In a recent panel discussion at The NAMA Show, industry experts shared their insights on how they keep up with evolving trends. Leaders like Patrick Sheehan, President of Sheehan Brothers Vending, Shane Burley, VP of Technology, Canteen Canada, and Bradlee Whitson, VP of Operations, Sodexo InReach, joined the conversation.
The session provided valuable insights for organizations seeking to successfully transform their business. What’s important to remember when evolving, as Bradlee Whitson emphasized, is that we’re in the service industry. He stated, “Where we stand out and where we can differentiate ourselves is the service we’re driving. And so, I think it’s important to leverage the technologies to be able to drive that high level of service and then make sure we’re maintaining that level of service.”
Here are some key takeaways that can give you strategic ideas of how to use technology to meet ever-changing consumer and economic demands.
Change is essential
The experts all agreed that making changes, or modernizing, is essential to deal with issues like high costs, labor shortages, and rising prices. Patrick Sheehan talked about how his company didn’t just give up when things got tough. Instead, they changed how they hired people. He said, “We just took a hard look in the mirror, and we didn’t throw our hands up and say, you know, this is out of our control, we changed all of our hiring functions as a company.” These changes will help the company now and in the future.
Bradlee Whitson mentioned technology is important to making jobs simpler so that employees are happier and stay longer. He believes that if jobs are easier to understand, employees will stick around.
Technology plays a big role
The conversation on technology homed in on its pivotal function in elevating customer and employee experiences. Shane Burley shared an out-of-the-box approach with remote price-changing technology, labeling it a “game changer” in safeguarding business operations from cost hikes. This is a huge differentiator for operators of all sizes. Shane reiterated the need for agility in business strategies, “Being able to change prices, to adapt to the rising costs instantly means that we protect our margins right away.”
Patrick Sheehan emphasized the dual advantages of new technologies. “Is it going to improve the customer experience and is it going to improve the employee experience? And if the answer to that is yes, then we explore it and keep going down the road of demoing it and trying it out.” This perspective underscores the necessity of technology that effectively serves both audiences.
Evaluating return on investment and expectations
Implementing cutting-edge technology demands an understanding of return on investment (ROI). The roundtable participants agreed on the significance of innovation, alongside the agility to pivot when expectations aren’t met. Bradlee Whitson, with notable wisdom, encapsulated the need to maintain a laser focus on service excellence, “The service we’re driving is our standout, our differentiator.”
In other words, if the technology isn’t upgrading the customer or employee experience, operators need to learn how to, as Patrick said, “cut bait early.” If expectations aren’t being met, it doesn’t matter how much potential a technology has. Patrick elaborated, “if you’re not quite ready or the technology isn’t quite ready…you’ve just disengaged a group of people and they’re less apt to want to change and adapt new technology.”
On the flip side, there is a balance that must be struck. It’s easy to see new technological improvements as unnecessary to run day-to-day operations. But businesses must give tech investments time and, often, continued effort and investment. Bradlee added, “some of the ways I’ve seen technology fail is because we, as operators, allow the data to take hold of us and we don’t take the time to roll it out properly or continue to focus on it in the ways that we need to run it to get the savings.” He advised looking in the mirror and questioning if the operation has given new technology a chance before “cutting bait early.”
Getting employees involved with new technology
One key point made was the importance of involving employees in using new technology. This helps make the change smoother and makes sure that employees are happy and accepting of the potential new way to get the job done. “No one likes change, right? We really get our employees involved in the entire process — day one presentation through implementation. And by the time you do that they’re the ones thinking they’re driving these things and implementing these changes, because they really are,” said Sheehan. The key is to help your employees become champions of the technology.
Bradlee Whitson advised having a clear vision of where the company wants to go and then building technologies and platforms that support that vision, “What do you want to be, what do you want your core competencies to be, what do you want the customer’s vending experience to be? And then it’s about building, building your technologies, building your platform, making those choices to have systems that can support where you want to be as an operation.”
The advice from the NAMA roundtable is very valuable for any business looking to update its operations in today’s fast-changing market. Investing wisely in technology can really pay off later. Businesses need to be flexible, include their employees in changes, and always consider the return on investment for new technologies. Moving forward, these strategies will be key in shaping how operators evolve their businesses.
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