PREINTERVENTION ANALYSIS AND IMPROVEMENT OF CUSTOMER GREETING IN A RESTAURANT

Examination of customer greeting by employees at one location of a sandwich restaurant chain suggested that an appropriate customer greeting was most likely to occur when a door chime was used to indicate that a customer had entered the store and when the store manager was present behind the service counter.

Abstract

We examined customer greeting by employees at one location of a sandwich restaurant chain. First, a preintervention analysis was conducted to determine the conditions under which greeting a customer within 3 s of his or her entry into the restaurant did and did not occur. Results suggested that an appropriate customer greeting was most likely to occur when a door chime was used to indicate that a customer had entered the store and when the store manager was present behind the service counter. Next, a performance improvement intervention, which consisted of the combination of the use of a door chime and manager presence, was evaluated. Results showed that during baseline, a mean of 6% of customers were greeted; during intervention a mean of 63% of customers were greeted. The addition of manager-delivered verbal and graphic group feedback resulted in 100% of customers being greeted across two consecutive sessions.