WiFi at the Broadway Cafe

WiFi at the Broadway Cafe

The cornerstone of any business that has survived over fifty years is trust and this is certainly the case with the Broadway Cafe. Time and again it has been shown that technology when implemented purely for its own sake can do more harm than good for any business. In choosing to automate and upgrade the Broadway Cafe's technology the place begin is with an honest assessment of its current goals, objectives and approaches to measuring performance over time. From the initial analysis it appears the most critical overriding objective is customer satisfaction and the highly personal service that patrons feel wherever they are there. The fact orders are still captured and transmitted to the kitchen on a notepad makes the Cafe very nostalgic as well. The automating of the supplier management and supplier replenishment, order taking, customer service and checkout systems all must stay true to the goal of customer satisfaction and customer intimacy if they are to be effective. Technology then must be used to accentuate customer focus, not get in the way of it. Too often small businesses like the Cafe jump into technology too soon without stopping to think how it will impact their customers. That is why it is so critical for small businesses to be disciplined and thorough in their use of the System Development Lifecycle methodology. The use of the SDLC development methodology as a means to ensure managers of small businesses have the information they need when they need it has been proven across many examples of successful system implementations (Chaudhry, Salchenberger, Beheshtian, 1996).

Staying Responsive and Real With Customers Needs to Come First

Using the SDLC as the framework for defining the requirements of the WiFi network in the Broadway Cafe needs to begin with the goal of making the experience customers have there even more responsive and memorable. Managing the Cafe is not just about selling food or beverages; it's about delivering an exceptional customer experience. The SDLC framework can help to accentuate and make even more positive the experience customers have there. Beginning with the ordering process which in many restaurants and cafes is error-prone due to its highly manual and the potential for transcription errors (Dokoupil, 2008) the SDLC needs to be used to re-architect the order capture and order entry systems to ensure 100% reliability. Second, the order capture and entry process can be quickly translated into a system. Once this system is complete it can be developed and tested. This critical step of implementation needs to have built into it opportunities for feedback from the waiters, waitresses and customers to be effective. Inviting those most impacted by a new system to critique and tailor it to their needs can lead to high adoption rates of the completed system due to greater ownership (Harler, 2004). Once the final phase of the SLDC is implemented for the wireless order capture and ordering system there is greater potential for order accuracy as well, as the waiter and waitresses will have helped designed the entry screens and workflows.

Making the order capture and online ordering system more efficient with a higher level of accuracy will ensure greater levels of customer satisfaction over time and actually strengthen the concept of exceptional customer service too. As the Cafe has survived over half a century based on its reputation for customer service and making customers feel wanted and important, the online ordering system will accentuate that aspect of the experience with greater levels of accuracy.