Turn on the Service to Survive (and Thrive) in a Tough Economy

Do you want to give more to your guests for FREE? I’m sure that you do -- I bet everyone does. But it is obvious that neither your product, nor your environment, is free. (For instance, you still have to offer air conditioning in the summertime and maintain a clean establishment, etc.) So choosing what we can and cannot give away for free can be a tricky decision.

Creating an UPGRADE in your SERVICE, however, is one free thing that you can – and should – immediately offer. Pile on the service. It will not cost a penny, but it will be one of the biggest reasons why you’ll increase your number of frequently-visiting guests (loyalty), and at the same time, increase the good will that will attract new guests.

No-cost Service Upgrade => Increase Gross Top Line => Increase Bottom Line Dollars!

How do you accomplish a no-cost service upgrade that both increases your gross top line AND your bottom line income? There are four fundamental aspects on HOW to increase your level of service. The first one of these revenue-generating tools for guest care is to be exceptionally friendly and attentive.

Your associates must be extremely friendly and attentive! In fact, create your OWN BRAND of “FRIENDLY AND ATTENTIVE!” Set your expectations with managers and associates alike. Friendly does not mean a casual “hello” – it requires a sincere, “Hello, how are you today?” It requires a warm and heartfelt greeting to every guest within five feet of you. It requires your team members to wait for the guest’s answer and to offer a further response.

A General Brainstorming Meeting with management and associates will set your expectations. Use a flip chart and write down all of their ideas during this brainstorming session, and post them around the meeting room. Offer prizes for the best ideas!

Lee Cockerell, Exec VP of Operations for Walt Disneyworld Resort, understands that people do not want the same thing over and over again, they want something new and different every time. People want variety with flair – people want energy. Your associates should bring focus and a somewhat unpredictable greeting and friendliness to every encounter. Your managers’ and associates’ friendliness should be a memorable moment, focusing on your guests’ hearts.

That is the first criteria of your brainstorming session and which ideas will graduate to procedures: Create memorable, friendly moments, between you and your guests.

Your second criteria should be: Do those ideas help us to greet the 200th guest with the same energy and enthusiasm that they showed to the 1st one?

Next, pick the ten most popular ideas and have your managers and associates sign a contract to implement these every day. Empower them! Post the new ideas where everyone can see them. Post reminders for pre-shift meetings. Attach friendly ideas to their paychecks! The point is to remind and inspire them as much and as often as you can.

ATTENTIVE = EYE CONTACT

I know it is not as simple as eye contact, but please share with your team the following survey.
A major credit card invited 100 guests to a casual dining establishment. The order taker and the food prep associate were not attentive. Every order was prepped inaccurately. Ninety six guests blamed the error on the associates, because they were not attentive. The experiment was duplicated the following day. This time all associates were attentive. The all established eye contact with the guest. Only four guests blamed the error on the associates. They all agreed that the associate was attentive, since they established eye-contact. What powerful message: IT COULD BE AS SIMPLE AS AN EYE-CONTACT. Imagine the impact on your loyalty factor. After all, EYE-CONTACT IS FREE!!!

Remember, this is one of the four aspects of great service; they key idea is this: Friendly and attentive service is MEMORABLE.

People do not want to be “satisfied customers” – they want to be far more than that. Give your guests what they will remember and give them something NEW each time they visit.

Remember also that procrastination is deadly. You are looking for progress every day – not perfection, but a consistent and energized effort. Schedule that brainstorming session today – get everyone excited!

Remember, pile on the Service. It is free. Making the visit memorable, because of the Service: PRICELESS!!!

Stay tuned to my next blog, coming Tuesday August 4th 2009.
I’ll be discussing the second aspect of Great Service: Speed.
The results? Phenomenal. Cost to you? FREE.

I’m interested on your feedback, your questions, and your best practices.
I’ll promise to reply by e-mail.

Tommy Antonopoulos
Your Bottom Line Consultant
Three Decades of Passion and Experience
Bottomlineconsultant@gmail.com

Has Your Food Establishment Become Your Prison?

Expressing our appreciation is a natural reaction to any service rendered. We thank people all day long. We thank the person who holds open our door, we thank the person who rings up our newspaper, we even thank the person who pumps our gas. But I observe restaurant managers all day, every day who do not take time to thank the guests in their dining room who’ve spent their hard earned money buying lunch or an expensive dinner. Is this a failure of the manager? Yes, but only because they are “locked up.”

They were locked up because they were enabling their staff – allowing THEM not to perform up to par by filling in here and there. This isn’t the time to go into WHY they fill those gaps, it’s just the time to acknowledge this and to talk about what the manager SHOULD be doing instead.

Here’s the perfect example: A general manager recently came to me to announce that the restaurant was SO busy that she was “consolidating” for six hours! (In this specific case, she was expediting lunch orders.) She was so proud – but I, as her District Manager, was sorely disappointed. That particular café has an average of 850 transactions per day, and she missed at least 500 opportunities to thank guests and interact with them.

Success is the total of many small things done right every day. How many items do you think she missed by NOT overseeing the big picture, and instead choosing to play the role that even a well trained associate could have filled? She missed many opportunities to speak with guests waiting to be seated, or waiting to order. She missed performing “table visits” and ensuring that the guests were 100% satisfied. She missed the opportunity to check with the kitchen staff and prep staff ensuring quality. She missed out on the chance to review the servers on applying all of the items discussed at the pre-meal meeting. She missed the speed-of-service and accuracy checks. Quite simply, she missed the MOST important goal: building relationships.

In these tough times, the way to hold your top line – or even increase it – is to build relationships. To build trust. Building that good, old-fashioned warm feeling of invitation and welcome. How can you do that when you are locked up in a position? How can you possibly do that when your job for the day was cashier, or line cook, or even consolidator.

So I say, open up the prisons – unlock yourself – and build relationships. Your MOST vital role as a manager is Master of Ceremonies. Be one. How do you do this? It begins way back at the hiring process. You MUST always have the correct hire for every position. Be selective. The next step is the intense, documented and personal training from an experienced training crew – with periodic progress reviews. You MUST let your new hire clearly know what your expectations are – both as a company and as a manager. Finally, once you’ve got your staff fully functioning and up to par, you must release. Continue coaching and stop enabling.

Step out of the 3-ring circus that a busy food establishment can look like. Let all of your staff play their role so that you can step back and be the master of ceremonies and master those all-important relationships at every turn.

If you do this, your guests will surely come back again and again.

Thomas Antonopoulos
Restaurant and Food Industry Strategist