Case Study

The cheesecake Factory is a well-known full service dining restaurant which serves not only their significant cheesecakes but also great food. The name is known by people from many different countries, and my Japanese friend came to San Diego with her to do list which included “Dinner at The Cheesecake Factory”. We went there around 8:30 p.m. on Friday, April 1st. The restaurant was packed and there were so many people waiting to be called their names and seated a table in the waiting area. I ask the host how long it would take to be seated, and she told me about 30 minutes. The time went so fast while we were waiting because there is a big showcase of cheesecakes and we were trying to choose which one we should’ve had for dessert. Some people went outside and walking around since the host gave each party a device which let us know if they were ready to seat us at the restaurant. Thus, waiting for 30 minutes was not a problem at all. We even felt that we waited less than 30 minutes.

After we sat down, we started thinking what we wanted to eat for dinner. Our server was very knowledgeable about menu, and she helped us to choose what we wanted from over 100 items. My friend ordered pasta dish, and she asked if she could change the type of noodle. Our server not only said yes but also explained which type of noodle would go well with her dish. Our table was right under the air conditioner, so we were cold and asked our server if she could turn it down. Soon she went back to the back of house and asked manager to change the temperature. Before she brought our drinks, she asked us if we wanted to have some bread. They usually bring two different types of bread, white and brown colors, and I asked her to get only brown ones which were my favorite. We were really happy that we could custom our orders in the way we like even complimentary bread. All tables were full all the time, and our server got busy to take order from a big group of people. Then, another person, maybe a supervisor or host, brought our food instead. I knew she was not a server because she did not wear the uniform that every other servers wore. I thought they had good communication with team even if it was so busy. Until we got our food on the table, we did not feel we waited for long time because we were enjoying our bread again.

The customer turnover was really high and seems they were so busy, but their customer service was still great. We were checked on a couple time during our dining, given specific suggestion on the menu, and most importantly food was amazing. We got our cheesecakes for to go and she brought our bill. We realized that on the bill there were some numbers giving some ideas how much you could tip the server. Moreover, the bill holder had a kind of instruction about tipping system in the U.S. in many different languages. We laughed about it, but at the same time we thought it was really helpful for people from different countries which had tippin systems from the U.S. I remember that I always got nervous when I needed to tip someone because I had no idea how much would be appropriate because we do not tip anyone in Japan. We had a great time with great service and food at the restaurant. I feel like this way every time I walk away after eating at the Cheesecake Factory.