Holiday Gift Sets

This winter, our region was chosen to be a test market for Holiday Gift Sets. These gift sets include a calendar, gift card, holiday plush cow, cow ornament/gift card holder, and are held in a limited edition cow nutcracker box. They cost $10 + the value of a gift card and are targeted towards customers who are searching for a gift for someone that they are not necessarily close to (i.e. a teacher, mailman, tennis partner, etc).

Each unit was shipped and charged for 450 sets in October. Being a bit of a pessimist, I thought that we would have trouble selling more than 50 of these Gift Sets. After paying the bill, however, I decided that selling this few would simply not be an option.
After meeting with my UMD and my leadership, we devised a month-long strategy to aggressively market the Holiday Gift Set during the Christmas season.

Product Display
First, we placed numerous displays around our restaurant to increase customer awareness. We had a basket display in our Dining Room, a hanging display with fishing line above our registers (I was initially against this because it wasn’t very attractive but was a big fan after witnessing its effectiveness), and a display in our Drive Thru window as well as signage around our Drive Thru queue.

The Contest
We divided the entire team into 3 groups, with each leader in our store leading each group. We put a huge sign in our break room with a Christmas tree and a ladder. Each team had a colored snowman that would climb the ladder as the teams sold gift sets. We set a grand prize for the team that sold the most gift sets and smaller prizes for each team that crossed various milestones. For instance, when a team sold 25 gift sets, each member of the team received a free milkshake. The higher the milestone, the better the prize.


Implementation
It was leadership’s responsibility to stir up the competitive juices in the store and pump up their respective teams to sell the gift sets. They did not disappoint. After about 2 weeks of the competition, it was all any of the team members were talking about. Leadership was constantly jawing at one another. Team members were taking gift sets to their churches and schools to sell. People were asking their parents and husbands to sell them at work. It was really incredible how excited the team was over this competition!

The Results
When the dust finally settled, our restaurant had sold 420 gift sets, FAR more than I ever would have guessed at the beginning. To put it in perspective, other local Chick-fil-A’s totals were 100, 150, and 250. This has been such a positive experience – the restaurant was more profitable in December and the leaders and team members are energized and motivated heading into January.

Signage

Signage is an important (and often overlooked) means of communication with the team. It is a very effective way to communicate vision and measure development.

This past month, I took down all of the old signs and replaced them with my own new signs. This had an immediate effect on the team and has continued to improve performance. The entire first week after hanging the new signs, there was a general buzz around the store – with team members were discussing what they were reading and asking questions about what certain things meant.

The new signs have also provided me with a way to create competition and accountability. For example, recently our closes have not been up to par in terms of cleanliness and setting the morning shift up for success. I decided to create a closing grade sheet and post each night’s sheet on the wall, along with the names of the closers and the date, and those grades stay up for an entire week. Initially, this improved performance because people did not want their names associated with terrible scores. Now, however, performance is continuing to improve as the closing teams are trying to top one another. I often hear people claiming that their close is going to be “the new record” or “the first perfect score."

Hanging these grade sheets, as well as the other signs, has significantly impacted the team at Federal Heights.