A New Year

Now that the holiday season has come to an end, we are left with the dreaded months of January and February. The economy in general is much slower, and sales are significantly less than they were just weeks ago.

This is a great time, however, to refocus and reflect on the business. The extreme change from high volume to low volume really exposes each Team Member’s shortcomings, flaws, and areas of inefficiency. It is a great time to communicate goals and coach and develop others.

These 2 months are also a great time to take chances. There are so many areas that need tweaking or reshaping, and we are taking full advantage of the slower volume to accomplish these changes. Areas we are experimenting in include marketing (numerous in-store promotions and an aggressive food distribution plan), training and development (with special emphasis on leadership development), labor costs (finding new ways to increase efficiencies), and more consistent/controlled systems in place (many including firing our cleaning company in order to handle cleanliness in house). The beauty of trying this now is that when they do not work according to plan, our volume is slow enough that we can get through it.

A specific example: we have tried a number of new personnel structures in order to cut down on labor costs this month including eliminating a prep person on Saturday evenings. In this specific example, we ran out of all wraps and salads at 5:30 last Saturday night because we failed to account for the quantity of “New Year’s resolution diets”. We were able to pull a manager and a kitchen person to catch back up on prep because of our reduced sales, and the guest experience was not even affected. We can still implement our plan, but now we know to schedule someone in the kitchen who is proficient in food prep in case we run out of something again.

The next two months are looking to be exciting despite the slower sales volume because of our plans to take chances, improve our restaurant, and try new things!

“Ship” It!

Seth Godin (who I have referenced in previous posts) is big into the concept of “shipping”. In other words, what projects or accomplishments have you seen through all the way to completion? What have you shipped? The end of the year is a great time for reflection, so I have decided to post a list of everything I have “shipped” this year.

-Successful transition of Federal Heights FSU to Scott When (Scott finished his first month with an 18% sales increase from the previous year)
-Launched a blog to chronicle my Chick-fil-A highlights
-Assisted Doug Bizerra in a successful Spicy Chicken Sandwich Rollout
-Trained 3 new leaders at Chick-fil-A at Gardens on Havana
-Completed 2 transitions at Chick-fil-A at West Oaks Mall (an Operator to Interim Manager transition and a Interim Manager to Interim Manager transition)
-Completed a massive cleaning and maintenance project at West Oaks Mall that saved Chick-fil-A, Inc thousands (literally!) of dollars in replacement equipment
-Part of an elite team at Chick-fil-A at Fox Valley Center that set numerous sales and Grand Opening Records including the largest Grand Opening Day in Chick-fil-A history
-Key leader at Chick-fil-A at Fox Valley Center where we reached over $1.5 million in sales in the 4th quarter with a brand new team

This was a fun – and valuable – exercise for me. It allowed me to look back on the year and separate completed accomplishments from the ones that I did not have the energy/time/guts to finish or “ship”. It also got me into the right mindset in terms of goal-setting as I head into 2011.

Great planning and great intentions are only part of the equation…what were you able to “ship” in 2010?

Social Media

Our Marketing Director, Becky Lockwood, has done a phenomenal job with our Social Media. I have always believed that Social Media can be a tremendous marketing tool, but now I have been fortunate enough to see it in action. Just like anything else in marketing, a tool is only as effective as you make it. Becky has done a great job building a fan base, communicating with our guests, and providing a platform for raving fans to sell the brand for us!

Facebook is our primary source for social media. We have the system set up so that Twitter feeds are sent out when we post something on Facebook as well. In order to build our “fans” on Facebook, we had signage all over the store, encouraged team members and their friends to sign up, and even had a contest to see who could get the most people to “like” our page. We will never stop the process of getting more and more people to “like” us on Facebook, but it was extremely critical at the beginning to get a solid fan base.

We do a great job of balancing our posts with messages and upcoming events so that people are not solely using us for free offers and giveaways. This is the most crucial step of all in my opinion. Basically, we are just creating even more emotional connections with our raving fans…really creating a “tribe” atmosphere, somewhere our guests can belong. It is so evident that the most regular contributors on our page feel like they are a part of our group. Chick-fil-A, in part, is how they define themselves! This is incredibly powerful, especially in light of Chick-fil-A’s marketing strategy to create raving fans.

Our fans are quick to post comments and pictures on our page. It is always encouraging to hear stories of times when we were able to get it right, when team members who went above and beyond to provide an over the top guest experience, or just to see pictures of raving fans with all of their Chick-fil-A gear. When someone posts on our wall, hundreds of people – their friends, our fans, etc – are able to see first-hand how great Chick-fil-A is. This truly is grass-roots marketing at its finest!

We also inform people of special offers and promotions, many of which are only offered to our Facebook “fans”. By using these offers in moderation, it is yet another way to create the “tribe” mentality – people have a special satisfaction when they know that they are part of a select few who are privy to special information and savings!

I am so thankful to see social media done right! This is such a powerful (and free!) marketing tool, and it is extremely effective when it is used properly.

Handling Disappointment

Our restaurant is located right outside of a flourishing mall. There are hundreds of popular retail stores around us in every direction as well. Suffice it to say, we were expecting a very busy Black Friday.

During the week prior to Thanksgiving, we spent hours planning for this day…it was surely going to be like a second grand opening! We carefully planned every detail, coached the team, and prepared for almost every possible scenario. ALMOST every scenario. Unfortunately, one of the only things we failed to plan for was the second slowest Friday since our store opened! The area around us was actually TOO busy. All of the roads, including the mall access road that our entrance is located off of, were complete gridlock. Nobody was even considering entering our parking lot because it was sure to add 20-30 minutes to their drive.

What made Black Friday such a great day is how the leaders and the team responded to the initial disappointment. We decided that with all of the resources at our disposal, we were going to bring our delicious food to all of the people! We put sandwiches in TMS bags and handed them out to all of the cars stuck in traffic!

The response was incredible. Roughly 75% of the people we gave sandwiches to had never had Chick-fil-A, and a large number did not even know where we were located! (this was literally 100 feet from our building) Rather than being complacent and let down, we made the most of what we had. I am proud of the way we handled our disappointing day – the attitude our team showed was admirable and productive.

Taking a Step Back

This was a week of reflection.

All of the leaders were able to take a day off this week…for three of us, it was our first off day since the store opened (not counting Sundays of course)! That was 54 days without an off day! (quick side note: this stretch showed me the value of Truett's decision to make Sunday a day of rest for Chick-fil-A...those built in off days improved our performance dramatically.)

I really learned the value of intentionally taking time off. We were able to recharge, refocus, reflect on our experiences, and make improvements. It was fascinating to see each of us come back after we had a day to regroup. We each had new ideas, new perspectives, and a new approach to the business!

We also had a team meeting this week with the entire Front of House team. This meeting served two main purposes: to reflect back on what we had accomplished together and to refine ourselves to focus on what we are capable of accomplishing in the near future. It was so encouraging to see the energy that the team had during the meeting. Our team already possesses a cohesion that often takes other groups YEARS to attain.

I believe that there is incredible value in intentionally and strategically stepping back and reflecting on the business.

Fear and The Jeweler (A Tale of Failure and Missed Opportunities)

So as you may have gathered already from my previous posts, we have been extremely busy the past couple of months. Naturally, the traffic at our restaurant has been heavy, especially during our peak lunch and dinner rushes. As a result of this, our neighbor next door (a jewelry store) has become increasingly difficult to deal with, prompting us to go under construction yet again to resolve some of the traffic issues that he believes are threatening his business. It has become clear that he would be happier had we never opened.

Now think about that last sentence for a moment. This “businessman” would prefer to have an abandoned Smoky Bones restaurant next door than a flourishing Chick-fil-A. This caused me to wonder the obvious question….why?

The answer, I believe, is fear. With the 4th quarter approaching, the Jeweler is fearful that our business is going to have a negative impact on his. He is afraid because something different is taking place. Fear has caused this man to go into survival mode. He is determined to get things back to the way they have always been.

As a businessman he should be looking for a way to turn this into an opportunity. There are hundreds of ways that a Jeweler could partner with a restaurant so that both parties win. I mean, he has a captive audience (our guests waiting in line) right outside of his door! There are hundreds of ways he could use this as an incredible marketing opportunity. He could use this as an opportunity to capture an entirely new customer base! Just think of the possibilities…his business could double!

Unfortunately for all parties involved, the Jeweler has decided to let his fear get the best of him. His lack of ingenuity or creativity coupled with his crippling fear has eliminated his chance to build off of our positive momentum.

It is a sad lesson, but an important one: A leader driven by fear will not take risks, will miss opportunities, and will focus too much on self preservation. In other words, fear leads to failure.

URGENCY!

This week my main focus was on increasing urgency. It seems a little crazy that this would ever need to be a focal point considering our volume, but it was nonetheless. By increasing the team’s urgency, we are able to provide a better guest experience while increasing our productivity as well. This ultimately leads to a busier and more profitable store, both in the short- and long-term.

I had an “aha” moment this week in this area. It became very clear that the team’s lack of urgency was a direct result of my perceived lack of urgency. I am naturally a calm person. Even when I am frazzled internally I come across as cool and collected. This trait was becoming a detriment to the team. I had to make a conscious decision to show emotion, to create a stir, in order to send a message to our brand new team members.

The initial results have been positive. While the team still is not where they need to be in terms of their speed and efficiency, they have become noticeably faster – especially when I am around creating a stir. This is only the beginning, but I am excited to have made this discovery and encouraged by the team’s initial response.