The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - November 12, 1999

A FRIEND IN NEED
Marta Hildebrand <tbgae@aol.com> is looking for information on companies that would be interested in buying NCR systems. She replaced her NCR system with an Aloha system and no longer has use for the old system. She has heard that a company in Texas buys them cheap, comes and picks them up, then sells them to third world countries. There was a company named Bergen Associates out of Texas, but she has not had any luck getting in touch with them. If anyone has any information on this, please drop her a note.

CASH HANDLING REVISITED
My thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to Alkis Krassas' question about cash handling procedures. The responses are summarized at www.restaurantdoctor.com/ehc/cash.html.

IT WORKS!
I enclose two recent messages from Rene Greff <abrew@mail.ic.net> that need no real explanation. I hope they trigger an insight . . . or at least get you thinking.

Message #1
My husband and I attended the lecture you gave at the Michigan Restaurant Show in Novi and I must say it changed our lives on the spot.

We have been studying and practicing eastern philosophies for about two years now and have seen tremendous personal transformation. But we have been struggling to put these principles to work at work. (How can you not be attached to outcomes when you are beholden to investors to the tune of 3/4 of a million dollars? How can you not try to control other people's behavior when your job as manager is to control others' behavior?)

Needless to say, your management philosophy has been absolutely liberating and actually quite easy for us since we've been practicing many of the principles for two years already. We kicked off our new strategy by overhauling our shift meetings as recommended in your book. The good news for the week was that we (my husband and I) attended this seminar and are working toward improving the climate by listening to and serving our staff. We have gotten SO MANY great ideas from our staff in the first week alone (they are a problem-solving machine!) and the immediate boost in morale has been inspirational.

But the BEST part for us so far has been the amazing reduction in stress. Since it is not our job to have all of the answers we don't get stressed out when people point out problems, or voice criticisms or complaints. We have already targeted three friends who own businesses who need the book. Will you be doing any more seminars in the area? We would love to bring these non-restaurant entrepreneurs along because we really believe that this is the key to running any business.

I'll keep you posted as things progress. But the first thing I need is ten copies of the book [There's GOT to Be an Easier Way to Run a Business] for my management team and friends.

Message #2
Thanks for following up on my book request. They are now in my managers' hands and a couple of light bulbs have clicked on already.

I had a server show up 20 minutes late for the shift meeting yesterday. A month ago he would have been greeted with "Wes, you're late. It's unfair to me and your co-workers when you aren't here for the meeting. If you could at least call, I would really appreciate it."

Instead, he was greeted with "Hey Wes, what's up?" What I discovered is that his pregnant girlfriend (who knew?) was home from work sick that day because she is getting harassed by a supervisor and is thinking of quitting which has Wes concerned because they just bought a new condo. He appreciated my concern, apologized for being late, and felt so much better getting that off his chest, he was ready to focus on a busy lunch shift.

The same would not have been the case if he had gotten lectured the moment he walked in the door on top of all of the other stuff on his mind. My husband and I actually used to say and believe that our staff had no idea what kind of stress we were under owning this business. How much responsibility could they possibly have? They wait tables after all.

Seeing our staff as people with real lives and real problems has made such a difference in the way we feel about them that we don't have to try hard to treat them differently, it flows naturally out of the respect we have for them. And what a healthier view of the world that is.

Thank you!!

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