ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - October 12, 2001

HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY
In the past few weeks, I have again been stressing that one of the first things you need to do, particularly if times are getting tough, is to get your staff informed and involved. Let me share an e-mail I received from a subscriber recently. His note (and the incident he describes) certainly came before the events of September 11, but I think they illustrate a real-life approach to a real-life problem and how getting the crew involved at the beginning can lead to a better resolution.

"You are totally correct that being honest with your staff and keeping them informed of impending doom is the best policy. I'd like to share my experience with a similar situation. I took over a restaurant in Beverly Hills, Calif with the knowledge that it was an under-performing restaurant with high turnover, lack of management attention to guest complaints, a frustrated staff and information that our lease was about to expire and the landlord wanted an extremely high amount of cash to renew the lease.

Rather then keep this knowledge from the existing staff and managers, I called an all-staff meeting and explained the situation - leaving out the part about the landlord. I then informed the staff that anyone who left would be given a good reference and those that stayed would be given the opportunity to prove that this was a viable restaurant to the powers that be.

First I addressed the lack of management presence involving guest complaints (there seemed to be a lot). I went to every table and fixed every problem. The guests and employees immediately took to me and my situation started to improve. Kitchen employees, servers and delivery employees noticed and immediately began doing everything they could to keep our customers happy, mistakes to a minimum. Without becoming long winded suffice it to say that sales went up 20%, employee turnover was non-existent with people beating down the doors because they wanted to work there. I lost one employee in 4 months and that was unavoidable because of theft.

February rolled around and my District manager allowed me the opportunity to present a business plan to the President and Director of Operations. So convincing was the information we provided to them that they left the meeting to try and re-negotiate the lease (to no avail though). I found jobs for over 85% of my existing employees and we closed the restaurant with a bang not a whimper. I'm still in contact with some of those employees ten years later.

I've always said that honest is the best policy when dealing with your staff, they respond better and will work harder then if you're not. Often getting you the results you could not achieve on your own."

A question from the Doc:
Are you trying to handle a downturn in business all by yourself?

COACHING PROGRAM NOTE
Your free books, special reports and the October newsletter will be in the mail within a week. Refer to my previous e-mail for the address to order your discounted copies of the Prospering in Tough Times tele-seminar. Information on how to join the Coaching Program can be found on my website.

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