ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - October 24, 2003

Gig Harbor sure did its best to preserve the Seattle stereotype this week -- we had seven inches of rain here on Monday! It was twice the normal rainfall for the entire month of October and the wettest day in recorded history! We have been in near drought conditions after an unusually dry summer, so the water was needed, but some areas have experienced flooding as a result of rising rivers. (No problem here, though.)

I'm glad we got that out of the way before the Year of the Guest workshop in two weeks. Today is sunny and 60 degrees and I just got back after an hour's walk in the woods. This is my idea of perfect fall weather ... and we have ordered up equally perfect weather for November 10th.

Speaking of Year of the Guest
The Year of the Guest Sales-Building Workshop in Raleigh on Monday has sold out. The final one in the fall series will be held in Gig Harbor (my home town) on Monday, November 10th. There are still seats available and airfares are lower than you think.

Check it out and join us for what promises to be a powerful, fast-paced day of ideas to boost your income, increase your guest connection and let you kiss the slow economy goodbye.

Click here for more information on the Year of the Guest.

More Right Answers
In life, there are a lot of right answers. My comments last week about disgruntled servers stirred up some additional comments on the subject that are worth passing along.

Janice Vasquez of Marisol in New Orleans had this to say: "The operator needs to have a written policy in place as to the exact method of tipping out, rain or shine. In our case, the waiters tip the bartender 2.5% of NET sales and the busser/runner 10% of their remaining tips after tipping the bartender. Waiters who complain endlessly about this are not team players and need to find another place to work."

"The waiters must be made to understand that without the back-up support of a helper, they could not possibly address as many tables.  In our experience, many waiters will take on as many tables as possible just to get the tip, often cutting service corners to save time. Of course, customers don't like the cutting of corners and complain."

"I often talk to the staff about their wants, needs, and problems and sometimes they DO have good & insightful points. Mostly though, the whiners just want money and in the long run, they have been weeded out. Their input in the sort of situation under discussion is usually like this, 'When business is slow, you should pay us a much higher hourly wage to make up for lower tips.' The operator in question may need to overhaul her staff to find the team-oriented individuals she needs."

Another Perspective
Jack Herr writes: "I agree with everything you wrote as usual. But I would like to add one more thought. It isn't ALL the servers as her question stated. I'll bet there is one big troublemaker, an unofficial leader that is working against her and her policies and her desire to please her servers and her customers and make a profit.

[The interviews you suggest] "should identify that person (if she really doesn't yet know who it is) and that person should be invited to find other employment. I'll bet that person seems invaluable and the owner has probably had conversations with trusted individuals concerning that person and the answer has always been, "We can't afford to lose her/him."

"Lose him/her. So many pieces will fall together after that, that she will wonder why she didn't do it years earlier."

A note from the Doc:
Jack raises a good point. I will have more on it next week.

The Perpetual Question
What did you learn from your staff today?

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