Service Excellence at Vapiano

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2.2 The Funding Mechanism

“Excellence comes at a cost, and the cost must ultimately be covered.”[10] – In the case of Vapiano it must be answered how they can afford medium-quality food and a design-environment in very costly locations (frequently visited locations in big cities) while keeping the prices relatively low? Vapiano is still a fast food restaurant and therefore very cost sensitive. Vapiano has chosen two different funding mechanisms.

On the one hand they charge their customer in a palatable way for the medium-quality food. Well, prices are kept relatively low in comparison to traditional Italian restaurants in Germany. But compared to other fast food chains their dishes are above average prices. Pizza prices range, for example, at the Vapiano in Düsseldorf in 2016 from 6,25€ up to 9,25€. A menu (drink and sides included) at McDonald’s, for example, ranges from 6,29€ up to 7,19€ – price sensitive customers get more value there.[11] Vapiano plays on a level, in terms of prices, between fast food and traditional restaurant. They charge their fast food customers extra for the advanced experience, which they receive from show cooking and customisation in a modern feel good atmosphere.

On the other hand, Vapiano has chosen to let the customers do a lot of work themselves. Self-service is the concept behind Vapiano and so they can save a lot of money and keep the costs low. Customers go to the different stations, chose their food, wait for it to be done and then carry it themselves to their chosen table. This concept not only decreases the number of service staff, but also the service order time. With fast processing of customer orders, the restaurants can serve more people per hour and therefore make more revenue in less time. And time is an important aspect for them – the less time guest spent, the higher is the go-through of customers. Another aspect, how they try to serve more people in the same time are the shared long tables. The restaurants do not ‘lose’ space, when one table made for four is just used by three, as this happens often in traditional restaurants. The used payment method also refers to a faster process. Appendix 3 demonstrates the funding system of Vapiano.

2.3 The Employee Management system

In Service Business the employees play an important role and are a part of the offered product. Employees are an imperturbable integrity. Restaurants are, according to Lovelock & Wirtz, high-contact services.[12] Vapiano calls their employees Vapianisti, and these Vapianisti are the touch points for the customers to meet the brand Vapiano. Hence, they overtake a very important role in the perceived service excellence. The fact, of having an own name for their employees shows how important the employees for the company and the service product itself are. Vapiano wants them to identify with the company and be proud of it, in order to perform better and increase the product quality.

The chefs play a strategic role at Vapiano. They are customer contact person and chef at the same time. This is why Vapiano’s chef recruitment has to be done differently from common chef recruitment methods. They focus on the chef’s attitude towards people, personality and their character. The asset of attitude towards the customer is more important for the concept, than the chef’s skills. Cooking at Vapiano is an automated process with the unpacking of fresh pasta and other ingredients, mingling of the ordered sauce or salad. This does not demand accelerated cooking skills. This is why they ask more for outgoing, open, friendly, good German and English speaking chefs. Soft skills and not traditional cooking skills are in the centre. So states Vapiano on the website: “At Vapiano, our chefs are the centre of attention, talking to and cooking for our guests.[13] Furthermore they search explicitly for people with positive attitude and interpersonal skills.[14]

In order to train their employees the company has installed in Bonn the V-Academy. Here, managers and franchiser are trained how to train in turn the Vapianisti at the restaurants.[15] Additionally, an online training and learning channel for all Vapianisti around the world is offered. Here they can, for example, study the recipes at home and check their knowledge. But not only off-the-job training is offered. Seminars, meetings or training by supervisors is offered for the Vapianisti, too.[16]

Nevertheless, the chain hit the German headlines several times in recent years because of dissatisfied employees. Due to unpaid overtime several employees have quit. And even on the management level qualified personal has left the company, since the worldwide expansion caused several issues for the chain.[17] This points out that Vapiano definitely has potential for improvement on the employee level. Due to the termination of many employees the restaurants had to suffer under long waiting time for the customers and therefore missed service quality.

2.4 Customer Management System

In service businesses customers play an important and active role. Meaning, they are co-creators of the value they will receive. However, the level of involvement of customers in the operational process of a restaurant differs. Vapiano definitely asks for high involvement of every customer in the operational process of the restaurant. Due to the self-service concept the guests have to undertake important tasks. “Self-service is the low-cost accommodation of choice in managing arrival and request variability.”[18] Meaning, customers have to deal themselves with their own preference in their own schedule and thus allows Vapiano to avoid complicated, inefficient labour scheduling and an expensive amount of staff – however, this only works if customers are efficient in their task. Therefore Vapiano expects some skills from their customers when visiting the restaurants, especially to adapt to an advanced restaurant service concept with a different type of interaction. These skills begin with the ability of ordering the food directly at the chefs, carrying a tray, choosing the table themselves, handling the flexible payment method, and not to spend too much time in the restaurant (in order to serve more people at the same time). This ‘customer job design’ obviously needs to fit to the target group – and it does. Vapiano targets young and busy people. Hence, the customers want to have a smooth and fast operational process themselves, and so they want to do this job. Additionally the guests offer the practical intelligence to adapt rapidly to new processes and are open to uncommon payment methods. Vapiano’s target group perfectly fits in their operational