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EFFORTLESS, INC.
PO Box 280
Gig Harbor, WA 98335 USA
(800) 767-1055
(253) 858-9255
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| EHC #553
Insights for the Professionally Curious |
September 5, 2008 |
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One of my more difficult weekly tasks is to decide what information I am going to leave OUT of the Complimentary Edition of the EHC. It's not that I don't love you all, just that the folks who are paying for my weekly rants deserve to get their money's worth ... even if that money only averages out to 75 cents an issue. So I apologize for the necessary surgery ... and hope you may eventually decide your business is worth another forty bucks a year! |
Good Morning!
I'm dodging hurricanes in Florida for a few days on a last-minute trip to the Florida Restaurant Show in Orlando to visit with several vendors and talk with some folks from the National Restaurant Association. I want to see what they've got to offer and whether we should try to incorporate their products into the Six Star System. (No sense in re-inventing an application if someone has already invested millions designing it!)
It also gave me a chance to talk over some ideas with Joel Cohen (he is speaking at the show) about how we plan to structure the Last Birthday Bash this November in New Orleans (talk about dodging hurricanes!) If you said you wanted to be notified of special events, watch our in-box next week.
What we do know is that the Bash will be the beta test of the community connection portion of the Six Star Hospitality program. We probably won't have it all online by then, but attendees will get a six-month head start on everyone else when it comes to sales-building support.
I told you the pace would pick up after Labor Day!
Bill Marvin
The Restaurant Doctor |
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 Six Star Hospitality(tm)
Rethinking Restaurants
The Hospitality Imperative
Even though few are enjoying the sales volume they are really capable of generating, most restaurants do a good enough job to stay in business and provide a living for their owners. But good food and friendly service are the price of admission, not a competitive edge. It takes something more to really stand out in a crowded market.
It always seemed ironic to me that the competitive element most responsible for success in the hospitality business ... and the piece most visibly absent ... is hospitality itself!
While restaurant managers talk about offering good service, hospitality is really a better word to describe what they need to provide. Service is mechanical (serve from the left, clear from the right, don't spill wine on the table). But hospitality is personal -- it is about how guests feel about what you did and how you did it. Some describe hospitality as the cordial and generous reception of or disposition toward guests. However you define it, hospitality is a very tangible intangible -- you instantly know when you experience it ... and you know when it is absent.
In his book, Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business, celebrated New York restaurateur Danny Meyer put it this way:
"Hospitality is the foundation of my business philosophy. Virtually nothing else is as important as how one is made to feel in any business transaction. Hospitality exists when you believe the other person is on your side. The converse is just as true. Hospitality is present when something happens FOR you. It is absent when something happens TO you. Those two simple prepositions -- FOR and TO -- express it all."
Is there anything to Danny's notion of the significance of hospitality?
Consider this: in the annual Zagat diner survey, of 18,000 restaurant in New York City (22,000 if you count pizzerias), the five fine dining concepts owned by Danny's Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) are consistently at the top of the popularity list.
Even more impressive is that Danny's Union Square Café has been voted the Most Popular Restaurant in New York City every year since 1997 ... except for four years when the top spot went to the Gramercy Tavern, another USHG restaurant, and the Union Square Café "slipped" to #2!
Eleven years as the most popular restaurants in arguably the toughest and most demanding restaurant market in the country! Unbelievable!
Danny is the first to point out that none of his operations take the top honor for Best Food or Best Service, but when people are asked to name their favorite restaurants, his operations come in at #1 and #2 ... out of 22,000!
The message here is clear: to have an exceptionally successful restaurant, you do not have to be the best at everything you do, you just have to be the favorite of the people you serve. This is a testament to the power of hospitality.
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The Six Star project is taking on a life of its own. I appreciate the 260+ operators who have helped the cause by responding to the general survey. Have I heard from you yet? If not, it's not too late to share your thoughts.
The program designers will need to invent ways to do things that have always seemed impossible ... so what would you like to see invented while they are at it? The next few EHC surveys will take each element of the Six Star program and ask you to go WAY outside the box of what you think is possible.
Essentially we want you to complete this sentence: "Wouldn't it be cool if ______" Go crazy! Be unreasonable! We want to know the resources you wish you had at hand if your wildest dreams could come true. Then we'll see how close we can come to giving them to you.
 The September Survey
All-Star StaffingA common complaint of independent operators is the amount of time they spend trying to keep their shifts filled with quality workers. At the same time, you need an all-star staff to deliver Six Star Hospitality ... so the program will include a proven process to find, select, develop and retain the best of the best.
Without a plan you are just making things up. When you make things up, you risk making mistakes, either by hiring the wrong person or by violating employment laws. Making it up takes more time, is less effective and produces more stress. When you make it up, most of the work falls to the manager ... who already has too much to do. Worst of all, without a plan you don't get the best people and that is the greatest loss of all -- for you, your staff and especially for your guests.
This month's survey outlines what we already intend to create ... and asks for your ideas to help us see even more radical applications. The program designers will need to invent ways to do things that have always seemed impossible ... so we want a "wish list" of the resources you would like to have at hand if your wildest dreams could come true ... then let's see how close we can come to giving it to you.
If you said you wanted to be part of the development process, this is the way to do it right now. I can't ask you to field test something until we have created it!
As usual, I will send copies of the survey results to everyone who participates. In the meantime, you can download copies of all past EHC surveys -- including the massive WOW Ideas collections. Click here to add your thoughts to this month's survey. |
 Here's What You're Passing Up To Save 75 Cents!
In This Week's EHC Special Edition ...
- Give Some, Get Some - a powerful - if counter-intuitive - way to build your bottom line and stand out from the herd
- Can We Talk ... Please? - an employee sounds off about what she really needs from her managers
- Travelers & Tourists - how you look at life makes a major difference in your experience of it
- What Did You Learn From Your Staff Today? - one operator's breakthrough insight into his "best" host staff ... triggered by a conversation with a waiter
- Special Offers on Management Resources - while I am still in that business
Solve the problem of what to talk about in your next staff meeting. Upgrade to the EHC Special Edition and get it all!
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