Terrible staff attract a lot of [unwanted] attention!
Only a fool would purchase a million dollar race horse and then hire a fat, washed up jockey to race it. So why do so many business owners invest countless dollars into building restaurants and then employ miserable jerks as hosts, bartenders or servers!?
A client called the other day and asked what they should do about the horrific feedback there are getting on YELP. While on the phone with him I reviewed the comments posted by angry (former) customers and replied, “FIRE the knuckleheads that work for you who are offending your customers!”
Honestly, no training program, pep talk or team building exercise is going to transform a person who HATES their job into being a “A Player” who thrives to deliver happiness 300 times a night, 5 days a week. Like they say, you can’t polish a turd!
I know… YES, they seemed very sweet at the interview. YES, you have invested months of time into them. And, YES it causes short term pain and uncertainty to “free up someone’s future”. But in most cases it is the only choice, so get over it, and get it done!
Have you ever wondered how the top restaurants in your city manage to employ all of those great staff…you know, the venues that are FULL on a Tuesday night?!
They do 2 things that most restaurants simply DON’T DO: 1. RECRUIT (find GREAT people); and 2. TRAIN (I mean a real induction, not just a couple of shadow shifts).
#1. RECRUITMENT: You encounter A-Players every week (if you are looking for them) working at the grocery store, the woman that lives five doors down or even at your bank (a client recently hired his bank manager as his restaurant AGM). Top restaurant owners approach these folks, offer them a career in our industry (“no experience needed - WE TRAIN”) and to their surprise, many jump at the chance and opportunity. Business cards are cheap and recruitment needs to be a DAILY FOCUS if you wish to find the best operators in our industry.
#2. TRAINING: In a transient industry like ours, YOU MUST employ a manager who loves to train and is good at it (hint: bring one in from another industry). Don’t be afraid to cut staff after 2 weeks if they don’t have what it takes. Employ people who will invest 8 weeks learning “YOUR WAY to do business”.
I know this is harder than it sounds but it is a hell of a lot easier than devising a plan to stop the army of angry amateur restaurant critics that now have a HUGE voice on social media sites.
The restaurant business has changed - it got tougher. Have you?
Last year at the Bar Convent Berlin I was asked to do a talk on “The Importance of Continuing Training” (yes I know… they had to book a bigger room and make sure there were defibrillators on standby for that one) in which I argued that regular and continuing training was the key to a successful business in terms of profit and staff retention. Training is not a quarterly, monthly or weekly activity but an hourly activity. By creating a ‘training environment’ whereby Staff see the importance of learning (and being tested) as well as using peer to peer coaching and the presence of team leaders and role models within the bar then great bartenders and great profits would issue forth.
This was bought home to me recently when I was invited to judge the recent Gin Burst of the Diageo World Class Program. 5 bartenders in four UK regions were invited to make a signature cocktail as well as Classic from a pre-selected list. They had to impress us with their taste, aroma, appearance, knowledge and bar skills (not their own appearance, aroma etc of course but that of their drink’s…)
Now all of them made tasty and good looking drinks but their knowledge and bar skills seemed ‘less than’ I would have expected. My own peer group was superbly talented (the like of Wayne Collins, Micheal Butt, Pete Kendall, Charlotte Voisey, Jason Crawley and many many others) yet their expertise seemed not to have trickled down to the generation below.
Then I realised that all of the bartenders I would claim to be excellent “Role Models” from my generation are all now out of the bartending business. They are Brand Ambassadors, Corporate Trainers and Bar Consultants but not Bar Managers and certainly not still “just” bartenders. This has led to a “brain drain” that I fear is harmful to the younger generation of bartenders. To be trained by a great bartender is fine but to work alongside a great bartender is infinitely better. Consistency is key to any successful hospitality business, no more so than in training.
Sometimes cocktails take ages to perfect and learn how to make… some take seconds and are just as tasty. This cocktail, named simply after the area code of the city that it was invented in but cleverly also reminds the bartender of the proportion of the recipe is simplicity itself and is called the 212.
Taking first a double measure of quality silver tequila (premium silver tequila continues to grow in popularity as the finest expression of an agave distillate with aged versions showing more wood influences) Willy Shine and Aisha Sharpe of cool NYC cocktail consultants then added a measure of Aperol (a sort of Campari-lite) and then two measures of fresh pink grapefruit juice. 2:1:2. They did this while sitting late night in a NY “Speakeasy” style bar and the name just came to them.
Wonderfully fresh and with both a spike of decent tequila and the unique flavour of the Aperol this makes a refreshing summer drink or aperitif and can be made in high end cocktail bars on your own kitchen…. The mark of a truly great drink
We recently began a project in Washington DC to restructure a very successful bar/restaurant that has been in business for over a quarter of a century.
The assignment is simple; assess the current situation, determine the potential, write a strategic business plan and then hire a new general manager to help us close the gap.
This week we began interviewing potential General Managers to execute our plan. We cast the net as wide as possible by advertising online, putting the word out around town and contracting a headhunter. The resumes have been pouring in.
At our first round of interviews we met with several managers who all had at least 10 years of senior hospitality management experience. Most of their resumes detailed complex duties that these managers specialized in and boasted of years of triumphs, despite the budgets in the under funded operations in which they served.
Some probing questions at the first interview quickly revealed that many of the resumes did not tell the whole story. In fact some of the details that were shared with us about how these prospects conducted themselves in the past gave us grounds to immediately terminate the interview but I was no more able to do that than I am to look the other way when driving by the wreckage of a recent car accident.
The majority of these job seekers had abruptly left (or were dismissed) their last 4 or 5 jobs in search of greener pastures when things were not working out. Sadly the point had escaped them that as General Manager, the core functionally is to CREATE GREENER PASTURES!
While we are only in search for one great manager for this particular project it is a fact that our industry is in need of many more.
As I work through this process I am constantly reminded of a statement that I heard many years ago, but appreciate more each year and that is – A business will never outperform its management capacity for any length of time.
Wanted: GM who can lead a restaurant from “Good to Great”.
My name is Jason Jelicich (or ‘JJ’ to keep it simple…) and I will be a regular blogger here at barmetrix.com.
In 1984 my father owned and ran one of the coolest nightclubs in town and, being a rather typical 14 years old, I managed to talk my way in and put drinks on Dad’s account (until he found out and cancelled it). At 16 I was bartending at his new place down the road and, at 18, I was managing my first bar in Sydney.
20 years later and I wonder sometimes what it would have been like to have had a ‘real’ job… I did have a dalliance with it for a few years, working in sales & marketing at Diageo (then UDV) and then decided to get out into business for myself in 1997, training and consulting to the liquor industry.
I am a passionate advocate of service – something that our industry is all about. I feel strongly that bartenders and servers have a ‘social responsibility’ to help the nine to fivers (and others) unwind and be able to self-express in a safe and supportive environment. The use of liquor is one tool in our armoury, to achieve this – but cannot override the innate need of the guest (which is often me and you) to feel great and have an enjoyable time.
This industry is all about service – and never more so than right now. Once, a venue may have attracted customers because it had the best fit-out (whether they came back or not was another question…) or because they had new/ innovative food or drinks – but this is no longer an advantage. The only real advantage is the level of focus and care given to the guests on a day to day basis – this is what brings them back.
I see venue after venue falling into trap of focusing on everything EXCEPT service i.e. marketing, entertainment, fit-outs, uniforms, regulatory requirements etc – but WHERE’S THE SERVICE FOCUS??
You’ll hear me harp on a lot about this so, if you’re a drinks nut, log in and mop up some of the beguiling overflow from Angus’ encyclopedic cocktail mind. But if you are intrigued in the human to human contact and see the knowledge and techniques at your disposal as tools to deepen that relationship…then please make this a two-way street and tag a comment or two where relevant (at the very least it lets me know someone cares…lol)
Anyways, that may give you an idea where I’m coming from. Stay tuned for more on the subject of Service, Training & Training Systems. I got lotsa stuff on my mind…
