(a) List and explain the three types of customers in catering industry. (b) List two examples each of any two types listed in 3(a) above.

Answer Details

(a) Three types of customers in the catering industry

• Residential (captive) customers: people who are more or less obliged to use the catering service where they are, and who therefore have little or no choice of another outlet at that time.
• Non-residential (free or non-captive) customers: people who are free to choose whether or not to buy and where to buy, and who use a catering outlet by their own free will.
• Semi-captive customers: people who have some freedom of choice but are restricted by the situation they are in, so they must eventually make a choice within a limited range.

(b) Two examples each of any two types listed above

Residential (captive) customers:

• Patients in a hospital.
• Boarding-school students in a school dining hall (prisoners in a prison are also acceptable).

Semi-captive customers:

• Air travellers who must eat from the food offered on board an aircraft or at the airport.
• Passengers on a long-distance train or ship who choose from the outlets available to them.