Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No.1

Segment of Choice: Catering/Delivery Orders

How I intuited this segment: In the category of catering/delivery (especially catering), orders tend to be of large volume and value. As such, it is important to restaurants that they build a positive, lasting relationship with their customers in order to retain business in the future (Attitudes, Interests, Motivations). Money isn’t just made by one sale- it’s the repeat sales that are desired and sought out- think of the 80/20 rule. My product allows for those in the specified segment to pursue their goals in this regard.

Interview #1: Potbelly Regional Catering Manager (27F)

                I started my interview by asking her about her experience with catering and some of the struggles she commonly faces. Without skipping a beat, the first thing that she said was the most optimal packaging of foods when they do high volume catering for big customers (conferences, events, business meetings, etc.). Often times, they will need to have the food sitting out for an hour or two before the clients will be eating it, so they need to have a way to keep It cold/hot in the meantime. There is no one answer to this yet, as it depends based on location, size, and room available. For example, they can’t have ice boxes for cold sandwiches if there isn’t enough space, if they need to package in meals, etc.

                Thus, most of her need awareness occurs during the planning phase of her catering jobs/orders. She and her team have to customize each order and present a proposal to the customer, often within a short time period. This puts a lot of stress on their resources, especially during peak times. Her and her team have compiled different solutions, but there are still some situations they haven’t perfected. She says that having better bags like the ones I’m offering would be a godsend to have in their arsenal and would be well used both in new and existing plans for situations.

                When she does search for new solutions, she typically searches for “food cooling” or “food heating” on google. This helps her to find new solutions or products that may be out there. She often looks at restaurant supply wholesalers as well.

Interview #2: Chipotle General Manager (31M)

                I started my interview the same as before by asking him about his experience as a GM at Chipotle and some of the issues he faces on a day to day and or recurring basis. One of the things he mentioned that grabbed my attention the most was the number of customers he had who complained about their burrito bowls/burritos (in particular) leaking from their bags by the time they got there to pick up their food after having ordered ahead. In addition, the food was often times lukewarm or even cold, causing a hassle in the line of production, stalling new orders because old ones had to be remade or warmed up again. This is something which his employees have addressed with him, and they’ve been asking him to help find a solution. They always get flooded around lunch time, especially with online order-ahead, and they can’t keep up with it and the added stress of customers complaining and nagging due to their food being cold and leaky

                He’s been trying to research new solutions, but corporate hasn’t suggested anything since there’s no franchise policy or advice on how to go about this. When he looks up solutions on Google, he searches “take out bags” or “insulated take out bags”. He hasn’t found any that are practical, cost effective, or relevant to his application. When I told him about my product that I was developing, he perked up a lot of interest and began to ask me more about it. He said that he would love to hear more about it as it develops, and that this may be something he would consider buying for the application of pickup orders at a minimum.

Interview #3: Bolay Assistant Manager (29F)

                I started my interview the same as always by asking her about her experience at Bolay and about what complaints she commonly receives from customers, particularly those eating out or getting food from apps like Uber Eats. She said that, by far, the biggest complaint from customers has been how warm/cold the food is by the time that it gets to them. They often times get calls from angry customers complaining about how their food was cold by the time it got to them, demanding a refund. In most situations, they end up giving a refund in order to try and preserve relations with their customers, especially since they are a more up and coming restaurant with less of a national name. This ends up taking a toll on profits, and it’s something that the GM and owners are not fond of at all. They’ve been working together in their biweekly meetings to try and address this issue, but to no avail thus far.

                They’ve been doing the standard fare of google searches with terms like “insulated carry out bags” and “warm food bags”, but similar to my Chipotle interview, haven’t found anything that fits their needs and liking. They are willing to spend some money on a good, quality product for this application, but only if it’s worthwhile and they feel it will solve their problem in a swift and complete manner. When I presented my product to her, she listened very attentively and said that she could really use something like that. She too told me she wants to be kept in the loop as to its development and that she is seriously considering using it.

Summary:

From my interviews, one thing that I learned is that companies who have this need are also very interested in the flexibility of the product (how well it fits into their existing product ecosystem, and how it allows them to operate). This could be something as small as a variety of bag sizes to something as big as custom order sizes or dimensions or applications to fit their needs (especially in the instance of catering).

                One thing that I realized about this segment is that they are less worried about the extra cost due to the bags and more worried about their reputations. They all do high volume, so a little bit of added cost isn’t much of a concern anyways. At the end of the day, repeat sales are what they are looking for. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day. This gave me a valuable piece of insight- perhaps I need to be less focused on low cost and more focused on solving the problem at hand.

                In addition, they are very aware of their needs and this awareness occurs on an almost daily basis. In addition, they tend to use Google/the internet as a means of information search- this suggest that ecommerce will be of great benefit to me come time to launch the product.