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Q.
What is the best way to schedule and determine the best employees to keep on? Also, since it's not a sit down
restaurant, would a system like RapidFire be necessary right away while I'm learning the business since it is
already relatively successful?
Q.
Big Dave, Two things: (1) I can't even get people to APPLY to join our team. Any thoughts? (2) How do I get
past the gatekeeper and to the administrative assistants that place orders BIG companies that surround me?
Q.
How can I get part time, high school kids (or anybody), to take ownership in what they do?
Q.
How do I hire and retain good drivers in an area where wages are very high and unemployment is almost zero.
Q.
What is the best way to insure portion control, without standing over the employees constantly?
Q.
I have RapidFire and wanted to know how you keep your delivery drivers from highlighting another driver's
record for the night to see what they have done so far. How do you get your delivery drivers to work as a
team when your not there?
Q.
What would you say is the easiest way to motivate your employees, when a large majority of them are part-time
high school student/athletes with little incentive?
Q.
We are new in this business and are working hard at cutting labor cost and would like advise on ways to cut cost
and still have excellent customer service.
Q.
How do you keep steady dependable help when 75% of the positions you are able to offer are part time.
Q.
What is your opinion on staffing with full-time employees versus part-time employees, or is there a desired mix?
Q.
How do you get your employees to care about their work? Paying them more has not worked.
Q.
I need a new pizza person immediately. I don't want the old employee to train the new employee. What do I do?
Do I have to do it myself? Can I put it down on paper?
Q.
I am not sure how much to pay my employees. Some times I think I pay too much, and other times I think they
should get more. How can I make a clear table of salary for them?
Q.
Can I use your system to control my Labor cost (calculation of hours worked)?
Q.
We lost a manager that everybody loved. Our new manager is very competent. It's just that he is not as well
known as our old manager and he doesn't have that magnetic charisma that we are used to having. Then to top
things off, a new competitor, Papa John's, moved in across the street from us. How do we raise sales with new
competition without getting rid of our current manager?
Q.
How do I recruit new couriers for the motorized bicycles and how do I attract new customers without giving (big)
discounts?
Q.
I just
took over a good business which could be a lot better. I have 11
part time employees carry out/delivery only. What is the best way to
schedule and determine the best employees to keep on? They are all
young and attend high school and college. I'm thinking older adults
might be more reliable and conscientious. Also, since it's not a sit
down restaurant, would a system like RapidFire be necessary right
away while I'm learning the business since it is already relatively
successful? A.
Hi Candace, RapidFire thoughts: If your gross sales are under $ 300,000 you're not big enough yet. If sales are between $ 300,000 and $ 500,000 you should really get a demonstration. You can afford the system and you'll experience an immediate ROI. If your sales exceed $ 500,000 it's a no brainer. You really must invest in technology. The savings will pay for the system many times over. If you are writing orders on common guest checks you are getting ripped off. The only question is how much. Your employees think that you are making 50% profit on every sale. Just ask them. They can justify a 5 here and a 10 there. I'd be happy to chat with you on the phone. Call me between 9-5 EST. 1-888-BIG DAVE. The first one is on the house. Good luck. Best wishes, BD
- Randy Blair, Pizza & Pipes, Redwood City, CA A. Hi Randy, Question One: You have tried all of the traditional methods and they haven't done you much good. You have a lot of competition for the same people. If you call RapidFire they will send you a free copy of Big Bucks with Big Dave. In that booklet is an article called How to Hire Eagles that details my hiring practices and philosophy. Like you, the only way I got great new hires was to turn to my existing employees. They were encouraged to recommend friends that would make super crew members. I think your idea of rewarding your customers for leads is great. I've recently done a lot of research on the practice of hiring senior citizens. This has worked very well for McDonalds and Wal-Mart, to name a few. Reaching that specific demographic, with a perfectly crafted message is the challenge. I don't know about you, but I would have loved to balanced my younger crew with an older much more mature influence. Since we agree that we're in a competitive state, let's start to market your store. Since you gotta fish where the fish are, I'd barter out a couple of slick full color wanted posters with a computer friend or printer. I'd find a way to post them in senior centers, churches, grocery stores, high school and college common areas and so on. Any place potential hires frequent. I'd pass on the bars and parole officers. This poster should be an invitation to have fun and earn extra money. Wages are the sixth thing on the hierarchy list of why people work where they do. My thoughts on the wage scale disparity are: Charge enough for your pizza that will allow you to pay the prevailing wage scale in your market area. Out source all non essential work to vendors. Avoid spending any more for labor than you have to. Eliminate mundane prep tasks like chopping all of your own produce and washing your own windows. Invest in tools that speed up the operation and eliminate the need for extra people. Be prepared for a $0.50 hour increase in minimum wage this coming new year and the same for 2002. It will happen. Get proactive on this one. I never thought I'd advise this but the times they are a changin'. I'd actively pursue, seek out and meet with potential superstars on their turf. Question Two: They often prefer to pay with a check or credit card or ask you to wait until accounting cuts the check. Design a B&I (business and industry) menu. It's so confusing ordering ala carte off of a menu for an office, for them and you. Adopt the number system for bundled lunch offerings similar to Mickey Ds. Now print up some copies on your PC and hit the bricks at lunch. Next get a copy of the targeted companies internal phone directory, the extension, department and voice mail thing. I'm sure that many of your existing customers have access to them. Then call the department head and tell them they have been randomly chosen to be the recipient of the office of the week. This entitles them to free lunch, compliments of Pizza & Pipes for tomorrow. Set a limit on how many you'll comp. If they blow you off (they won't) keep dialing. Who says TANSTAAFL? This stands for 'their ain't no such thing as a free lunch.' When you arrive at their office strut in like a hero, announcing that you have FREE LUNCH for Ms. Jones. Handing out your new menus and office cube (refrigerator) magnets that have your logo, phone, fax and Who says TANSTAAFL? mantra printed on it. If you're up to it, for a dollar more, you can get the same information imprinted on a mouse pad for the decision maker. Leave behind lots of this stuff. You will be the talk of the building if you do it several times. The next time they order charge them accordingly. Now you have broken even on food and labor cost. The third time they order really blow them away with the Tijuana Toss. When you get to the delivery point of contact, take out a silver dollar and tell them if the coin comes up heads lunch is on you, tails and they pay. Get the most important looking person in the vicinity to do the toss. No matter the outcome you will become famous overnight. Looking down the road the food you comp in the beginning will be returned to you over and over and over. This promotion accomplishes both of my goals for marketing. First, we will accomplish ATR, awareness, trial & repeat. Secondly you will deliver Positively Outrageous Service. T Scott Gross coined the phrase and defines it as an experience that is;
Who says TANSTAAFL? Q.
I have specific written instruction
on how to handle certain tasks at the shop, but I can't get the part
time staff to handle them with any day-in day-out regularity. I've
tried everything from firing, saying nothing, or repeating it over
and over again with little affect. How can I get part time, high
school kids (or anybody), to take ownership in what they do?
A. This topic has got to be one of the most universal concerns in our industry. Would you please read the answer I left for Damon Matthewson of Delphi, IN. His challenge was along the same lines and will help you out. Check it out. If you need more in depth specific answers I'd be happy to discuss them with you at Pizza Expo 2000 at the RapidFire booth.
Q.
How do I hire and retain good drivers
in an area where wages are very high and unemployment is almost
zero. A. I think you may be overlooking the obvious. Delivering pizza can be very lucrative. Much better than entry level wages. Why not create a job description like this?
Talk about the benefits and create a mind set for applicants. I also would encourage you to look at seniors and retirees. How did McDonalds do it? Creatively borrow from industry leaders.
Q.
What is the best way to insure
portion control, without standing over the employees
constantly? Using lists posted in all stations hasn't worked,
neither has showing inventory and bills to prove why raises can't be
given until food costs are lower. I have employees with "I
don't care" attitudes towards portion control. But excel in
most other areas. A.
Don't you just love "I don't care"
attitudes. These attitudes will bankrupt you, financially as
well as emotionally. If the crew doesn't give a $&@* about
food cost they probably don't give great service every time
either. Am I right? It's a plague, and congress is voting
on giving these darlings another wage hike. It makes me crazy
too, but I have the silver bullet. Since the work ethic that
entrepreneurs live by is so rarely taught at the kitchen table
anymore we must take on that added responsibility because most
parents fail miserably in this area. The biggest area that
needs to be addressed is the proper portioning of cheese. I designed
an idiot proof system about 15 years ago and it works. By adapting
my method most of my clients have saved at least 20% of their total
weekly cheese purchases. In my case the savings was over 200
poundss a week. $300 a week, $15,000 a
year......FOREVER. I must ask you to surf over to Pizza
Marketing Quarterly's web page. Under the discussion forum I
have a dandy solution. It's called Ultimate Cheese
Control. Go to http://www.pmq.com/ As far as other toppings I use digital portion control scales on
my make line. I like the ones with a reset pedal on the floor
that tares the scale back to zero after every item. If you give
your employees all of the tools they need, and train them how to use
them and they still resist, fire every one of them and shut
down and start over. The tail can not wag the dog. After
the first one or two career changes in your staff they will come
around. I guarantee it.
On a related matter, I had a food spoilage/rotation problem
several years ago. My manager (who is bonused on food and labor
cost) had tried everything. No dice. His threatening, begging
and nagging had not worked. We were throwing out over $20 a day. No
excuse, just sloppy and attitude. He brought the problem to me
and I asked him who owned the responsibility of rotation. He said
"Doug K". I slid up to Doug and pretended that I was short of
cash and asked to borrow $20. He whipped a 20 on me and we
moseyed over to the stove area where I dropped the bill into the
open flames of the range. His eyes bugged out and he mouthed
the words "What in the hell did you do that for?" I smiled my
biggest smile and asked him how it felt to lose $20 of his
money. I continued "Every day you fail to rotate, date and
personally inspect the food quality I (Big Dave's Pizza) lose about
$20. I'm sick of it, it will end as of now and I'm not paying
you back." He felt the pain. Within the next three hours, Doug
borrowed $10 from each of his crew members and they even borrowed $5
from a driver. They had a brand new outlook on food cost from
that time forward. Waste went to a rock bottom low and morale
went to a new high. The only problem is no one will loan me any
more money anymore. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. That night
several parents of my employees called me and made me aware that I
could be arrested and charged with a federal crime for my actions. I
just smiled and gave a lame answer. Secretly, I think they
admired me. Q.
I have RapidFire and wanted to
know how you keep your delivery drivers from highlighting another
driver's record for the night to see what they have done so far.
When I am not at my restaurant my drivers fight over who is going to
do which delivery. They only want the deliveries with the big
tips that won't take too much time. Is there a way to put a password
on what the drivers have done so far? How do you get your delivery
drivers to work as a team when your not there? A.
I insisted that the first driver at the top of the
screen took the next available delivery. Period. End of
discussion. Playing games is counter productive to customer
satisfaction. When it's all over and done at the end of the shift,
tips usually even out. During peak times (when your jammin')
5-9 p.m., try using an expediter to route your drivers. They
return from delivery and the asst. manager has everything ready for
them to leave immediately. I turn my drivers in less than 30
seconds on weekends. They are too busy to snoop around the
computer and have no say when and where they are going to. At
this time there is no password to lock out drivers.
As far as teamwork. I bonus all of my full time drivers $20 a
week and my part timers $10 a week for flawless
performance. This means if they play by the rules and have
zero chargeable errors for the week they get $20 extra in their
pay. For every chargeable error they occur they lose $5, down to no
bonus. This is a measurable grade they receive. As a group (all
drivers) for every week they have zero errors I toss in a $25 gift
certificate at a local gas station. We then have a drawing for
the winner. If the entire group has an entire month error free
I buy every one of them a free fill up. They will become self
policing and work as a team for the common good. I have some drivers
that have gone 5 months error free. It really is a small price
to pay for total customer satisfaction. I also have a similar
incentive for my cooks. They really start paying attention to
the small details and start reading the tickets. Remember, there is
no I in TEAM.
The really cool thing is that RapidFire's reports are so detailed
that nothing slips through the cracks. Q.
What would you say is the easiest
way to motivate your employees, when a large majority of them
are part-time high school student/athletes with little incentive?
A.
I think you have the answer. Never in my career
has it been so hard to find, identify, train and retain food service
employees. All other industries are finding it just as
hard. My suggestions to you are:
Q.
We are new in this business and are
working hard at cutting labor cost and would like advise on ways to
cut cost and still have excellent customer service. A.
I think your priorities are backwards. Instead of
cutting labor I'd be researching ways to increase labor. What I
mean is raising sales. Underpaid employees usually don't deliver
excellent service. One way that I've controlled labor cost is
to cross train all of my crew so they can Make it, Bake it &
Take it. Once they become cross trained I can do more sales with
less staff. When a person can do one of the three proficiently
they receive minimum wage plus 50 cents. Every time they want a
raise they must master another job skill. Each one is worth a
dollar an hour. Six cross trained hustlers can out produce 10
people in training. The ultimate way to control labor cost is
the reports that RapidFire produces. The computer is the time
clock and will give you labor reports to the minute as a percentage
of sales. I think the ideal percent is around 23%. Q.
How do you keep steady dependable help
when 75% of the positions you are able to offer are part time. We
feel at times we are constantly training, which increases labor.
A.
Until times change and you are able to get your mix
of full and part timers at 50/50 you're going to be constantly
training. What keeps you from doing that now? I figure it costs me
over $1000 to train a new hire. If I invest that much fifteen times
a year, why not lean towards more full timers? You'll save money in
the long haul. Q. We are preparing to open our
second pizzeria. What is your opinion on staffing with full-time
employees versus part-time employees, or is there a desired mix?
A.
I'm so happy to latch on to a super star, I don't
care if they are full or part time. In the perfect world I would
hire a 50/50 mix. The full timers would bring stability and
continuity to training, systems and customer service. The part
timers would be able to fill in the schedule during peak rush times.
I would offer full time positions to the most achieving part timers.
Drawbacks on part timers are the multitude of employment of
minors rules. The state and feds equate employers as sweatshop
employers when we work the little ones past 10:00 pm or past just a
few hours a week when they are students. The fines and penalties are
ugly.
When I was 17, a senior in high school, I managed a pizzeria in
Detroit. I worked the store 55 hours a week. My grades were all A's
and B's. I made as much money as my Dad and didn't fall asleep in
class. I'm sure this experience made me a better adult with high
personal achievement goals as an adult. Times change, and so must
we. Q.
How do you get your employees to
care about their work? Paying them more has not worked.
A.
It all starts out with hiring the right people. In
order to get ahead of your competition and be number one in your
town you have got to love serving people. You are the model that
your crew follows. My biggest challenges are: You need to address all three of these issues before you hire
them. You must tell them your story. How you started in the business
and how you got to where you are. They must have hope for the
future. Food service has created thousands of millionaires. You will
be teaching them a life skill, and be paying them while they learn.
They must feel pride in where they work. You run a very flexible
organization. Time off, accommodating scheduling, free food, etc.
Now attitude is the hardest. When you tell them how to do the
job, tell them why they should do it that way. Eventually your way
of thinking will rub off on them. Beg them to ask you questions on
why you do things like you do. Explain that in order to make more
than low wages you have to care about and put forth extra effort.
When they are caught being good, give them a small reward. Money is
the seventh criteria in the minds of employees on why they work
where they work. Behavior that is rewarded is behavior that is
repeated. I have been rubber stamping every paycheck for the past
ten years with the words "A Satisfied Customer Made This Paycheck
Possible". Finally, make your place a fun place to work. Hire smiling faces
and encourage them everyday. Ask them what you can do to make work
more fun. Q. I had an employee which I had to let go. I need a
new pizza person immediately. I don't want the old employee to train
the new employee. What do I do? Do I have to do it myself? Can I put
it down on paper? A.
Nobody does it like you, is a truism. If you
are uncomfortable with the old employee training the new hire for
what ever reason, I'm afraid you will have to do it. Pizza
making is a hands on art. I don't think putting it on paper is
worth the time it takes. May I make a suggestion? Hire
two people instead of one. Break down the pizza making process
into small components.
With two apprentices you'll be able to compare their talent
factors and let them compete a little for the job. You will be
teaching them a life skill that will forever keep them from being
unemployed. Pretend they are babies and are learning to
walk. Just don't use the baby talk. Every time they make
a step forward, praise them till your tongue bleeds. When they
are competent in one area teach them the next. When they have
mastered all of the above skills, throw a party and present them
with a customized apron. Make a big deal out of it. If
you are able to clone yourself you may never have to train another
new hire again. You'll just pay them a little extra to do it
for you. I know how hard it is to find and train new hires. I must
have done it at least 100 times. If you encourage, praise, reward
and bonus them, it will take the drudgery out of it and they will
make it fun when it's their time to train someone. The other
benefit of this system is you'll have two great pizza makers and
have a little leverage with the old employees that are less
responsive to your way of doing things. Q. I am not sure how much to pay
my employees. Sometimes I think I pay too much, and other times I
think they should get more. How can I make a clear table of salary
for them? A.
I must admit that am not familiar with wage issues
in Mexico. In the USA all businesses are required to pay minimum
wage. This is currently $5.15 per hour. After working 40 hours in
one week, we are required to pay time and a half. There are a few
exceptions for minors and agricultural workers but not many. The industry standard for computing labor cost in Dollars / Pesos
is around 20 - 25% of gross sales. This does not include mandated
additional charges for social security, Medicare, workman's'
compensation insurance or unemployment insurance premiums. These
extra charges can raise the minimum wage to well over US $6.25 per
hour. The USA is currently experiencing the lowest unemployment
percentage in my lifetime. The available people seeking work is at
an all time low. It seems that everyone that wants to work is
working, and all we have to choose from are young, inexperienced
students. This has created havoc in the food service industry
because we hire in so many young first time employees. It could be
worse. I have a colleague in Australia that says minimum wage there
is $11.00 an hour. Q. Can I use your system to control my
Labor cost (calculation of hours worked)? A.
Absolutely. It's so easy. RapidFire becomes
your time clock. Every employee is assigned an identification
number. When they come to work they clock in on the system. When
they leave they clock out. RapidFire keeps a running total of all
sales as well as all labor costs to the minute. At any time you, or
your manager, can touch the screen and get an hour by hour breakdown
of sales, labor cost in money as well as labor cost in percent. You
will never again ask yourself the question, "What was my labor cost
for the day?" At the end of the night when you print your reports
you will get a hard copy of sales, labor, productivity, who took
every order, how long it took them to process the order, ideal cash
deposit as well as cash over/short. This is the short list. I also
print a labor cost for the week as well as monthly. Since the only 2 variables my managers have under their direct
immediate control is food and labor cost, (how much the staff puts
on the pizza and how much money it took to fulfill the orders) this
is how I bonus them. They monitor the labor cost like an eagle and
send people home early when we're slow as well as call extra people
in when we get busy. Labor cost is so hard to control you'll wonder how you did it
before RapidFire. Personally, I guessed a lot and was surprised
every month when I got my end of month financials. Q. We had a manager that everybody loved.
The customers, employees, and anybody that he ever talked to. He
franchised and now we have a new manager. He is a great guy, but he
just doesn't have the people skills that we are used to. Then to top
things off, a new competitor, Papa John's, moved in across the
street from us. Our sales have been down for the last 6 months and I
was wondering how to get sales back up? Our service is the best that
it has ever been. Our pizzas look and taste just as good as they
always did, and our new manager is very competent. It's just that he
is not as well known as our old manager and he doesn't have that
magnetic charisma that we are used to having. How do we raise sales
with new competition without getting rid of our current
manager? A.
You've got to get over the loss of your old manager.
Once or twice in a career you are privileged to work along side of a
person that has the gift of magnetic charisma. I believe you
can learn almost anything relating to a job skill but a truly
charismatic personality is not teachable. It's a gift to be shared
with others. Thank your lucky stars you were able to work with your
prior manager. He must have had a very positive influence on you and
your crew. No other manager could ever fill his shoes. So what are
we to do? I'm looking at two issues. The first is a new manager that can
never fill his predecessors shoes. How do you think he feels? I
think you would have a little more understanding if you were not in
the middle of a sales slump. I think that's the only key issue we
can focus on. I discern no hint of incompetence in your current
manager. He simply is different than Mr. Wonderful. The only
suggestion I would make is to have Mr. Wonderful mentor your new
manager in the ways he developed to energize your store. Then I
would have him do store manager seminars throughout the
organization. I'd love to chat with him someday. On to the competition. Did you think that your sales would
increase after a very worthy competitor opened up? Did you have a
plan in place to slug it out before, during and after their grand
opening? They are cleaning your clock and you're looking for a
reason. Let's blame it on the manager. Don't you see it's nobodies
fault. Not yours or his. It's as predictable as the seasons.
Whenever a competitor enters your market they will take a piece of
your pie. (no pun intended) The challenge is, what are you going to
do about it? My reaction is develop a plan of attack on your competition and
get down and dirty. Fortunately you know all of Papa John's
strengths and weaknesses, as well as your own. I think you are
responding to the competition reactively rather than pro actively.
You are on the defensive rather than the offensive. You job is to
cover up your weaknesses and expose theirs. Create doubt. Finally I
would covet my existing customers. I would implement a Customer
Appreciation Night and The Ultimate Pizza Guarantee. I
would mail my data base and would find out how I could mail my
competitors. Call RapidFire at 1-800-676-1059 for a free copy of my
booklet Big Bucks with Big Dave. Purchase How to Drive
Your Competition Crazy by Guy Kawasaki. Then buy Positively
Outrageous Service by T. Scott Gross. Oh yeah, read them cover
to cover. You might want to read my article in the Spring 2000 issue
of Pizza Marketing Quarterly, High Touch Tactics =
Customers for Life. These books and articles are packed with
strategies on how to be competition proof. Good luck. Q. How do I recruit new
couriers for the motorized bicycles and how do I attract new
customers without giving (big) discounts? A.
These ideas have worked for me and many of my
clients. Recruiting can be done one of two ways. The first, more traditional way is to advertise. Place signs and
advertisements. Paid ads are expensive. Why not pay your existing employees for introducing and mentoring
new hires? A great employee is not born, they have to be trained,
trained and trained some more. I post a job opening on the
employees' bulletin board. "If any of your friends would be
interested in working here advise them to come in soon and fill out
a job application. I need 2 couriers immediately." The cool part
about this system is after I interview and background check the
applicant I have a conversation with his or her friend. I ask lots
of questions about their friend. I probe deeply into their
reputation, good and bad habits, honesty level. I couldn't ask these
questions to the applicant directly because of discrimination laws
in the USA. Once I feel good about the candidate I ask the friend a
few questions and we agree on an informal contract. The questions
are, "If I decide to hire your friend / acquaintance on your
recommendation and a positive interview, will you sponsor him?
Sponsoring a new hire means that you will do most of the training,
answer questions in my behalf and generally see to it that they
succeed in their new job. If the sponsor agrees we shake hands and
have a deal. The deal is, if the new hire is working well on the job
for 10 weeks I agree to pay the sponsor $100. If the new hire is not
employed after 10 weeks, for any reason, the sponsor agrees to pay
me $50. This has worked well for the past 15 years. I get no half hearted
endorsements and answer the question to the sponsor," What's in it
for me, why should I bother?" $100, amortized over 10 weeks and
possibly much longer is a small price to pay for high caliber
employees. Besides the new employees will accept criticism from a
friend rather than the boss. I willingly paid out thousands and only
collected two 50s. Part two: How are you creating awareness of your pizza? Is it cost
effective? Are you sure? I'm a guerilla marketer, I creep in on my
competitors' customers, sample them and disappear. I keep in touch
with my new potential customers with my RapidFire POS computer
system and mail them thank you post cards and low liability
discounts until they become a regular customer or don't respond
anymore. I can't outspend my competitors by I can out flank and
maneuver them. Some of my all time favorites promotions are in
Big Bucks with Big Dave. I collaborated with the fine folks
at RapidFire and they are free for the asking. I would also
personally like to invite you to attend Pizza Expo 2000. I'll be
available to answer questions in a one on one setting in the
RapidFire booth. Q. I have a tough time getting good employees, but
when I do find them, I wish I could find more. Do you have any
suggestions? A. Remember the phrase, "You are judged by
the company you keep?", it's true and applies to your best
employees. After working at Big Dave's for six months, my employees
are allowed to recommend a friend to be hired. The applicant fills
out their application, I interview the friend who works for me, and
then I interview the applicant. My employee has to agree to
'sponsor' the employee. If I hire the applicant, and he/she makes it
to the end of their 10 week probationary period, the sponsor
receives a crisp $50 bill. And if for any reason the new hire
doesn't make it past the 10 weeks, the sponsor pays me $25. I assure
you this works great. No more half-hearted endorsements! You'll be
sure to have a good crew. |
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