Determine the Total Health of a Foodservice Program

The total health of your dining program should not be based solely on your supplier's client financial statement. A dining program is a multifaceted program that you need to analyze from many different angles. In addition to financial information, you also need to understand the individual components of the program, including service, operations, and food.

Sample Service Considerations

How fast is the speed of service?
Are the lines moving?
Is the staff welcoming and responsive?
Is your order accurate?
How are the communications?
How effective is your signage?

Sample Operations Considerations

How well is the program functioning?
Are employees following food safety and sanitation guidelines?
Are managers looking at sustainability practices?
Are the supplies for self-service consistently stocked?

Sample Food Considerations

How is the appearance of the food?
How is the variety on the menu?
How is the quality of your ingredients?
How easy is it for customers to understand the product and nutritional information about the food being presented?

Create Methods for Consistent Measurement

Up-to-date knowledge of how your program is being executed is very important. A significant challenge in understanding your dining program comes when there isn’t a consistent measurement tool, and when the measurements themselves are not being performed on a regular basis.

By implementing monitoring criteria at each data point and having all the information in one place is the beginning of a great solution. When you have everything in one place, you can visualize it and create a trendline. You'll instantly be able to see what's happening with your program in each area. But to do that, you have to be meticulous. You have to record your data, create those historical trends, and make sure it's all in one place for analysis.

Fully Capitalize on Data by Setting Goals

The final challenge that we've observed with dining programs is that they tend to use data to make immediate decisions, but they tend not to use that same data in setting goals for continuous improvement of their program.

Envision Strategies' philosophy is to make strategic goals based on data. Use your data, those metrics, create goals, and turn those goals into an overall annual action plan. Then, measure those goals, track them, and continue to make progress and improve your dining program.

Monitor and measure will be your keys to success.

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