If you had an opportunity to sit down with three hundred of your customers, what questions would you ask them? This is not a rhetorical question, we can make this happen.

This year FPSA will conduct the third annual Purchase Intent Study. We engage Phil Keuhl and Westat Inc. to conduct phone surveys with over 300 leaders in the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. In addition to the traditional metrics we have covered in past surveys, i.e. planned capital expenditures, we are going to explore, drill down if you will, the topic of "food safety and sanitation", by industry sectors (bakery, beverage, confectionery, dairy, fruit and vegetable, meat, and pharmaceutical).

We know from previous surveys, seminars, and the media, that food safety and sanitation is among the top concerns for our customers. What we don’t know is what does that mean specifically to the various food, beverage, and pharmaceutical sectors represented by the membership of FPSA.

Thus we have instructed Westat and Phil Keuhl to add a series of questions related to the topic of food safety and sanitation to their interviews. So, which questions should we ask for each of the industry sectors you serve? That’s where you come in.

So, let’s return to our opening, "If you had an opportunity to sit down with three hundred of your customers, what questions would you ask them?" While we are primarily interested in your questions as they relate to the topic of food safety and sanitation, we do not want to preclude other burning questions that you may have. What we are looking for are common problems that may have joint solutions.

Send us your questions and we will begin compiling a list. Stop by the FPSA booth (E-8004) at the show later this month and we will share with you those questions that have been submitted. This may stimulate you to think of others.

Your questions will inform our researchers and, where possible, be introduced into the survey. You will receive the results of the survey several weeks before Annual Conference next year. At Conference, the Councils of FPSA will meet and dissect the results with particular emphasis on their respective sectors. Based on their findings and conclusions, they will then direct FPSA to new areas of research and further investigation.

So if you have said that nobody asks you for your opinion; this is your chance to make your voice, or more importantly your question, heard. Give it some thought and send us your questions today. E-mail your questions or comments to Jan Rogers, jrogers@fpsa.org

p.s. If you are interested in seeing the results of the 2006 Purchase Intent Study, click here and you will be taken to a PDF of that survey.