Alternative Evaluation: Since my idea is a B2B transaction, it is logical that both business’ top priority is price, and that is what I found in my interviews. Companies have a bottom line that is ultimately the most important part of conducting business. On the restaurants’ end, they will be more likely to sell their food to a nonprofit or directly to a food bank if the price is higher and they make more profit off of it. In the case of the nonprofit or food bank, the opposite is true. The lower the price of the food, the more likely they are to take advantage of that opportunity. However, quality is also important but is definitely a secondary factor. Another important factor is simply the restaurant’s willingness to add this component to their business operations. Some restaurants simply do not have the resources or time to dedicate to coordinating with another business even though they know it would provide an overall societal benefit.
How/where they buy: This transaction would be a lot simpler to do in person rather than online. There is an inevitable physical aspect to it since someone must actually put together the food, pick it up, and then drop it off at its final destination. However, there could be an online version to set up the payments and pickup times, but most of the interviewees agreed that handling this in person would be easier. They also said they would likely pay with a check or company credit card but would not set up a financing plan.
Post-purchase evaluation: The factors that help them determine whether the purchase was a good idea is whether they got their “money’s worth” and whether the quality of the food was up to par. The restaurants emphasized that if they made more of a profit from selling the food rather than throwing it away, it would be a good decision.
Report the findings: The information above summarizes most of what I learned in the interviews. The main takeaway was that price is the bottom line. If it is too expensive or simply not profitable, it will be completely out of the question.
Draw conclusions: They behave as I would have expected them to. Price is the most important factor, followed by quality. One interviewee did express that making a positive impact on the local community is also a valuable factor, but this does not hold true for every single restaurant.
Hey Beatriz,
ReplyDeleteI agree that for this specific business, in-person transactions would be the most beneficial. Normally, I am all for online businesses but not everything is going to work better through the use of the internet. Humans have a certain physical aspect that simply cannot be replaced by technology, which is something we have to keep in mind when it comes to customer satisfaction.
Hi Beatriz,
ReplyDeleteI think it is an interesting conversation to evaluate why a business or customer would value price over quality and vise versa. Regarding your final conclusion, I think that in today's society, more and more customers find it important to spend their money with companies that are socially conscious and are making a positive impact, and this in turn causes businesses to place more emphasis on their effect on the community.