The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - January 11, 2002

SO LONG, DAVE
It is interesting and moving to see the reactions to the death of Wendy's Dave Thomas. Perhaps not since Colonel Sanders has their been a restaurateur whose persona had such national recognition and regard. A few years ago, I actually read his book, Dave's Way. Troy Brackett recently reminded me of a quote from the book that I pass along here because, while it may seem slightly naive, it still represents a goal worth pursuing

"In 1940, at the age of eight, I dreamed that I would one day own the best restaurant in the world. All of the customers would love my food, and all of my employees would do everything they were supposed to do. But, most important, everyone would think I was a good boss, and every day when I walked into the restaurant, people would be glad to see me."

A question from the Doc:
How do you want to be remembered when you are gone? What are you doing today to deserve it?

COMPLAINTS REVISITED
Last week I shared the story of a PowerPoint presentation making the rounds on the Internet in response to a problem one person had in a particular hotel. That prompted this note from my new colleague Fred Held, CEO of Site-Tuners.com:

Becoming a customer centric operation, which is what you propose in your book and these newsletters, is a matter of 100% trust in human nature. I once ran very large customer service organizations where there is a slight chance that a customer could be running a scam. Most of the scams were obvious and we could catch the customer without embarrassing them. The huge benefit is the 99.5% honest people that benefit from feeling your trust and commitment in making sure their experience with your service or produced is a delight. I can tell war stories for hours on how many irate customers ready to tell the world how bad we were got turned around and loved us.

A note from the Doc:
Along this line, look for Max Hitchins' new book, Hospitality Scams, that will be released at the Super Conference. There is a difference between being paranoid and being prepared. You may think you know all the tricks to watch out for, but is everyone on your crew aware of what to watch out for? Forewarned is forearmed.

SUPER ADVICE
Marketing maven Joel Cohen passes this advice along in his latest e-letter:

Don't get ga-ga'ed over Super Bowl Sunday. Unless you are a sports bar, don't spend money promoting the day. I've never seen it work! However, if you are still tempted to get into the spirit for Super Bowl Week, then change the name of two of your liquor drinks, or ice cream flavors to that of the 2 teams playing in the Super Bowl and have some fun with this.

SPEAKING OF THINGS SUPER
To avoid conflicts with the Mother's Day weekend, we have moved the Hospitality Masters Super Conference to Monday and Tuesday, April 29-30. It is still in Seattle where terrific restaurants await you. Confirmed so far: Bill Main, Max Hitchins, Joel Cohen, Phyllis Ann Marshall and Molly Hancock. Oh, and I will be there, too!

ROUNDTABLE ROUND-UP
The deadline for early registration (and the accompanying discount) for the Winter Roundtables is next Friday. As you know if you have ever tried to organize an event like this, it is difficult to set things up without a clear idea of attendance . . . so a favor. If you are planning to come, please send in your registration. If you are thinking about it, let me know that so I can get an idea of the facilities we will need and how many rooms we need to hold. The dates are February 4-5 in Orlando and February 9-10 in Las Vegas.

[ Home ] [ Top ] [ Email Restaurant Doctor ]