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By Douglas Higgons
As a university venue manager, proper attention to your concessions and
catering departments will have a huge impact on your bottom line. This is
the case even if the financial returns don’t fall directly to your
facility’s balance sheet. High-quality food and beverage operations will
keep your guests coming back for more.
The on-campus provider, whose primary business may not be sports and
entertainment concessions, often runs concessions and catering operations at
collegiate venues. Other facilities are fortunate to have an experienced,
third-party concession company, while others provide these services
in-house. Whether you have a third-party provider or an in-house operation,
food services often report to other campus departments, ranging from
auxiliary/business services to the athletic department.
Either way, smart facility managers will make the food and beverage
department part of their business. Most building managers spend time on
great customer service programs but often forget that the
concessions/catering experience is just as important as your front-of-line
event services staff.
Offering Quality Products
Pricing and quality go hand in hand: When perceived quality is high,
concessions prices can correspond accordingly. For the most part, your
guests are accustomed to paying a decent price for food and beverage at
entertainment events; the key is offering quality products. Here are some
steps to take to ensure your facility offers quality food and beverage.
Survey catering clients. If possible,
include a survey with every catering invoice sent out. Even if you’re not
responsible for billing, ask your accounts receivable department to include
the survey. Ask clients about food quality, service and value.
Survey fans during events. One of the
advantages to working on a college campus is the ability to have classes
perform surveys at your events. Whether it’s your sports management
department or the statistics department, it’s easy to find a class willing
to perform surveys and analyze the results at no cost to you. The survey
should be all-encompassing, covering every aspect of your operation. Be sure
to include questions about the concessions experience.
It’s best to do these surveys at halftime or intermission of events, after
the guest has had a chance to sample the concessions. Similar to the
catering survey, be sure to ask about quality, service, wait time and value.
Enact a “secret shopper” plan. One of
the best ways to get an idea of what’s going on at your facility is a secret
shopper program. In a typical program, you ask members of your community to
attend various events and rate their overall experience. Typically you
provide shoppers with tickets to events and ask them to spend money at your
concession stand during their visit. Afterwards, shoppers fill out fairly
lengthy surveys to give you insight on your operation, and you reimburse
them for any out-of-pocket expenses (concessions, parking, etc). Be sure
that your staff is aware of your secret-shopper program to keep them on
their toes.
Walk the concourse. Make yourself a
visible, active part of your events. The best time to monitor your
concessions operations is during intermissions and halftimes. Spend time
around the stands listening to guests’ comments about the food itself, wait
times and prices. If you notice small changes that can be made on the night
of the event, suggest them to your concessions manager. Any larger changes
should be suggested at a later meeting.
Time your lines. Time your concession
lines to find out if guests can easily get something to eat, use the
restroom and get back to their seat during a typical intermission. This
should be the goal.
Look, smell and taste. While walking the
concourse, put yourself in the mindset of the guest. What is your perception
of the food and beverage operation? How do the stands and menus look from
the outside? How does everything smell? Will the setup in the stands
themselves lead to impulse buys?
Most importantly, taste the product. Don’t ask the food and beverage manager
to bring it to your office. Go to the concession stand and make sure you’re
sampling the same food being served to your guests.
Using the Information
Now that you have information about what your guests think of your food and
beverage operations, what do you do with it? For those who have concessions
and catering reporting directly to the facility, set up a meeting with your
food and beverage manager and develop the outline of steps to improve the
operation.
If the concessions operation reports elsewhere on campus or is run by an
outside company, get all of the appropriate parties together to share the
results of your surveys, shopper programs and personal evaluations.
Be sure all parties leave their egos at the door, and assure everyone that
your only interest is in providing the best possible experience for the
guests.
If concessions wait times are a problem, go through the staffing and
training plans and make sure the operation is an efficient one. Changes may
need to be made to your staffing plan if you’re having a large problem with
turnover or non-profit groups. Analyze your points of sale and determine
where additional points can be added. This may take some capital money but
should pay for itself over time.
If price is a perceived problem, survey other local venues to determine
where your facility falls within the local price structure. Set your prices
within the local market and then focus on quality. As venue managers, it
should be our business to understand the back-of-house operations of your
food and beverage providers.
Learn how the product is prepared and find out if any short cuts are being
taken that sacrifice quality. “Fresh” is the buzzword in the industry.
Typically, fresh products cooked to proper specifications equal quality.
Another way to enhance the perceived value and quality of your operations is
to serve branded products. Brands with high quality names will affect the
guests’ overall perception of the concessions and facility.
Offering quality food and beverage choices served in an efficient manner
will lead to a direct bottom line benefit to the university, if not the
facility itself. More importantly, a well-run food and beverage operation
will improve the overall fan experience, making it easier to bring them back
again and again.
Douglas Higgons is general
manager of the Global Spectrum/Constant Center at Old Dominion University in
Norfolk, Va. |
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