Points of Profit NewsÓ

Points of Profit News-the newsletter that promotes service excellence, leadership building and enhanced profits in the restaurant and hospitality industry. This monthly resource provides quick tips, tools and solutions you can use right away to instill a passion for service in your business, build real and lasting profits and help develop your managers into leaders. 

June 7, 2002

Issue 25

Ron Yudd, Editor, www.ronyudd.com

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Welcome to our June issue of Points of Profit News. Also, welcome to our new subscribers. Thanks for joining us in our restaurant and foodservice adventure.

Thought of the Month: This month’s thought is entitled “Lessons Learned in the Hallway”. I ran into Dick Gaven in the hallway outside the seminar rooms at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago last month. Dick is the person that for over 20 years ran the entire Show. He did it all. He created the vision, organized it and ran the event. He put the big Show on the map. He gave many people, including me an opportunity to present their programs at the Educational Seminars and grew that part of the operation to become a huge reason many people come to the Show. Dick said to me that his leadership lesson was that he simply guided those that worked for him and gave them to the freedom to get the job done. He set the tone, defined the mission and then got out of the way. What was also interesting to me was that even though Dick has retired from the day-to- day operation, there he was in the hallway congratulating a young woman on how great a job she had done running this year’s seminar programs. Dick—Congratulations! Thanks for the opportunities over the years and thanks for your lessons in leadership!

For those of you that are just joining us-previous issues of the Points of Profit NewsÓ can be found on our website on the resources page at www.ronyudd.com.

“50 Points of Profit” Audio Album ----The Fifty Steps to Build Lasting Profitability in Your Business

An audio album that explores 25 Points of Profit in the Back of the House and 25 Points of Profit in the Front of the House and gives you the tools to enhance your profitability. Keep in mind that the sales from all our professional growth audio tools go to support our Leadership Cares Foundation’s initiatives. Click on www.leadershipcares.org to learn about our activities.

See our full line of audio tools by clicking on www.ronyudd.com/products.php

On the Front Lines of Service

We’ve been exploring the Five C’s of customer service over the last several months. We agreed that these five things had to be in place as the foundation for any successful business. The five C’s of customer service are:

Comfort-Consistency-Confidence-Convenience-Courtesy

This month’s focus is courtesy. It’s easy to talk about, but difficult to implement. Courtesy is not just holding the door open for someone-it’s so much more--courtesy really means:

· Genuinely interacting and personally greeting everyone

· Making real eye contact and showing genuine interest

· Showing authentic concern for the associate’s or guest’s level of comfort

To really implement the concept of courtesy it has to be modeled at all levels of the operation starting with the leadership. It has to be demonstrated by how we talk to our staff, interact with guests and how we treat one another. Several ways to teach the concept of courtesy include:

· Making it a large part of the orientation process for all new associates and managers.

· Using role-play opportunities during service training to not only demonstrate courtesy but to show the positive effect it has on guests and associates alike.

· Reminding leaders in the operation about the importance of living the concept in their day-to-day activities.

Building Leadership Skills

We are continuing our look at Hands on Leadership that we started several months ago. We talked about the value of getting involved and jumping in to help the staff during prime time. We observed that going “hands on” created an atmosphere where teamwork could take hold and flourish.

Continuing our series on “hands on leadership” this month we take a look at problem solving. There are a number of approaches to teaching problem solving skills but we’ve found success in our programs by teaching the following concepts to teams and individuals:

First—“laser beam the problem”-this means getting as quickly as possible to the heart or the crux of the of the dilemma. Force yourself or your team to write a one-sentence description of the real problem. Once this is done the side issues that usually accompany conflict or problems can be eliminated from the discussion and placed outside. This forces the parties to only focus on the actual problem.

Second-let those involved “talk” through the problem. Let them explain their side in detail and without interruption, but never allow them to get side tracked or away from the “one sentence” problem.

Third—the leader acts as a facilitator—meaning they drive but you as the leader steer. You help them define and articulate a concrete solution.

Fourth–the leader gets commitment to a time-line for implementation and final resolution. For example—“We will meet as a group on Tuesday and develop a list of the four things we will do by June 10^th to ensure that this problem will not be repeated during our next banquet”.

There is much more to this concept of “hands on leadership”---learning to prioritize, communicating with staff, teaching others and yes-knowing when and if to jump to help out. These will be explored one at a time in our coming issues.

Profitability Plus

This month’s Point of Profit is about recruiting and retention. We often hear the lament about turnover and the “shortage” of good employees. There are actually operators that don’t have these problems because they spend their time creating a work environment where people want to come and work. Several questions to ask and points to consider:

• Are our employee’s treated as well as we want them to treat our guests?
• Are the facilities “employee friendly”---locker rooms, employee meals, flexible schedules, benefits, solid training that they can use throughout their career, and higher pay for more responsibility.
• Remember the line—“employees quit bosses they don’t quit jobs—what kind of environment have my managers and supervisors created in the work place?
• Invest time at the beginning of the process-Create a strong interview and hiring process and most of all a real and intense orientation program—so everyone understands expectations from day one.

Do you have a Coach? Take a look at our One-on-One Success Coaching Programs. Reach your personal and professional goals. Check out this popular way to stay on course for building personal and professional success. Click on www.ronyudd.com/1on1.php. We have three levels of personal coaching services available.

Take Home Idea of the Month

Touching Tables-over the next month ask your floor managers/host/hostess to touch 3 tables every fifteen minutes throughout the shift. Have them visit with 12 tables per hour to check in with your guests and/or help out directly with tableside service. Take a look at what happens on several fronts:

-You’ll learn a lot just from the conversations with your guests.

-Your floor staff will be more directly involved with guest service

-Your staff and guests may actually develop a relationship and as we have said all along—it’s all about and always will be about building relationships!

See what it does to the whole feel of your dining room and see if it’s an idea that you can use as a permanent policy.

One “take home idea” as a reminder----let us know what you’re doing on our mentoring challenge. This is the year of mentoring a young person on your staff with the goal of sharing your wisdom and experience. Remember young people are not our future---we are their future.

Web Site of the Month-This month’s web site of the month is www.foodchannel.com. Click on cooking to check out their favorite picks on the latest cookbooks.

Points of Profit Leadership Inc. helps companies develop their managers into leaders. We are a “one stop shop” for resources and tools for enhancing customer service levels, increasing profitability and developing leadership within your operation.

Points of Profit News is an online means of sharing information of interest to the restaurant and hospitality community. You are encouraged to send questions, make observations and share items of interest. E-mail your ideas, thoughts and contributions along with your name, address and phone number to: ron@ronyudd.com

Ron Yudd is a recognized expert on developing profit strategies and customer service solutions. Ron provides his clients with the tools for their success. He accomplishes this through keynotes, seminars, workshops, facilitation, consulting and personal coaching. His keynotes and seminars- Leadership Legacy, Leadership for the Bottom Line, No One Escapes Customer Service and Mentoring Today for Leaders Tomorrow have helped business operators focus in on building leadership skills, improve customer service and enhance the profitability of their operations. He combines a motivating style with practical “take home” ideas. You can reach him at www.ronyudd.com or email him at ron@ronyudd.com. His office number is 301-540-5791. Copyright 2002 by Ron Yudd.