Background
Catering is delivered by a committed in-house team, achieving a high standard of provision. However, the College’s management team was keenly aware that the dining room experience for pupils and staff could be improved. The Norwood Hall dining space is significant in terms of both footprint and height, but it can be intimidating particularly for the younger students. Whilst service flows are efficient due to its generous mirrored design, countering is dated, and the bench style of seating adds to its institutional feel.
Brief
The time had come to re-design the space to provide a more contemporary and welcoming dining experience. However, the College did not wish to second-guess what needs to happen. This was a once in a generation opportunity and the views of all stakeholders were considered vital, not least those of pupils whose early lives are shaped by their College experience. Litmus was therefore asked to conduct a Consumer Insight programme to capture these views to determine what matters most to the community so that the development has the best chance of transforming the space to meet the needs of the majority.
Approach
We conducted pupil focus group sessions, during which all aspects of the catering service were discussed, but with a focus on what mattered most to them about catering and how they would like to see the services develop around these issues. We wrote statements of importance on a flip chart during each session, and then pupils ranked how important each issue was to them as individuals.
We also conducted interviews with key staff and potential benefactors for the refurbishment. From these findings we created survey questions in a digital format that all pupils and staff had the chance to respond to. The survey generated satisfaction gaps between customer expectations and actual experience. It also provided specific data on aspects of design that needed to be considered as part of the future refurbishment.
Outcomes
Two-thirds of pupils and a third of staff responded to the survey, with even representation across different College demographics. This gave us confidence that the views expressed were truly representative of opinions. “Quick wins” have been actioned and the foundations laid for the next stage of the design process.
