Improving Customer Experience Through Staff Training On Allergies

Abstract

Dietary restrictions are increasing in western countries. However, restaurant staff suffer from lack of allergy knowledge and lack of communication when it comes to serving customers with dietary restrictions. The hospitality industry has always been volatile and training changing employees can be difficult but the lack of allergy procedures can lead to serious safety issues for the customer. The thesis is based on the idea that companies can improve their customer safety and customer experience by training the employees to understand the customer’s motives and service process.

The objective was to identify the key aspects affecting the customer experience of customers with dietary restrictions in cafés and develop a training plan incorporating these aspects. Focus is on the viewpoint of the customer and in the interaction between the front of the house staff and the customer. To create this training the thesis tries to understand the complex and emotional customer perspective, and translate it into a training that motivates and offers usable skills for companies and employees to communicate better.

The thesis discusses the role of the customer with dietary restrictions in the hospitality industry, explores customer experience and the definitions of customer journey mapping, and how to translate the customer view into a training by utilizing the literature on employee training. The literature review reveals the need for allergy training and the complex issues of training employees in the hospitality industry, but also offers ways to understand the key steps needed for a succesful service encounter. The development of the training plan is done according to the literature findings and customer journey mapping findings. To understand potential effects of the training, feedback was gathered from a restaurant manager.

The thesis is a constructive research aiming to improve the customer experience of customers’ with dietary restrictions. The research method used is a group discussion to emphasize collabo-ration and to understand the needs of the future users. The group discussion takes place in a workshop where individuals with allergies map the customer journey of an allergic customer in a café setting. Small sample size was recognized. The same customer journey map framework, created by using the literature review, is used both in the workshop and in the development of the training. It provides the reader a way to reflect on the literature and follow the results.

The thesis proposes that a thoroughly presented customer perspective, embedded in a participatory training suitable for adult learners, can provide needed information on allergies and reveal empathy points that could affect the employee behaviour, and therefore improve safety and the customer experience. The findings suggest that restaurants are interested in training opportunities that increase customer safety, consider the employee training challenges, and offer solutions that are in a format that can easily be transferred into usable skills and tought to multiple employees.