Value-Added Services Provided to Healthcare Foodservice Operations

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Foodservice distributors have introduced a variety of value-added services to enhance their competitiveness in the healthcare market. Value-added services as defined for this study are unique services which extend the opportunity to the foodservice distributor to provide a variety of offerings which will develop a partnership with the customer. The availability and importance of selected value-added services provided to the healthcare foodservice market were determined. Examples of value-added services currently available to healthcare foodservice operations include direct mainframe tie-ins, product cutting, rebate tracking, product specialists, and volume incentives. A validated questionnaire was mailed to a national sample of 473 healthcare foodservice administrators and 818 distributors' divisional offices. A total of 231 and 97 foodservice administrators and distributors, respectively responded to the survey. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, Chi Square, and Mann Whitney U were used for data analyses. Foodservice administrators and distributors rated the nutritional analysis, optimum window for regular deliveries, and volume incentives as the most important value-added services available to the healthcare market. Mean importance rankings were significantly different between the two groups. Foodservice respondents rated valued-added services that could result in cost savings to the operation or provide a competitive edge as most important. Most foodservice respondents were not aware of the availability of many of the value-added services. The majority of the foodservice respondents indicated that they were not willing to pay for value-added services. At least 35% of the respondents noted that they would be willing to pay for custom computerization and software, sanitation certification, and operational consulting. These results indicated a need for distributors to more effectively market their value-added services and for foodservice directors to investigate the cost effectiveness of obtaining additional value-added services currently available and to communicate the types of services desired from distributors.