Damn good lunch… Or is it really?
That’s the question for many lunch providers. In this industry, you’ll often find ‘middlemen’ who have managed to sneak themselves in between the kitchen and the customers.

Let’s just call them lunch mediators - the lunch industry’s answer to Wolt or JustEat. Just like takeaway platforms take 20% of the revenue from restaurants, these lunch mediators take 20% of the lunch budget.

That’s money that can’t be spent on high-quality ingredients or extra care in the kitchen. And from the kitchen’s point of view, that’s a real problem. It gets even worse when the direct connection to the customers, the ones actually eating the food, disappears.

Sure, customers might send an email afterwards if something is wrong with the delivery. But without direct contact and the opportunity to fix mistakes on the spot, the kitchen often won’t hear from the customers again until they’ve already decided to switch suppliers.

Lunchbuddy is a Software-as-a-Service platform that restores direct contact between the kitchen and the people who eat the food. It reduces food waste, enables real-time feedback, supports individual choices, and makes planning, guest orders, administration, and delivery fast, simple, and smooth.

The solution is built in a way, to create value for all stakeholders; the end eater, the lunch responsible on the customer side, the kitchen staff, and the lunch company itself. Instead of a ‘single lunch responsible’ that each day has to find out, who from the staff is out for lunch? Who called in sick? Or who is on vacation? All the employees can pause the lunch, change their food preferences or order extra lunch for guests or clients.

The employees can provide feedback after having a meal, and hereby the lunch suppliers will receive the full overview of customers' satisfaction and how different menus are ranked, and when they were last served.

All changes, and choices, extra meals, and extra purchases, for example, fruits and beverages, are registered, and this information forms the base of purchasing lists, production plans, distribution lists, and invoicing basis. No more Excel in the kitchen! No more post-it's lying around, messages that are lost, no more mistakes because of poor administration - when thousands of ordered meals to 20 different locations, are about to be delivered no later than 11 o’clock.

The solution was in a ‘test phase’ with the lunch delivery and some of their clients. The feedback has been very positive.

On an average week, 55% will open the weekly ‘Friday E-mail’, where the menu for the next week is transparent. About a quarter of the ‘end eaters will turn back with at least one change to the coming week.

Until today, 4% of the food waste has improved due to correctly registered absence - and on average, there are 12% more sales for Lunchbuddy because extra meals for guests or clients are ordered on the platform.