Many, many years ago I was a corporate trainer for a national restaurant chain. I trained “front of the house” employees, like waiters and waitresses. The owner of a local restaurant, recognizing that he could improve the service at his establishment, enticed me to leave my employer and come to work for him. The goal was to put in place quality service levels equal to that of my current employer.
It was a cool challenge, so I decided to give it a try. Also, I really dug his restaurant and as we all know, you have to believe in what you’re selling, and I believed in what he was doing.
The reason that the owner wanted me to come on board was because he was getting numerous complaints about the service, and he was feeling the effects. The poor/slow service was affecting the cash register and he noticed.
It took me all of 2 minutes to diagnose the problem.
The wait-staff had too many tables. A "wait person" can only provide great service to so many people at a time. The optimum number is about 4 tables, 5 maximum. These folks were handling about 8 tables. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the problem here, right?
My immediate suggestion was to reduce the number of tables assigned to the staff. This would increase the level of service (which would increase the tips) and the restaurant would go back to being crowded. The more table turns (the more guests), the more tips. Simple math. The existing wait staff didn’t see it like that and they hated me – with a passion!
They wanted nothing to do with a reduction in the number of tables assigned to them. To them, the more tables, the more tips. I could’ve talked until I was blue in the face, it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference to them. Several of them even threatened to quit if I wasn’t fired.
The owner knew I was right, in fact, he knew it before I got there – he was just hoping that I would have another answer for him. I didn’t. There was nothing else to do – the silver bullet, the only bullet – was a reduction in the number of assigned tables (busboys and expediters were already being used).
The entire wait staff made my life miserable and I ended up leaving shortly after I started.
However, I’ve never forgotten the lessons I learned from that experience. The main lesson is something that is true in ANY business: Your employees have to care more about people than profits.
My wife, the owner of a small business (a hair salon) always says: you get what you give. Treat people well, and they’ll treat you in kind (she's a smart cookie, that one).
Last night we were talking about this. In her salon, several of the stylists are like the folks who worked for that restaurant; they view customers as a way to get money. My wife, on the other hand, does more "business" than any of the next two combined. Her mantra of getting what you give is proven with every new referral and every name on her cancellation list (people wanting to get in sooner if an appointment becomes available - She’s the Harley Davidson of Hair Stylists).
The point in this, as most of you know, is that if you focus on people first, profits follow.
I think most businesses today focus more on the money than on people; and they’re easy to spot. Everything about them is driven by sales, from the way the employees treat you to the store layout and advertisements, the mail they send you and the phone calls you get during dinner.
Why don’t we focus on people before profits? Think about your own life, you know when someone is just trying to sell you something, that turns you off, doesn’t it?
