The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - February 15, 2002

After a couple of great sessions with the pizza folks in Las Vegas, I finally have a few days at home . . . and the weather has been beautiful! Oops, I meant to say that it rains all the time in Washington. Don't move here! -)

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS
The good news is that the economy appears to be showing some early signs of improvement. It is likely to continue to be a challenging market in the foreseeable future but you knew it wouldn't last forever. Barring another disastrous event, the end could be in sight. The bad news is that as the economy improves, workers will have more employment options and you could be facing another tight labor market. While you still have good job applicants looking for work, use this period to get serious about upgrading your staff. Once you have picked out the good ones, be sure you spend some time to train them well. Show them the possibilities in our industry in general and your operation in particular. If they can see that you are offering more than just a temporary job, they may not be so quick to bail out at the first opportunity.

ANOTHER SLICE OF LIFE
Fred Held sent this little vignette along in response to my note a few weeks about about whether to comp or not to comp.

I recently put together a ski trip with a bunch of executives, all of whom were top skiers. One night we went to the Dragon Fly restaurant in Truckee, California. Originally there were four of us but one of the group made it through the snow storm early and joined us for dinner, so we suddenly became a party of five. The restaurant was busy, of course and our reserved table was too small for the five of us. The maitre 'd explained the situation to a party of four already seated at a 6-top and asked if they would change tables with us. They agreed. With good humor had several servers carry all the dishes and drinks between the two tables in rapid fashion. He then comped their desserts for making the switch and comped some small bowls of soup for our party as well. The owner called me the next day and asked about the service, noticing that I was a new customer. Of course I gushed about what had happened and thanked him profusely. His classy comment was "I like calling new customers because my team seems to regularly get applause for their service." Not only did they have great service but the food was fantastic. Will we go back? You bet! Will we tell our friends? You bet!

A note from the Doc:
There is no word-of-mouth without something to talk about.

This is the official end of this week's EHC. What follows is an update on the April Super Conference. If you are not interested -- or are offended by such quasi-commercial information -- you can quit here and nobody gets hurt!

WHAT MAKES THE SUMMIT SUPER?
You already know that the first Hospitality Masters Super Summit will be held at the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle on April 29-30. You probably also know that attendance is limited to 99 people and that it will feature nine of the leading experts in our industry (including marketing guru Max Hitchins who is coming all the way from Australia) . . . but that is only the beginning of why you should plan to attend . . . if we let you. Here are a few other reasons

-- The Super Summit is really a "stealth" conference. It will not be promoted to the general public, so unless you are connected to one of the presenters in some way, you would never even know about the Super Summit. As EHC subscribers, you are part of the "inside group." If you want an unfair advantage in the market, this is the place to get it. How's that for a perk?

-- The material offered will not be anything we have ever presented to a general audience before. It might be something we have reserved for our private consulting clients, but the Summit will present our most current thinking rather than anything you may have already heard from us. We think of it as ideas we have always wanted to present to an audience but never had a sponsor who would let us do it! How's that for risky?

-- We will not attempt to be politically correct. The material may (or may not) be controversial, contrarian or even confrontational. In many cases, it will represent a seeming departure from our normal ideas. (For example, can you imagine me telling you why and how you should give your guests a hard time . . . and why they will love it when you do? It will happen!) How's that for mind-stretching?

-- Several of the programs will be collaborative -- two speakers combining their talents and insight to address a specific topic. They may agree . . . and they may not . . . but where else are you going to find this sort of fresh thinking? Many of these will be two-part sessions -- sort of mini-workshops -- and we are very excited about where the format will take us. How's that for something fresh?

-- You might take your place in the Hot Seat. We will have several opportunities for selected audience members to present a current issue, question or concern to the full group of experts and receive 15 minutes of high-level consulting in front of the entire audience. How's that for a free shot-in-the-arm?

-- The Super Summit comes with a 100% "You Gotta Love It" guarantee. If you do not agree that you have received ideas that will return many times your initial investment within the first six months, we will return your registration fee and pick up the cost of your hotel room for the two days of the conference. How's that for a bet you can't lose?

-- We also know, as you do, that nothing will change unless you actually take action. We also know, as you do, how easy it is to get side-tracked once you get home from a conference. To help assure that you will get the results you say you want, we will schedule a series of tele-conferences for six months following the Summit. These will be opportunities for attendees to call in and discuss their questions directly with the Summit experts. In addition, attendees will commit to a written action plan before they leave and we will line up some peer support (sort of a buddy system) to help keep them on track. How's that for implementation support?

There's a lot more, but this is enough for now. The Super Summit website should be up and running by next weekend so you will finally be able to register. (I already know of a dozen people who have already made their plane reservations . . . and they don't even know what we will be talking about or what the investment will be!) In the meantime, you can indicate your interest by registering your name and e-mail address on the pop-up box in my website home page.

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