Surveys

I counted the total surveys that I got back from the guests at the restaurant and I have 88 of them.  I tallied up the total scores for each category: quality of food, quality of service, timeliness of food, and likelihood they'd return or recommend the restaurant to a friend.

I was surprised to find out that a lot more people gave a 5, flawless, rating.  Because Cliffside is a higher-end restaurant people come with very high expectations, and in a restaurant, being flawless isn't easy to achieve. I expected more 4, exceeded expectation, ratings since it is more realistic.

The category with the greatest discrepancy was our timeliness of food.  These ratings varied from a 2, below expectation, to a 5, flawless.  The most consistent category was the recommendation category which only ranged from 4, exceeded expectation, to flawless.

I wasn't surprised to discover that the two categories regarding the food had some of the lowest scores, 2's and 3's, because the majority of the complaints we get at the restaurant and online are about the food.  I've noticed that the owners are trying to raise up our wait staff because they think that our servers can do better but based off of these surveys, the quality of service was rated high, but more time should be spent on evaluating our kitchen and menu.

Research

I am in the process of conducting my research through surveys at my restaurant.  It has been an interesting experience thus far.  Some guests are more than happy to fill out the survey, and the incentive to get a free vanilla bean brulee at their next visit helps.  However, some guests have literally gotten upset that we are even doing a survey so the servers who are helping me pass out the surveys have been afraid to take them to certain table.  The reviews have been mostly good, 4 and 5 ratings, and some of the surveys have been more detailed than others.  I had one guest leave notes explaining that their entrees came too quickly after the appetizer and that the busser tried to clear plates that the guests were actively working on.  These notes were very helpful and we all appreciated the honesty.  We are also finding that the majority of new guests who come in are hearing about the restaurant through their friends or family members instead of through our advertising efforts (ie our billboard between here and Cedar City). Quite a few people have also found us on Trip Adviser because of our high ratings.

Capstone Pitch

For my senior project I would like to do a professional project with my work, Cliffside Restaurant.  They are a fairly new restaurant, only being open for a little over two years, and they're wanting to emerge into the catering industry.  They've given me permission to get the catering portion of the restaurant off of the ground and begin to research other caterers in St. George, and hopefully market and advertise their catering services.  If all goes well, the owners have talked to me about running the catering portion in the future (hospitality-wise, not the cooking) and doing the planning and scheduling it requires.  I hope that this project will prove to them that I can see Cliffside as a career and that they will trust me to be able to run their catering business!