Kingswood > Customer Care Policy

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Customer Care Policy

Kingswood Catering has become increasingly customer focused. We have four categories of customer. Our research has shown that each has different needs and priorities. The aim of our customer care policy is to meet each set of needs.

Secondary School Pupils

Secondary school pupils require:

Low price meals. You consider that low cost is more important than good value for money
Good quality food, preferably with a branded name
Convenience. Meals must be easy to buy – you like cafeteria service but don’t like having to calculate the cost of your meal. Meals must also be convenient to eat – knives and forks are to be avoided wherever possible.
Credibility – meals must compare well with high street outlets
Speed – queues must be avoided wherever possible.
A quality environment – the dining rooms must reflect their more mature expectations.
Healthy eating.
A service that appeals to all your friends – even if they like school meals, you won’t use it if your friends don’t.
To be treated as customers.

We have:

Introduced fixed price meal deals.
Launched the ‘Idols’ concept with our themed restaurants.
Increased the number of branded foods being used and improved the quality of presentation and labelling.
Begun meeting regularly with student councils and have introduced a formal system of response and follow up.
Clearly defined the standard of service that students can expect and informed them of the action to take if they feel that this is not received.
Embarked upon a program of customer care courses for all staff.
Introduced theme days and begun offering ‘healthy’ products at discounted prices.
For those pupils not wishing to queue at lunch time, we have introduced, where schools allow, fast track break time services, for the collection of cold sandwiches and other items.
Speeded up the payment process by introducing cashless operating systems.
Introduced regular surveys among secondary school pupils to ensure that the service continues to meet the required standard.

Primary School Children

Primary school pupils require:

Appealing, good quality food
Fun!

We have:

Involved pupils when selecting the dishes to be included in our menu cycles.
Moved away from the old ‘School Meals’ image by introducing bright, user-friendly staff uniforms.
Improved the quality of service and dining equipment.
Introduced our Kd's 'A healthy way of life' Campaign.
Introduced daily food facts and puzzles.
Increased the number of theme days and theme packs available to schools.
Embarked upon a program of customer care courses for all staff.

Our Catering Managers attend student councils in secondary and meet with pupils in primary schools. This allows pupils to express their views and provides us with a mechanism for ensuring that we are steering the service in the right direction. Pupils enjoy seeing evidence that their views have been taken into account.

Parents and Guardians

Parents and guardians require:

That meals are affordable and represent good value for money.
That school meals contribute to a healthy diet.
Freedom from having to make arrangements for the supervision of your child over lunchtime.
That the meals are attractive to children and will encourage them to be more adventurous in their diet.

We have:

Offered every child a free lunch on thier first day when they start school for the first time.
Issued an introductory sheet to parents of children starting school for the first time.
Continued to exceed national nutritional requirements
Established the web site!
Established links with School Nutrition Action Groups with a view to encouraging pupils to strive for balance in their diet.
Maintained prices which are among the lowest in the country.
Introduced numerous initiatives to make taking a school meal more attractive to children.
Asked schools to display our service standards in the foyer area. These clearly define the level of service that can be expected and advise of the action that parents and guardians can take when this is not met.

Schools and Governors

Schools and governors require:

That the service helps improve each child’s capacity to learn by providing and encouraging children to take, a healthy nutritious meal.
That the service is efficient, effective and causes little disruption to the running of the school.
That school meals help schools manage pupils over the lunch period. This can be achieved by providing an attractive service that the majority of pupils will want to use.
That the service is flexible enough to meet the changing needs of the school.
That the catering service is seen as an asset to the school.
That the service is consistent and reliable.

We have:

Taken a wide range of actions in order to make the service more appealing to pupils.
Used the increased take up of meals to generate additional investment and improve facilities.
Increased the number of site visits by area catering managers .
Established flexible working arrangements as an integral part of our service level agreements with individual schools.
Created an open dialogue with schools to ensure that their service operates as efficiently as possible.
Introduced an annual customer satisfaction survey.