PLEASANTVILLE, NJ─ Over 60 foodservice industry leaders participated in “Connecting the Resources Authenticity, Mass Customization and Revenue” an interactive symposium hosted recently by FIA, the Foodservice Institute of America. Conceived to share expertise of mass customization and the positive impact this business practice can have on a company’s bottom line, the symposium was held August 12, 2008 in partnership with RushUniversityMedicalCenter in Chicago, Illinois.
The highly successful program was given an excellent rating by the attendees, whose roles within the industry cover a broad spectrum, including fabricators, educators, operators, consultants, manufacturers, students, business owners and sales personnel.
The featured speaker was Steve Dragoo, President of Service Solutions Consulting, Inc. Steve discussed how today 85% of our business is comprised of services and experiences. He also shared real foodservice solutions and examples of ‘giving customers a unique experience’ and the value that brings to your bottom line and business.
“By looking at what’s only important to you, you will not be able to define what’s important to your customer,” said Steve Dragoo “As a result, you might have good customer satisfaction results but will be creating customer sacrifice.”
The panel, complied of experts such as Robert Bryson, Executive Vice President, Follett Corporation; Dr. Cihan Cobanoglu, Associate Professor of Hospitality Information Technology at the University of Delaware; Luke Palladino, Chef/Owner Bragozzo and Dan Pecoraro, a specialist in Gastronomation and Gastronometrics, shared their ideas on how they created a differentiated, value-added product or service and developed a game plan to connect all the ‘dots’ for success in their operation, business or service.
Rudy Miick of Miick & Associates moderated an interactive discussion exploring the idea of mass customization and value added experiences.
Ideas, new approaches to business and questions that FIA plans to address in upcoming sessions and action team work were expressed. Technology was defined as a linking component and how can the industry adapt more to provide customers ‘customization’, such as building equipment to your specification while maintaining positive bottom lines.
Source: FIA