The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - September 15, 2000

CAVEAT
Concerning my note last week about soliciting business from the political campaigns, Olive Chase warns, "As a long time caterer, just a note of caution about those fundraising events. Not all campaigns are solvent, not every candidate wins and not everyone pays their bills."

SEEN AND NOT HEARD?
My friend, Jim Fredregill <james.fredregill@cccs.cccoes.edu>, proprietor of La Renaissance, an upper midscale restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado posed a question:

What suggestions do you have for handling noisy annoying children? Many of our guests have hired a baby sitter and are planning a nice evening out only to be seated in a room where a noisy child is present. In addition after 26 years in the same restaurant we are experiencing a substantial growth in younger families. The older demographic has not been used to noisy children. My sense is that the largest number of loud children are in parties where the grandparents are the host. It seems that young families that bring their children are not a problem.

A note from the Doc:
Consistent with my belief that you should never waste time solving a problem you can eliminate, the obvious answer seems to be not to seat children in the same dining area as those parties without kids. This may be simplistic if you do not have separate dining areas, so it would be interesting to hear how others have dealt with this issue. Please respond directly to Jim with a copy to me (bill@restaurantdoctor.com) and I will compile the answers.

I COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER
Finally, an old note from one of my seminar attendees that should serve as a reminder that it is easier than we usually make it out to be.

"Last night was special to me. I feel like my partner and I had a breakthrough. We have been keeping our meetings positive and told/trained our shift leaders to do the same. In fact we study various parts of the seminar every Saturday in our shift leader meeting. We've been getting some positive responses but nothing great. Yesterday we then held a kitchen meeting which was long overdue. The kitchen personnel were nervous and rumors were flying of how this is going to be the biggest gripe session ever. To their surprise we conducted the meeting by asking them what they thought was wrong with the place, and just spend the whole time listening. It was really eye-opening.

Later on that evening two of our shift leaders were very angry at one of the waitresses. They told us that she's had an attitude since she walked in and that they have had it with her. This sparked Bill's knife fight story and although normally after a busy night I would have told the employee we do not accept this type of behavior etc...., I decided to take the approach you suggested, figuring it ought to be a real challenge with this girl.

She came in the office and immediately went on the defensive. "The shift leaders are always right. The only reason to come in the office is to be griped at. Just tell me how long I'll be suspended. Anything I ever say backfires..." We couldn't get a word in. Finally I told her that it was very obvious that she was frustrated and that this has made her night (and in fact the last couple of month) unhappy for her, and that we'd like to know what frustrated her. She opened up like a floodgate opening. The things she mentioned were minor -- but valid -- gripes.

I have known her for several years and we have had a lot of problems with her smart mouth, but last night she was so different, so sincere, that I really got excited about this new approach. I know this was a long-winded story, but you'd have to know this employee to realize why it was a breakthrough for us.

[ Home ] [ Top ] [ Email Restaurant Doctor ]