Electronic House Call - October 25, 2002

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - October 25, 2002

After a few days at home to re-group, it's back on the road Saturday night. I make a pilgrimage to Angus Barn in Raleigh for a session with their trainers on Monday, then to a distributor food show in Hickory, NC on Tuesday and a couple of days of consulting with a client in Kentucky. Home on Halloween eve, just in time for my birthday on November 1st!

INSENSITIVITY REVISITED
In EHC #245 (October 11th), I shared a story from Eric Chester about his daughter's experience while working for "Barstuck's," a national coffee operation. The piece brought several comments, a few of which follow

John Martinka, Kirkland, WA
Bill, the example is not in any way exclusive to Barstuck's. My 17 year old works for their main competitor, you can call them Bully's. She complains about managers who sit in the office and yet share in the tips. Perhaps when employees and customers become more important than bonuses and stock increases this will change.

Bob Swaney, Newport News, VA
So what's new about Whitney's plight? Armed with a hospitality degree and super-motivated, my daughter joined a prestigious corporation in their college catering operation. After a year of 70 hour weeks and indifferent leadership, she left the industry completely. Now she's a computer systems engineer earning three times more. If somebody would put the industry under the scope, I believe they'd find it's eating its young. Consequently we see high turnover/industry exit and too many warm body "managers" (with not one scintilla of professional education or training) who got the job simply because of longevity or technical ability.

A Note from the Doc:
As my favorite swamp philosopher, Pogo, so neatly put it, "We have met the enemy and he is us!" When managers are insensitive to the effort put out by the staff, they will drive the crew out the door and into positions where they are appreciated, often in other industries. That only contributes to the poor reputation of our industry which makes it harder for everyone to be attractive to potential workers. Perhaps more unnerving, these same clueless managers will eventually seek employment in other restaurants ... and be hired because they have "experience." The quality of our operations will never be any better than the quality of our leadership.

TELL ME A STORY
Here is another lesson from the Odd Couple Sales-Building Workshop: Everybody says (positive) word-of-mouth is the best advertising ... and I suspect it is ... but there is no word-of-mouth without something to talk about. This means that not only do we have to do things that are worth talking about, but we have to educate our guests as to why they patronize us. ("I go there because _____.") This, in turn, means that we really need to be storytellers. Does your service staff have stories to tell? Are they telling them? (Hint: they won't tell stories to your guests unless YOU tell stories to THEM.) If you referred to your guest contact folks as storytellers rather than servers (or worse yet, salespeople), perhaps they would start to get a clue. The "buzz" does not come by accident.

Note: the Odd Couple (Joel Cohen and your humble correspondent) will be coming to South Carolina, Washington and Kentucky between now and Thanksgiving. For more information, go to www.oddcouple.net. If you would like to see us in a neighborhood near you, give me a call and let's talk about it.

ELSEWHERE ON THE MARKETING FRONT
Rory Fatt tells me that our restaurant marketing seminar in Phoenix on November 11 is almost filled. If you have been thinking about attending, make up your mind while there is still space available. Details are on my website.

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