ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - March 18, 2005

What do you want to be when you grow up? That has ben the question of the week. For the past several days I have been huddling with colleagues Marv Hunt and Cindy Casady exploring what might be next and what we might be able to create together. (16 hours of huddling yesterday created some great ideas ... and ended up putting a serious dent in my wine cellar. Research is rough ... and also the reason this humble journal is a little later than usual today!)

We came up with some really good stuff yesterday, and I suspect the best is yet to come. Both Marv and Cindy will be at the Super Summit, which should propel them into a whole new range of possibilities. I am excited, they are excited ... and I suspect you will be excited as our collaboration starts to bear fruit.

What do YOU want to be when you grow up? Are you just making it up day by day or have you actually stepped off the merry-go-round long enough to set direction for your company?

Members of my Coaching Program know my belief that "leadership is getting the herd to move ... roughly west" ... but that presumes that you have made a conscious decision about the direction in which you want your company to move.

Don't be afraid to shake things up. The status quo can be deadly. At the least, it is deadly boring.

GIVE SOME, GET SOME
On Wednesday night, we all went to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant across the bridge in Tacoma. Why did we drive for 30 minutes each way to go there when we had other choices equally as good that were a lot closer? Wednesday night is half price wine night!

The restaurant has an interesting wine list ... and at 50% off, their better wines often cost the same or even less than the retail price for the same bottle. So from our perspective, on Wednesday we got $200 worth of wine for $100 How did it work for the restaurant?

First of all, I noticed that we were considering wines that we probably would not have tried under more normal circumstances. Because we were getting a deal on the wine, we were much more open to ordering more food than we might normally have put on the table. We certainly had a great time and we will certainly go back there again, even though it is a bit inconvenient for us.

If you were the restaurant, how would you have evaluated the success of the Wednesday night policy? Did you really lose $100 in wine sales ... or did you break even on the wine, fill the house and gain a $200 food sale that you would not have had otherwise?

I am not advocating cutting your wine prices in half as a permanent policy, but by making the half price night a regular -- and unadvertised -- policy, they assure that 1) they will be busy on what would otherwise be a slow night, 2) they will generate good word-of-mouth since the policy is a bit of an "inside secret" 3) many guests will try the more interesting wines on their list and 4) Wednesday night will be seen by most as a special event.

Assuming that local laws allow it, a similar traffic building policy that I am starting to see more often is BYO night. On one or two slower nights of the week, the restaurant encourages guests to bring their own wine and waives the corkage fees.

CAN WE TALK?
Waiter extraordinaire Paul Paz sent the following note along following a discussion in the EHC a few weeks ago about the importance of having one-on-one time with your staff. This is an unsolicited e-mail he received at his WaitersWorld.com website:

"I have to say as a server; I find most service evaluations to be CRAP! Why does the management always want to hide behind some number posted on a bulletin board? How about if I am doing a good job; you tell me?!! Maybe if there is something I could work on to improve my skill; you tell me?!! When did the management become afraid to confront me? What is wrong with the face-to-face? I find it highly discouraging.

I believe in performance based scheduling! If the person is doing a good job, give them good shifts. If you don't know what the good shifts are, ask them. I guess what I am saying is COMMUNICATE with your staff. Be honest and fair. Treat them as well as you would like them to treat your guests. Thanks for hearing my rant... Jill

Paul adds: What Jill is saying pretty much captures what's really happening. And this is why one-on-ones are so essential. It provides bearings to the managers and employees, opportunities to lead vs manage, and that quintessential moment to recognize a job well done and how much they (managers and hourlys) are valued by the employer. This creates loyalty that is so essential to favorable growth.

THE MARCH SURVEY
In March we are looking at service -- how you define it, how you train it and how it figures as a competitive factor. Add your thoughts to the March survey.

NO THIRD CHANCES
The room is filling, the clock is ticking ... and you could get left out!

As you may know, we had to add a second section of the Super Summit on June 5-7 because we could not accommodate everyone who qualified for our first program in April. However, at this point there is no such plan for the expected June overflow, meaning that if you miss out on this second chance, you may be stuck for awhile.

There is another compelling reason to get your name on the invitation list for the June program -- money.

Based on the results we expect attendees to see following the Super Summit (and we do intend to document it), any future programs of this nature will demand at least twice the tuition we are asking this time around. Why? Because we know that the insights you gain will have such a profound impact on the profitability of your operation and the quality of your life that the investment -- even at twice the price -- will still be a very wise business decision.

For example, when I applied these principles and understandings in my own operation at the US Olympic Training Center, volume nearly doubled, food cost dropped 22.9%, labor cost dropped 16.7% and turnover went from 300% to 25% ... all in less than a year. At the same time, I worked less than half the hours I had ever applied to a foodservice job in my life!

What would it be worth if YOU could see results like that?

You may wonder why we would offer a program this powerful for less than it is worth. It is a good question with a simple answer: marketing. We think that because the outcomes that we promise are so far outside the realm of what most people think are possible, we need dozens more restaurant success stories to document the "impossible" results that can come from just a simple shift of perspective.

Once we are able to prove the bottom line results achieved by operators just like yourself, the tuition can -- and should -- reflect the true value of the breakthrough. Would you rather wait until your more visionary peers have made the transition ... or act now and minimize your investment? As the saying goes, "You can pay me now or pay me later" (... or never make the extra money to begin with!)

If you are tired of business as usual, if you want to have a real sense of satisfaction at the end of each day, if you have been to enough seminars that were just a string of "good ideas" and want something that will truly (finally!) make a lasting difference in your personal and professional life, you owe it to yourself (and your family) to discover how to create an Effortless Organization of your own.

Follow the link below to learn more about the Super Summit. If you are intrigued by what we have to say, complete an application and we will take it from there. Do it before March 31 and you will qualify for a $200 early registration scholarship.

But hurry. We can only invite 44 people to the June session in New Orleans and half those seats are already reserved.

Get the whole story on the Super Summit

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

I learned that parking is a major problem. People are using our lot from other businesses, signs are not posted, some neighbors are abusing our lot, and action needs to be taken. I learned that my night manager has a negative attitude and it is rubbing off on the staff that work for her. I learned that the kitchen staff want a cooks meeting to improve team work and make sure all understand their importance. -- Bob Griffith, The Pumphouse Bar & Grill, Bellevue, WA

A Note from the Doc: If you cannot answer this question every day, you are not listening. If you are not listening, you are not learning and if you are not learning, you are dying! When was the last time you sat down one-on-one with your staff to really listen ... and learn something new?

From the answers I have received, it seems like many operators are confused by this question. They tell me what they learned ABOUT their staff ... and that is certainly better than learning nothing ... but the power of listening lies in its personal nature. The key is to put yourself in the role of student and let your crew make you aware of something that you did not know.

So this question is about what you learned FROM your staff today. Understand that what they tell you is less important than making sure they feel that you truly listened to them. If you are not deeply interested in what they have to say, it is disrespectful ... and disrespect will do more harm than good. The value for you is in the learning, but the value for them is in the quality of your listening.

I will continue to collect your answers to this important question. Just click on the link below for a short coaching session on listening and a chance to contribute your answer for the common good.

What did YOU learn from YOUR staff today?

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