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