Diagnosis
Ordering doc lunches is eating up your time – and causing consternation

Prescription
Look to one of the many online options to help with the burden

Just a few short years ago, bringing in a lunch for a doctor was, well, something of a production. You had to find a restaurant that could meet your needs, place an order well in advance and make sure it was on time – not to mention pay for it, keep track of your receipts, and so on and so forth. Reps sounded a familiar refrain: I am not a caterer!

However, few detail men and women could deny that bringing in a lunch was not only a valuable tool, but it was something that was increasingly becoming a vital part of the day-to-day job. But who had time to set up lunch every day? Or, in some cases, twice a day?

Luckily, over the past couple of years, a crop of Internet-based companies have sprouted up, all of which can help reps take the hassle and headache out of finding a caterer. They help to provide a variety of options, and take care of all of the exacting details required for your lunches to go off without a hitch.

A growing menu

When we took a look at this topic last June, our focus was on these Web-based companies. They were the pioneers – the guys who saw the need, and helped carve out a niche. One year later, the industry continues to blossom. So much so, that it has attracted the attention of several big-name chains, both regional and national. All of this competition is good news for reps, who now have more choices. And we're going to walk you through some of the tastiest options.

A growing industry

There are plenty of Web-based caterers out there, but only a few that focus on the specific, and often demanding, needs of the pharmaceutical sales rep. One such company is the Charlottesville, VA-based Vmeals – about a quarter of its business is coming from pharma. Vmeals is essentially an aggregator – they have created a large network of restaurants whose catering services have been made available through a central Web site. The chief selling point of such a service is that it provides customers with a wide variety of food options. Typically, aggregators will also handle placing the order, billing and credit card processing, and even provide users with their own customer-sevice line – essentially, they handle everything but the preparation and delivery of food, which is left to the caterer itself.

As one of the first to enter the space, Vmeals' CEO, W. Carter Hoerr, is one of the few who has historical perspective on the industry. He said, "There is more rep adoption than there was a year ago. Three years ago, hardly any reps were going online to order doc offices lunches, but I think it's going to become standard. We're probably in year three of a 10-year evolution." Hoerr estimates that only 10% of details reps are ordering online. But he said that in the last year alone, Vmeals' sales to pharma reps have doubled. The spend is there, and so is the room for growth. One of the major obstacles is getting reps to make the digital leap. The ease and convenience, Hoerr said, go a long way toward creating loyal customers. "More and more reps are trying it," he said. "Once they get used to the new way, it's very rare that our customers go back to the old way."

As for the "new" way, much of big pharma is beginning to gravitate toward Web-based solutions to catered lunches. Last year, one big pharma company began a pilot program in which its sales reps used an online tool for ordering lunches. At the program's completion, they found that reps were saving as much as 30 minutes per event. If time is money, that translates into enormous savings at the corporate level. As the industry moves in this direction, we have, naturally, begun to see more and more chains trying to offer pharma-friendly packages. Some of these restaurants are linking up with aggregators, while others are going off on their own, going the direct route.

New-ish kids on the block

Au Bon Pain is a Boston-based restaurant chain that specializes in soups, sandwiches and salads. They have about 220 locations throughout much of the country. Three-quarters of those cater. What's new, however, is their focus on pharmaceutical reps, which began in earnest last November.

"We were fairly reactive to pharma, and to reps' needs," said Paul McGourty, Au Bon Pain's catering sales and marketing manager. "But recently we've become more proactive."

Along with a number of other mid- to large-sized chains, such as Boston Market and Panera Bread Company, Au Bon Pain represents a new breed of catering company focusing on pharma. Not only do these companies have name recognition and reliable menus, but they also have the luxury of large catering infrastructures already in place, ones that have only just turned their attention to pharma. "We've had great success in different trade channels," McGorty said. "We have the ability to execute a last-minute same-day order, which is where the reps will run into roadblocks with smaller mom and pop companies."

Checkout

No matter what type of caterer you choose, it's clear that this is just the start of a much larger trend. This type of service is still in its nascent stage, and we're seeing a lot of change in a relatively short amount of time. More chains are entering the picture, and the companies who have been there since the beginning are expanding their services and becoming more finely tuned to reps' need.

So if you're not going online to order your lunches, perhaps it's worth giving it a shot. You have nothing to lose but your time.