Managing Passion & Commerce

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Understanding the New Age Customer

It’s no rocket science information that today’s market place is rapidly going digital , thanks to our tech savvy smart & captivating service providers & a very rapidly growing “Net-equipped” mobile customer base.

The Expectations

The profile of the “traditional” customer is evolved & informed & no longer willing to take to queues, long waits, slow responses or below par services. They are well informed that a miss & they can & will change to a different service provider.

Well established companies realise that resting on laurels, certifications, awards & recognition can no longer drive & retain new business – Service providers today have to be on the move +1 on the expectations of their end customers. A few decades ago, they might have been assured of customer loyalty based on their reputation or because they were one of the few providers of a particular product or service. But economic liberalisation helped open up the market and competition flourished. In the decade thereafter, technology changed the market landscape yet again.

In the catering , food , nourishment segments the troubles for the service provider does not end in getting the end customer with a brilliant recipe or service keeping up to expectations but to deliver it day in & day out – every day , every instance without failures to keep a high score & develop any kind of now vanishing “customer loyalty”.

These building blocks of expectation drive through the users & become an inherent nature to evaluate services at the B2B or the Client base as well.

The discerning Captive Industrial Employee & His “Canteen”( erstwhile “Mess”)

Industrial Caterers, Service Providers serving the usual “thali” to their captive audiences move over, for this audience is now expecting culinary delights, varieties & much more especially when captive in their place of work & food heavily subsidised.

The Challenge

Anchor issues highlighting Cost of meal, budgetary concerns, Industrial Relations Issues, nutrition & most important rigid contractual requirements. Each industry All CEOs, General Managers , People Resources Heads need to re-think & analyse the need & importance of a dynamic culinary dispense in all factory café’s not only to align to statutory requirements but also to ensure that what was once the incubator of all IR ‘ issues can be modulated in to a space that resolves it. Easier said than done .. even the biggest & the mightiest have not been able to build in this thought as a policy & lifeline in the catering services specially the manufacturing industries.

The Solution

Not an easy one for that , is to find the right fit of service providers to the rethought – People welfare / nourishments / Food Motivation policies – this hand in glove combination needs to analyse the demographics & realign services & process to fit in to an ever growing need of evolution in the food services of the Indian Industrial scenario.

This note is targeted to trigger through process that in turn brings in required solutions, no one solution can fit all therefore think on a blank canvass every time you launch a RFQ for Food Services.

While I would continue to write my views , opinions on my blog to interact with me directly please feel free to write to me directly on nandi.amitava@gmail.com or comment in blog itself .