Costumer Interviews No. 1

This week, I had to come up with an opportunity and interview potential customers on this opportunity. The opportunity I came up with was "On Campus Dining". I always was concerned about this topic because last year I had a meal plan and I had difficulty finding a place to go eat, that was cheap and healthy. The problem of on campus dining is that it is costly, its hours are sometimes not convenient for students, offers limited food options (eg. not many vegan or vegetarian options)  and most of the times the food options are not healthy. People that have this problem are students that live and/or eat on campus. These students tend to eat only at one or two places on campus due to the lack of food diversity, they choose off campus dining places or cook for themselves. I went to interview students close to dining areas on campus in order to figure out what can be done to make dining halls more accessible and more appealing to students.

After interviewing 5 people that gave me some insight about their on campus dining experience, I realized that we were all on the same page and agreed that something has to be done about it. The opportunity still exists. What surprised me was that even students that live off campus and don't have much of an experience from eating on-campus, still have their own opinion to talk about it. That means that the problem of on campus dining is well-known, so people either ignore it or do something about it, like find alternative food options. My costumers had a basic idea on what has to be changed necessarily, but they didn't know how exactly. That's my job, I think.

I was certainly nervous about interviewing students but I was prepared  for what I was about to ask them.  I made sure of interviewing people with different experiences, like students that live on-campus/off-campus, had a meal plan before/never had a meal plan before, etc. That's why every interview took a different direction. My first attempt was not the best, as expected, so I made another plan and corrected the mistakes I though I made.

Question included but were not limited to:
"Do you live on campus or off campus?" If you live on campus, do you live close to dining halls?
"Do you often eat on campus?"If yes, where?
"Do you have a meal plan?"
"Are you satisfied with the quality of food/service/working hours/cost of on campus dining?"and "Why"
"Do you have any recommendations on how to improve gator dining?"