Electronic House Call - February 21, 2003

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - February 21, 2003

At the moment, I am in Southern California at the National Speakers Association Winter Workshop. Bright and early Monday morning, Margene and I head to England for a week for a winter strategy session (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) There are some amazing airfare deals out there right now ... and what good is working for yourself if you can't do something spontaneous every once in awhile? As usual, I will be reporting on what I learn.

WHAT'S YOUR PLAN?
At the moment, war with Iraq seems all but inevitable. Although I am perpetually hopeful that reason will prevail before people start dying, if bombs start dropping, so will sales. This war is shaping up as a made-for-TV event and you can bet that folks will be holed up at home watching it on CNN. If a US attack spawns any terrorist retaliation, it could really get messy. In any case, you must hope for the best ... and plan for the worst.

I bring this up not to make a political statement but just to remind you to start thinking about how you would respond if it all hits the fan. What markets do you serve and how would they be affected? What would be the likely impact on sales? How could you compensate for a significant drop in volume? What would you do about staff? Do you reduce hours across the board? Do you keep your key people on full schedule and lay others off? Do you continue to pay everyone and tough it out?

What is your marketing approach going to be and how are you going to get the word out? What shape is your database in? What should you be doing right now to get your market ready for your emergency plan? For example, if you want to push takeout meals (for people to eat in front of the TV while they watch CNN at home), you must have everything in place before you can proceed and people need to know that you have something for them. You can't wait until the crash to get started.

Sit down with your key people and explore these questions. There are no right answers but any sort of a plan is better than being in reaction. The more uncertain things are, the more people (both your staff and your guests) will look for some sort of stability they can hang onto. A little pre-planning now -- even if it proves unnecessary -- will do wonders for your peace of mind as events unfold.

YEAR OF THE GUEST UPDATE
The Year of the Guest tally seems to have hit a plateau around $12K. I still believe we can raise $50K for Share Our Strength but we will have to get the word to folks who have not heard about it yet. Here are some ways you can help:

1) If you haven't already done so, you can subscribe yourself. 2) You can encourage your peers to sign up. 3) You can put out the word to your local restaurant association/chefs association/club managers association, etc. 4) You can ask your state association to publicize the program. 5) If you are you a member of any other hospitality network, you can ask them to help spread the word. 6) You can adopt SOS as your restaurant's personal charity of choice. 7) You can share your own ideas that might help us reach our goal.

Whatever you do, my sincere thanks for your support thus far ... and for bearing with me when I keep pushing this idea.

THE PERPETUAL QUESTION
What did you learn from your staff today?

I ask this question every week and some of you may have ceased to even notice ... so I would like to hear how you answer it. Please send me your responses. Every response will receive a thank-you gift. I will include the most interesting stories in future issues of EHC.

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