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.

April 24, 2001

Issue 14

Ron Yudd, Editor, www.ronyudd.com

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Welcome back to Points of Profit News. I hope spring has arrived in your area. How are you doing on your laser beam focus and perseverance? Part of attaining success in any business or endeavor is simply “hanging in” and never giving up. Focus on your goals, take it one day at a time and don’t you dare ever quit!

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.

I want to say a special hello and thank you to a hardworking unit manager, Patti Couture, in Fort Benning, Georgia. We just teamed up to do a “Creating Service Excellence” workshop” for her front line staff. Thanks for making me feel at home and let’s work to keep the service spirit alive.

New Tool- Our new audio product-“Leadership Legacy” is now available. You can listen to a sample on the website at www.ronyudd.com. Thank you to those that reviewed this new teaching tool. Your comments and suggestions are most appreciated.

On the Front Lines of Service

This month’s front line service tip is on how to develop service standards. Service standards are the foundation of any operation’s success. They are the roadmap of how to you and your staff go about the daily mission of delivering service to your customers. Service standards define exactly how your customer will be treated, what their expectations should be and what will be done if the standards are not met.

The process of establishing service standards begins with defining exactly what you intend to deliver to your customers. This is the “homework” part of the job. This is where you walk the process of service from beginning to end to identify the areas where standards must be established. How long should a guest wait at the entrance before she is greeted? What should that greeting be like? What should be said? How long before someone interacts with that guest tableside? Your service standards are found in the answers to these questions.

There are three steps to develop a service standard. The first step is to observe the current level of service, secondly document (write down) exactly what is taking place at that point of service and third determine exactly what you want that service to be in the future. This is a methodical process, but when completed you will have very specific and measurable guidelines for the service you expect your guests to receive. Practice on one point of service, go through the steps and outline a standard that you want to implement. Next month we will walk through several examples to get you started.

Building Leadership Skills

Remember last month’s discussion of the first ingredient of the successful leader? We talked about Vision as the mental picture that the leader creates and communicates to their team through their actions. The vision of the leader is something that helps to focus the team on the mission of the business. To create a vision the leader must determine exactly what they want their business to look like. Once this mental picture is created the leader works to promote that “picture”.

The leader creates and promotes that picture through their Authenticity. This is the second ingredient of the successful leader. The team learns about the vision by how the leader lives it. Authenticity means that the leader is accountable for their actions. They are genuine, seek the truth, and also hold team members accountable for their actions. If the leader’s vision is to operate a customer and staff friendly business then all their daily actions must re-enforce this vision. They must be customer and staff friendly and live this day in and day out. They believe in their vision and decide to make it part of the way they conduct themselves each and every day. Our staff is watching and learning each day----be authentic---live your personal and professional vision. Next month’s Leadership Skills topic will explore passion for service.

Profitability Plus

Last month’s Point of Profit discussed the daily cycle of doing business. We outlined the importance of developing and using “specific specs” as you begin the daily cycle of bringing in products. The more specific the product specification the more information your vender has about exactly what you want. The next step in that “daily cycle” is determining the quantity of what to buy. Today there are numerous vendor programs and software packages to assist the manager and take some of the guesswork out of buying. However, nothing beats the good old-fashioned establishment of “pars”. A par is the measurement of how much of a particular product is being consumed during the period between scheduled deliveries. Pars are established to help you buy only what you will need from one delivery to the next. Keep in mind that products sitting on the shelf are not doing a thing for your profitability. Products that are sitting on the shelf also are deteriorating in quality and are vulnerable to pilferage. In buying—less is always best. Establish a par of what you will need from one delivery to the next and stick to that when you construct an order. Next month we will explore good receiving practices as we continue the adventure through the daily cycle of doing business.

Take Home Idea of the Month

Thank you for your response to last month’s idea of community involvement as a marketing tool. It was great to hear that many of you are doing this already. This month’s take home idea is to use your customer as an internal consultant. Customers love to give advice and they love it even more when they see their suggestions actually put into effect. Listen to your customers, encourage them to make suggestions and give them credit when you use their idea. This “take home” idea really accomplishes several things. It establishes your business as customer friendly. It involves your customer in the daily mission and it signs up your customer consultant as an unofficial sales person for your business. Do you think a customer will tell anyone if his idea or suggestion was used in your shop? He becomes the walking and talking billboard for your operation. One more question—will this customer frequent your establishment when he has a special event for his friends and family? Talk about building a base of loyal cliental.

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Web Site of the Month-----Two favorites this month. Have fun exploring recipe after recipe at www.epicurious.com. The second site is www.foodtv.com. This site features all our favorite TV chefs but it’s the marketplace page that I have recently enjoyed the most.

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 2001 by Ron Yudd.