Food Service Management by Bill Wentz

Food Service Management by Bill Wentz

Author:Bill Wentz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Publishing
Published: 2013-04-11T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter 11

Know Your Customers

(How to develop and nurture the most important component of your business.)

There are many reasons put forth as to what determines the lack of growth or the ultimate failure of a food service business. Insufficient sales, poor management, location, high rents, and under capitalization are a few of the valid causes that can contribute to the final outcome. These are the usual and the rational reasons, but sometimes they do not reveal the whole story. There are intangibles at work in every business, often unnoticed, and food service operations have more than their fair share. When the competition is keen and companies vie with each other for a better share in the marketplace, it is essential to have an edge. If you are seeking an advantage, one of the most important factors in successfully securing and keeping business is to develop a variety of personal relationships with customers. Some may consider this unnecessary, believing that providing good food and good service is sufficient. Others who are interested in developing better customer relations would like to try, but for one reason or another, something else diverts and consumes their time and attention. Perhaps it is a matter of choosing priorities. Truly appreciating the importance of customer relations and how it affects business can motivate a manager to find the time.

For a number of years, I had been associated with a major food service management company that was in the business of contracting with institutions to operate their food services. One of our company’s best university food service contracts was lost to a competitor after several years of what we had thought was a good relationship. As was the practice at the time, one of our top executives went to visit the president of the institution after the cancellation of our contract to inquire of the unforeseen reason for our termination. This loss caught us all by surprise, for we had received little criticism about the food or the service over time. What we were told at the “post-mortem” was also a surprise, and for us it turned out to be a wake-up call.

The reason for their change was not due to food quality, service, or price, but something that had bothered them for some time. It was simply that they seldom saw or had any kind of a relationship with our local manager. The food service was good, there was little to complain about, but the manager always seemed to be in his office and obviously busy at work. Nothing would have changed except our competitor came along with a better idea. It brought along a manager candidate who was personable and expressed a strong desire to work closely with the students and the staff to improve the food service program. The personal energy the manager displayed and his enthusiasm about special events and innovations convinced our client that it was time for a change.

We were simply outsold, and it had nothing to do with price. It meant



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