SYSCO customer services

Sysco, based in Houston, Texas, is the largest food marketing and distribution company in North America. SYSCO sells annually over 30 billion of food, related products, and services to over 400,000 customers through 157 separate profit centers which employ in total 46,000 employees. The magnitude of SYSCO s operations is mind-boggling. It sells over 300,000 products to over 400,000 customers and on a daily basis delivers almost 4 million cases of food and related foodservice products to 360,000 customers, 99% on-time and defect-free. Over one-half of SYSCO s 46,000 employees are hourly warehouse and delivery people, and it employs 12,000 sales and business development employees. 

The CARES program has evolved into its second phase, /CARE. Through this initiative, marketing associates are trained to be more effective business consultants for their customers by understanding a foodservice operation s profitability model, thus enabling them to analyze and develop menus, control inventories, and provide food safety training. Through SYSCO s website, customers are able to access a variety of third-party services that can help them drive and... 

Not only does entrepreneurship mean financial ownership but SYSCO employees are responsible for servicing their customers -they have ownership of and autonomy with respect to the customer. 

Its emphasis on metrics is evidenced by the fact that SYSCO s top ten executive officers meet every Wednesday afternoon and review several hundred metrics for every one of the 157 operating units prior week s performance. SYSCO measures everything related to the receipt, movement, and delivery of products and services to its customers, to new business development, and to every expense and capital expenditure. It measures its return on equity on a weekly basis. 

The building of the SUS system gave SYSCO the ability to mine data on customers and use that data to provide better service, while using its resources more efficiently. With the new data that were available, it was able to stratify its customer base and determine which customers were the most profitable. 

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