PrepDish

This is us at dinnertime.

Imagine. Your crazy-busy family assembled for dinner on a weekday evening.

Grilled coconut lime shrimp and chunky monkey ice cream for dessert. But you didn’t leave work early; the prep was already done days ago. Affordably. And in tune with your paleo-ish, gluten free, and keto dietary preferences.

That’s Prep Dish, an innovator of prep-ahead meal plans for discriminating diners.

“We mostly serve busy families, mostly moms,” says Melody Maki, customer service manager. “Striving to help families get back to the family dinner table with healthy food is the goal.”

It’s all about preparation.

In a time when work-life balance is anything but balanced, founder Allison Schaaf sought to keep sacred the dinner hour with healthy meals and less stress. A former chef, Allison knew there must be a cost-efficient way for families to gather and enjoy a really good meal — even when schedules appear insanely overbooked.

She devised a system and a menu to make it happen. Now, a working parent can review weekly meal plans, shop, and prep in less than 2.5 hours per week.

Why is 2.5 hours a breakthrough? Allison had studied that planning a week of meals, grocery shopping, along with prep and clean-up quickly can add up to much more than three hours. The consequence for American families? Take-out or processed foods.

Dialing down those steps were the keys to the kingdom. Or, the kitchen, in this case.

The custom feel of a subscription meal.

Being a subscription-based company, Prep Dish encounters the challenge of being all things to all foodies. Subscribers are different than one-timers, and in the culinary arts, you can imagine how long-timers may want to become a chef in the company’s kitchen.

“It makes the work a little more involved,” Melody says. “We have to aim for efficiency, but I want to see us maintain the human touch.”

As subscriptions grew, Melody has gotten a taste for how to maintain a level of access and flexibility when customers need help.

FuseDesk’s support system has been there, equipped with templates and automations that help the customer service representatives to put the best foot forward.

“I love how simple FuseDesk is to use. I like how when you start working with a customer, and they respond to an email, it comes back to you for that continuity of care.”

Just add FuseDesk and stir.

As the manager, Melody relies heavily upon FuseDesk’s reporting — and being able to see a dashboard rather than jockeying spreadsheets to figure out the big picture.

“I also like how easy it is to just check-in on the CSRs. Even if something is in someone else’s queue, we can hop in there and help a customer if a team member gets busy or is out of the office.”