Students at the University of Hawaii in Manoa noticed a significant change in their campus food. Their opinion changed drastically about the quality of the food. Not only the new restaurants were added on campus but a variety of different foods was also available for students to choose. According to paper help experts, most of the students rated their campus food five stars.
Here is a look at how within two years, Sodexo, the food service provider at campus, was able to bring that change.
Importance of food at College
College food is one of the factors that students consider while deciding about admission in college. It may seem foolish and unbelievable, but it is true. Parents, too, are concerned about college food.
A study by HOPE Lab in 2018 has shown that 36 percent of the students were food insecure in the last month in their educational institution.
So college food matters and there are different rankings of best college food to have a look at.
What Students Want
Sodexo, the food vendor at the University of Hawaii, had an idea to improve their quality and service as they scored 84 percent on the Qualtrics customer satisfaction index, which is about average score.
Mark Nakamoto, Regional Vice president of Sodexo, said to start the improvement process they went with the simple option of asking the student what they want.
Students wanted to have a Starbucks, more vegetarian food, simple methods for ordering, and easy payment. All these things were not impossible and Sodexo could deliver them. They understood the change as required by their customers and took decisions accordingly.
Secret Recipe for Best College Food
Sodexo took the challenge to revamp their service head-on and brought significant changes. Most of these were behind the scenes and the regular visitor may not have noticed them. Here is a brief look at different steps Sodexo has taken to improve customer satisfaction.
- Sodexo has changed its menus. It added more vegan and vegetarian options to serve the students better.
- Sodexo collaborated with its technology vendors to improve and add value to services. Integration with the Tapingo application enhanced its services as student can put online orders using their mobile. The development of Bite application added more value to its services. This smartphone application enabled students to track their calories with the intake of food.
- It has rolled out a famous fast-food restaurant, specialized in tacos, and also added a new stir fry restaurant, Stir Fresh, which serve local fare.
Results of the Overhaul
Sodexo would be happy to see a rise of 1 or 2 percent in their customer satisfaction score after this overhaul as per Regional VP, Nakamoto.
But you would not believe that the customer satisfaction score got a rise of 10 percent. It reached 94 percent from 84 percent this fall.
Sodexo celebrated this success with students by giving away cookies to say ‘thank you’. It did not ignore the work and effort put by their internal teams in this achievement as well.
UH is now in the top eight college campuses according to Qualtrics.
The change in UH is a case study for all businesses. You need to listen to what your customers have to say about you.
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