, Xoa North Ms. Ha South Mr. Vi North: Ms. Kim Anh Board of Director Office Admin Ms. My, Thu C.E.O Mr. Dao The Vinh Purchasing dept Director: Ms. Bac Finance dept Director: Ms. Ha Development dept North: Mr. N.X.Tuong Development dept South: Mr. N.V.Hong H.R dept Director Ms. Kim Anh Manager Ms. Nguyen Figure 1: Company structure