A tasty management lesson...
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2002 7:13 pmA tasty management lesson from a less than perfect lunch experience.
Most of us have probably made this blatant management error from time to time; I know I have more times than I care to recall
However, I dont think I had ever experienced this while I was standing on the receiving end of this type of situation {actually in the customers shoes}. At least that was until today, now I know Ive never paid much attention to this common management snafu but from now on, I will.
Allow me just a few seconds to set the stage, so that you might imagine what I saw, but most importantly feel what I felt. In addition, my guess (estimate only of course) is more that 80% of the time your guest feel the same way when you, or someone on your staff makes this egregious mistake.
Today I was supposed to meet one of our salespeople from another facility for a lunch visit. However, when I got to his store to pick him up there was a change of plans. A larger than expected group had left for lunch just prior to me arriving at his store and the sales manager asked him to stick around until a few of the other sales staff had returned from their lunch.
So, there I was with an hour or so for lunch and no one to eat with I decided to try something different rather than most of my usual lunchtime stops. You see it had been raining for several days and none of our stores was exactly overrun with customers this particular afternoon so I had time to have a nice leisurely lunch, rather than a normal hurried meal; you know, the typical rush in, stop, eat & run out or the usual carryout.
I picked a local steak house: (What the heckMontana Mikes I thought to myself). I have worked in this South Texas market for almost a year and a half. But I had avoided this eatery because of a few less than desirable service experiences I had with them during that year I spent working as a trainer in Amarillo.
Nevertheless, many of my friends and colleagues had told me that this Montana Mikes was different, great food and even better service. Therefore, I threw caution to the wind and decided to give this restaurant chain another try.
When I arrived, I was greeted and seated almost immediately with just one tiny problem. Unfortunately, the only clean, available table was a six-top round in the center of a large dining room. A situation like this could easily make a 230-pound () man that is only 5'7" on a good day; eating alone feeling uncomfortable and even a bit self-conscious. The host even said as he was seating me, As soon as we get one of these other tables cleaned off we can move you to a less conspicuous spot, perhaps one on the edge of the room. (That Never Happened) However, one of the advantages to being my size is that Im not easily embarrassed and luckily I have becomes accustomed to sitting in restaurants and eating by myself, especially after three years of being on the road as a consultant.
I mean after all, I was dining alone Its not as if Im going to be sitting here for hours engaged in stimulating conversationRight? WRONG!
Shortly after being seated, I was greeted by an attractive young college age waitress, accompanied by a more mature woman who was obviously training this new eager young server.
I placed my order quickly and in a fashion that I felt was precise Ice tea, grilled salmon, salad with ranch dressing and loaded baked potato. Within less than five minutes I had my tea (without a teaspoon) and my salad. Fortunately, I was resourceful enough to know to use my steak knife as a stirring utensil. Thank goodness, for those years in the good-old Boy Scouts.
Here is where it gets ugly; while I sat there, at least six different members of the serving staff made eye contact with me, several of them more than once.
I mean here I am solo, perched in the middle of a restaurant at this enormous table with an empty ice tea and a steak knife peeking out over the rim my unfilled glass. Thankfully, someone had been kind enough to stop by and remove my empty salad bowl but that was about it.
During the time, I was sitting there unaccompanied with nothing to eat or drink, no one seemed to want to take the initiative to find out if I had been forgotten. Perhaps it was my fault for not speaking up sooner or maybe it is the policy of this restaurant to let you snack on you ice for a while without disturbing you.
After all, I can see how a person my size sitting in the middle of a dining room at a huge round table by himself, might blend into the ambiance after a half hour or so.
Finally! After 41 minutes (but whos counting), the senior server of the duo that took my order originally came to my table and said, That girl is new and she forgot to put your order in. Were sorry and your order should be out shortly.
THE NERVE!
This is where I see the problem
All of the other things that had happened to that point I could live with, but for the supervisor to pass the blame on to subordinate that she was personally overseeing during her training; or any employee for that matter is completely irresponsible. Evidently, she must have thought that she was invisible to me as she shadowed the new server trainee during the lunch shift on the dozen trips they had made into the room together where I was sitting to ignore me.
This is when it hit me Ive done just that. Moreover, I cant begin to tell you how many times Ive heard those exact same words (perhaps arranged in a different order) {Blaming The new kid; The Rookie; The green pea} this is; always has been, and always will be a poor excuse.
I can tell you first hand the public is not buying this excuses any more.
So, STOP USING IT!
Here is what I learned.
No matter whose poor judgment or error created a problem for the customer a manager in any business should always come forward and say this, or some combination of words that are similar and more to their own individual style:
We have dropped the ball. I am sorry, even though I might not be the person who neglected to take care of this. I am the only one who should take the blame. You see, ultimately the performance of our employees is my responsibility. I will personally take ownership if this issue and get it resolved for you as quickly as I can. I hope that the way we handle correcting this oversight will leave a positive memory of our establishment and of this particular unfortunate circumstance Please accept my personal apology.
It is time we all adopt that memorable timeless saying again:
The buck stops here!
Incidentally, incase your wondering, the manager never came out to check on me, I paid the bill and left. However, just before walking out I searched the register area for a comment card. After I filled it, out the young man at the register intercepted it before I could put it in the suggestion box.
I wonder if he read it or if it was tossed away in the round file???
No matter, the lesson I learned was the Silver Lining of this experience
Thanks Montana Mikes
------------------
Greg Machado
E-Commerce Director &
Independant Consultant
gMACgroup.com
machado@gmacgroup.com
210.383.4734
Most of us have probably made this blatant management error from time to time; I know I have more times than I care to recall
However, I dont think I had ever experienced this while I was standing on the receiving end of this type of situation {actually in the customers shoes}. At least that was until today, now I know Ive never paid much attention to this common management snafu but from now on, I will.
Allow me just a few seconds to set the stage, so that you might imagine what I saw, but most importantly feel what I felt. In addition, my guess (estimate only of course) is more that 80% of the time your guest feel the same way when you, or someone on your staff makes this egregious mistake.
Today I was supposed to meet one of our salespeople from another facility for a lunch visit. However, when I got to his store to pick him up there was a change of plans. A larger than expected group had left for lunch just prior to me arriving at his store and the sales manager asked him to stick around until a few of the other sales staff had returned from their lunch.
So, there I was with an hour or so for lunch and no one to eat with I decided to try something different rather than most of my usual lunchtime stops. You see it had been raining for several days and none of our stores was exactly overrun with customers this particular afternoon so I had time to have a nice leisurely lunch, rather than a normal hurried meal; you know, the typical rush in, stop, eat & run out or the usual carryout.
I picked a local steak house: (What the heckMontana Mikes I thought to myself). I have worked in this South Texas market for almost a year and a half. But I had avoided this eatery because of a few less than desirable service experiences I had with them during that year I spent working as a trainer in Amarillo.
Nevertheless, many of my friends and colleagues had told me that this Montana Mikes was different, great food and even better service. Therefore, I threw caution to the wind and decided to give this restaurant chain another try.
When I arrived, I was greeted and seated almost immediately with just one tiny problem. Unfortunately, the only clean, available table was a six-top round in the center of a large dining room. A situation like this could easily make a 230-pound () man that is only 5'7" on a good day; eating alone feeling uncomfortable and even a bit self-conscious. The host even said as he was seating me, As soon as we get one of these other tables cleaned off we can move you to a less conspicuous spot, perhaps one on the edge of the room. (That Never Happened) However, one of the advantages to being my size is that Im not easily embarrassed and luckily I have becomes accustomed to sitting in restaurants and eating by myself, especially after three years of being on the road as a consultant.
I mean after all, I was dining alone Its not as if Im going to be sitting here for hours engaged in stimulating conversationRight? WRONG!
Shortly after being seated, I was greeted by an attractive young college age waitress, accompanied by a more mature woman who was obviously training this new eager young server.
I placed my order quickly and in a fashion that I felt was precise Ice tea, grilled salmon, salad with ranch dressing and loaded baked potato. Within less than five minutes I had my tea (without a teaspoon) and my salad. Fortunately, I was resourceful enough to know to use my steak knife as a stirring utensil. Thank goodness, for those years in the good-old Boy Scouts.
Here is where it gets ugly; while I sat there, at least six different members of the serving staff made eye contact with me, several of them more than once.
I mean here I am solo, perched in the middle of a restaurant at this enormous table with an empty ice tea and a steak knife peeking out over the rim my unfilled glass. Thankfully, someone had been kind enough to stop by and remove my empty salad bowl but that was about it.
During the time, I was sitting there unaccompanied with nothing to eat or drink, no one seemed to want to take the initiative to find out if I had been forgotten. Perhaps it was my fault for not speaking up sooner or maybe it is the policy of this restaurant to let you snack on you ice for a while without disturbing you.
After all, I can see how a person my size sitting in the middle of a dining room at a huge round table by himself, might blend into the ambiance after a half hour or so.
Finally! After 41 minutes (but whos counting), the senior server of the duo that took my order originally came to my table and said, That girl is new and she forgot to put your order in. Were sorry and your order should be out shortly.
THE NERVE!
This is where I see the problem
All of the other things that had happened to that point I could live with, but for the supervisor to pass the blame on to subordinate that she was personally overseeing during her training; or any employee for that matter is completely irresponsible. Evidently, she must have thought that she was invisible to me as she shadowed the new server trainee during the lunch shift on the dozen trips they had made into the room together where I was sitting to ignore me.
This is when it hit me Ive done just that. Moreover, I cant begin to tell you how many times Ive heard those exact same words (perhaps arranged in a different order) {Blaming The new kid; The Rookie; The green pea} this is; always has been, and always will be a poor excuse.
I can tell you first hand the public is not buying this excuses any more.
So, STOP USING IT!
Here is what I learned.
No matter whose poor judgment or error created a problem for the customer a manager in any business should always come forward and say this, or some combination of words that are similar and more to their own individual style:
We have dropped the ball. I am sorry, even though I might not be the person who neglected to take care of this. I am the only one who should take the blame. You see, ultimately the performance of our employees is my responsibility. I will personally take ownership if this issue and get it resolved for you as quickly as I can. I hope that the way we handle correcting this oversight will leave a positive memory of our establishment and of this particular unfortunate circumstance Please accept my personal apology.
It is time we all adopt that memorable timeless saying again:
The buck stops here!
Incidentally, incase your wondering, the manager never came out to check on me, I paid the bill and left. However, just before walking out I searched the register area for a comment card. After I filled it, out the young man at the register intercepted it before I could put it in the suggestion box.
I wonder if he read it or if it was tossed away in the round file???
No matter, the lesson I learned was the Silver Lining of this experience
Thanks Montana Mikes
------------------
Greg Machado
E-Commerce Director &
Independant Consultant
gMACgroup.com
machado@gmacgroup.com
210.383.4734
[This message has been edited by machado (edited 10-26-2002).]