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. 

November 29, 2001

Issue 19

Ron Yudd, Editor, www.ronyudd.com

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to others who may benefit. They can register for this free newsletter by subscribing at www.ronyudd.com.

To be removed from this list, click reply and type the word “remove” in the message box or go to www.ronyudd.com and unsubscribe.

Welcome back to Points of Profit News. We hope you had an opportunity to take some time and reflect on some of the thoughts in our last issue. Your responses to last month’s “thought of the month” reaffirmed the fact that we as an industry are made up of givers that genuinely respond when others are in need. Be proud of your service to others and encourage others to follow your lead.

Thought of the Month. Over the last several weeks we find our industry, national and state restaurant associations and local business groups working very hard to encourage diners to get out and return to our restaurants and food service establishments. This is the perfect time to look at how we are taking care of the guests that do in fact come and dine in our operations. Remember, our guests want the same thing that we want. They want friendly people, attentive service and a safe environment. They simply want an opportunity to relax and leave their problems out in the parking lot. This week walk the floor and take a look at the levels of personalized service we are providing. Are we making our guests feel at home, are we genuine? Have we thanked our guests for coming out and asked them to come back again?

Also this past month we’ve heard from many of our friends that manage in the military club systems and MWR operations all over the world. Whether you are running the Officer’s Club at Bolling AFB in Washington D.C. or the Reggie’s at Fort Benning Georgia or the snack bar in Ramstein Air Base, Germany, a special “hats off” to those that serve behind the scenes and do it with class and incredible professionalism. You are the unsung heroes of our industry.

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.

New Tool Is Now Available! We have released our newest audio tool-“50 Points of Profit” –The Fifty Steps to Build Lasting Profitability in Your Business. This audio album explores 25 Points of Profit in the Back of the House and 25 Points of Profit in the Front of the House.

Keep in mind that the sales from all our audio tools go to support our Leadership Cares Foundation’s initiatives. Go to www.leadershipcares.org and see the two new press releases about our recent activities. Thank you, to all that purchased tapes over the last month. The proceeds helped us to serve 134 needy families (623 people) through our Thanksgiving Cares initiative.

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

On the Front Lines of Service

Last issue we worked on the role of the leader in making service standards effective. The leader has four major responsibilities when it comes to keeping service standards alive. They must model the standards for their staff, act as a coach to ensure that staff has a clear understanding of the standards, make sure that the tools of service are available and also let the staff know how they are doing. Take a look at last month’s issue to review a detailed breakdown of these key concepts.

The next focus should be to build the staff’s skills in the area of product knowledge. This is one of the keys to guest comfort and also to building check averages. The more the staff knows about your offerings the more they can directly pass on to their guests. Guests love a guided tour of your menu. It doesn’t matter if you serve in a tableside setting or a cafeteria line—guests want to understand the flavors and preparation methods for all your offerings. In order to create good tour guides on your staff ensure that the staff has:

-Sampled all menu items. (no---this does not necessarily include all beer, wine and liquor selections)

-A real understanding of the preparation methods for all menu items.

-Fully understands how the flavors of items can be coupled or married to enhance the experience for the guest.

Each daily line up meeting and orientation of a new staff member should include an element of these three items.

Building Leadership Skills

In our last issue we talked about the concept of Sharing the Power. This means that as a leader you share the power of decision making with your team. It means that you create an atmosphere as the leader in which you trust your people to make the right decisions. First you train them and then you entrust in them.

This month’s leadership recipe ingredient is---Give to Get. This simply is a way of saying that we get better at what we do when we teach someone else. By showing or training someone else we actually perfect the skills for ourselves. We actually are practicing the task or skill as we demonstrate it for others. Look at this concept as the reward you as the leader receive when you teach or coach someone else. The equation for success is Give a Skill=Improve a Skill.

Profitability Plus

Last issue we offered a list that related to how effectively you are issuing products in your operation.

Here’s the list again:

Point 1-Issue food only when it is needed. Food for lunch production doesn’t always have to be issued at 7:00 in the morning. Consider quality, food safety and security and then decide when it is really has to be in the hands of the prep staff.

Point 2-Decisions on how much to issue should be driven by passed history not what the line cook would like to work with.

Point 3-Accountabilty at this stage is critical. Someone should be designated as responsible for the issued foods.

Point 4-Let the prep staff know exactly what the expected yield is. Example: 5 lbs of Ground Beef = 20-4oz. Chop Steaks.

Point 5-There has be a secured space that the food is issued to, it cannot simply sit on a cart or on a work table.

After you have taken a close look at how effectively you are issuing products into production take a look at how we are handling products in production. Critical areas to explore include:

1. Timing-Is food prepped on a timely basis? Is it finished as close to service as possible?
2. Who is accountable at this juncture? Line cook-expeditor-service staff etc.
3. Who is checking quality at this juncture of the flow of food?
4. Is yield matching expectations?

Take a look as you walk the back of the house and review how foods are being handled in production. Pick the five most expensive “center of the plate” items and follow them through the flow of food.

On-Line Success Coaching Service. Check out our one-on-one coaching service at www.ronyudd.com/1on1.php Explore this popular service for building personal and professional success. We have three levels of personal coaching services available. Call for information that can help you go to the next level in your career or improve your effectiveness in your business-301-540-5791.

Take Home Idea of the Month

The best marketing tool to build cover counts is to talk to your existing diners. Build personal relationships with your existing guest. Get to know their likes and dislikes. Talk recipes, special events and local happenings. How often have we heard in our career about how much more expensive it is to attract a new guest vs. keeping the one we have already? It is interesting to note that the operations that consistently maintain strong sales levels seem to know all their customers personally. Yes- the food has to be great but often times it’s the personal touch that has the most impact on the success of your business

Web Site of the Month-This month we have two web sites for you to explore. The first is www.fspronet.com. This is the food service professionals network site. It is a great place to start when exploring our industry. The second site is an interesting culinary site www.foodreference.com. It is filled with cooking tips, recipes and a long list of intriguing links. This is a very cool site that will lead you to other culinary adventures.

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.