Customer expectations for convenience services: Can you deliver?

Technology has created many ways to offer better customer service for convenience services, whether we're talking about vending, coffee service, micro markets or pantry service.

Great news, no doubt, but as opportunities to offer better quality service rise, so do customer expectations. So how does a convenience services operator ensure they are meeting if not exceeding customer expectations in today's hypercompetitive marketplace?

A panel of veterans who have tackled this challenge shared their insights during a panel session at the recent Self-Service Innovation Summit at Loews Coral Gables in Miami.

Monitor customer feedback

To meet customer expectations, an operator must monitor customers' experience consistently and engage with both clients (the location decision makers) and end users (the consumers).

Panelists' comments indicated operators are using a variety of tools to measure customer feedback when the question was put to them by moderator Ryan McWhirter, vice president of product strategy at 365 Retail Markets Inc.

Canteen North America, a nationwide convenience services company and a division of Compass Group USA , rates its customer service for every client at least quarterly, said panelist Jeremy Cauble, the company's director of strategic innovation. The company has a customer service team, and these scores are called "connect" scores.

Five Star Food Service Inc., a Canteen franchisee based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, uses the same tools Cauble mentioned — including a dedicated customer service team — but also sends out an annual customer survey, said panelist Danielle Russell, the company's senior director of brand marketing. The company offers incentives to its clients to complete these surveys, which typically take five minutes.

The survey asks the client to rate the company's performance from one to five in several key areas. Any "3" or lower rating gets flagged for the customer service team's investigation.

Panelist Drew Munro, co-founder and CEO, UpMeals, a Vancouver, Canada operator, has added a customer facing Internet portal where a customer can log in any time and see what's moving in the machines. This is beyond meeting and reviewing reports with the customer.

If it's a location with multiple machines, they can see how the different machines' activities compare.

"It created sort of a collaborative dynamic where suddenly we were getting emails saying, 'you know what, I want to improve the performance of this machine so it does what this other one does.' So, it actually created this dynamic where we were kind of working together, versus one you're dreading, like, 'here is how this is going.'…now we can see and fix this in real time together," Munro said.

"Get the feedback any way the customer wants to give it to you," said panelist Ray Friedrich, CEO of East Street Business Advisors and a veteran Detroit area convenience services operator. This can include using QR codes, texts or emails.

"Most importantly, once you do get the feedback, you have to analyze and act upon it," Friedrich said, adding that a lot of companies fail to act on feedback they ask for.

Is there such a thing as too much customer communication? Canteen's Cauble acknowledged that some convenience services operators are concerned they are overcommunicating, but said, "They (customers) will tell you if they're overcommunicating."

Don't forget the end user

And where Canteen's "connect" scores are for its clients, the location decision makers, Canteen also gleans feedback from the end users at the accounts.

"It's really about communicating to the end customer as well," Cauble said. "We don't know always how they're interacting with us."

The company uses customer feedback tools from its micro market provider, 365 Retail Markets, to get feedback from end users via the micro market kiosks, customers' mobile phones or QR codes installed in the locations.

"They (end users) can scan a QR code," Cauble said. "They can submit an issue, (and) they can share thoughts."

But try as you may, getting customer feedback from end users isn't as easy as simply asking them what they want, Munro said. It's not unusual for a customer to say they want fresh salads when in reality they purchase salty snacks or candy.

"Then there's feedback that they're giving you with their purchases," Munro said.

What they ask for versus what they buy

Friedrich agreed, noting there are times when certain products that a customer wants to see do not sell well.

This dichotomy between what consumers say they want and what they actually purchase requires the operator to strike a sometimes-difficult balance.

The way to meet this challenge is to first find out what products the customers want, provide them those products and monitor how well they sell. The operator can then show the sales results to the customer and arrange the menu accordingly.

What are the service expectations?

Another important aspect of meeting customer expectations is to discuss their expectations about the service at the beginning of the relationship, the panelists agreed.

"Your first action should be to listen," Cauble said. "Get genuine feedback from the client, Yes, you're going to have to talk about pricing at some point. Yes, you're going to have to talk about the product mix. But you need to start with them, because unless they're willing to have the conversation with you and hear where the sticking points are, you're not going to be able to get to the point where you need to have a conversation around pricing."

If you don't discuss up front what will be done in the case of theft from the machine, for example, the customer will say it's not their problem. By discussing up front how this problem will be addressed, the customer will not object to it.

"It's very important to not have surprises," Friedrich said.

"It's impossible to be all things to all people," Munro pointed out, acknowledging that his own service is not a fit for every customer.

Pricing: the ongoing challenge

Pricing is always an issue that needs to be discussed, the panelists agreed.

Russell said her company gives customers information about retail prices in their locale and compares them to what her company charges.

Friedrich said it can be helpful to let a client know ahead of time about a price increase so it's less of a shock when it comes.

The customer privacy challenge

The need to protect customer data privacy is another area where operators need to be proactive in dealing with customers.

Cauble said cybersecurity is the most important thing the industry should be focusing on. He said the customer knows they can use their thumb or their face to unlock their iPhone and they want to be able to use these conveniences in the break room.

Fortunately, some unattended equipment technology is designed to protect consumer data. For example, some micro market kiosks that allow customers to pay using fingerprint readers require user consent before having their fingerprint copied.

"They choose to give us information to help us better serve them, but they can also choose to have that information forgotten," Cauble said. "We just make sure we have those guardrails in place."

"We get surprising questions about security and personal information from the smallest of clients," Cauble said. "We had a foodservice production company asking us about ADA compliance and about screen resolution on our phones."

"A lot of corporations are making sure you're off their networks," Friedrich said. "But more importantly you have to prove that you're going to protect the employees' data and not have a breach."

"It's really about communicating what you've done proactively to protect your customers and protect their information," Munro said. The main concerns are financial information and personal information.

Hone the employees

Since employees are the face of a convenience services company, the panelists agreed that it's important to have incentives for them.

Munro said key performance indicators should be established for all employees that interact with customers. In the case of a linen company he is familiar with, 30% to 40% of service personnels' take-home pay is based on how satisfied their customers are.

Friedrich said technology now makes it possible to tie employee compensation to performance and sales. But sometimes driving speed or the condition of the micro market after it's been serviced get sacrificed in the quest for efficiency.

One operator he works with has GPS on all vehicles to monitor their drivers' speed.

"They knew when a driver was in a customer's parking lot," Friedrich said. "They wouldn't tell the driver this, but they would go (put) on the cameras in the market, look at the condition of the market prior to their service and then watch them service the market and what it looks like afterwards."

While today's convenience services are largely unattended services, the panelists agreed personal interaction remains an important part of the business.

"Having a very strong relationship with the HR people at the (client) company is very helpful because some people prefer that human interaction because we are unattended," Friedrich said.