The SCORE 2014 Issue 4 2014 | Page 26

What You Get Paid For: An Open Letter from the Owner to the Crew By Jim Sullivan Dear Team Member, 2014 Issue 4 | the SCORE 24 I’ve been thinking. In the last decade the customer has been really good to us despite the fact that we may not have always been at our best for them. Americans dined out as much as five times weekly in the previous decade, and we saw higher comparable same store sales quarter after quarter. Traffic was good and even when we screwed up, the customer seemed to forgive us. Even if they didn’t come back, another customer seemed to take their place at the counter or the table or the drive-thru. This got us all believing after a while that maybe we were running this thing for ourselves and not the customer. But the swift kick-in-the-butt that the Great Recession has given our industry woke me up to a sad reality: I think we became complacent, unfocused and lost sight of what we get paid for. Shame on me for not pointing this out earlier and more often with each of you, but we were just too busy. Or maybe I just didn’t make the time (I guess it’s true that volume can hide a multitude of sins). Either way, we unfortunately have the time now, because our business is down and no one seems to know exactly what to do. We can certainly blame the economy for the dip, but why are some places still doing well and we’re not as good as we were? Maybe we all took our eye off the ball. So I hope you don’t mind me taking a moment to remind you that the CUSTOMER is “why” and here’s What You Get Paid For... • Be nice to the people with the money. Everything that you or I will ever have is currently in the hands of someone else: the customer. Our business is run first for their enjoyment and satisfaction, then yours. This I swear: I will never forget that again when the upturn comes. Service has always been our invisible product. It can’t be stored, but it can be given away. It can’t I believe in people and think they are more effective when given principles rather than procedures, strategies rather than tactics, whys rather than wants. -Harvey Golub be discounted or prepared, but it can be super-sized and delivered. It’s most genuine when spontaneous and at its worst when it’s discretionary. It makes a good meal taste better and customers come back. It makes our food and beverage taste better. It costs us nothing. So heap it on. And it’s as simple as beginning every transaction with a smile. • Minimize costs. Do you know what the average pretax profit is in our business? Less than a nickel on the dollar. That’s right. I spend 95 percent of my revenue to pay for food, beverage, utilities, napkins, rent, labor, franchise fees and waste. Then I pay taxes out of the remaining five cents gross profit. Please follow our recipes, suggestively sell and don’t over portion, overheat or break, twist, bend or snap things that aren’t meant to bend, snap, twist or break. • Maximize sales. I do not pay you. The customer does. When a customer buys a beverage, sandwich, side or dessert, that purchase barely covers the cost of our sourcing, buying, storing, prepping and serving it. When you suggest and sell a beverage, side or dessert, we stand a chance of making that nickel on the dollar. Chances are that if you don’t, we won’t. The future of your job hangs in the balance. To sell is to serve. • Tell the truth. Teams must trust one another. “Lying makes a problem part of the future,” said basketball coach Rick