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What Does Your Customer See? By Shawn T. Kiley Aloha! Welcome to this edition of TIPS. Im sure youve seen this scenario before. Youre out to your favorite restaurant and youre seated at a table that has a direct line of sight into one of the bus stations. Perhaps the restaurant has just started catching up from a busy rush period. As you sit, enjoying your appetizer, you cant help but notice the condition of the bus station. There are several overflowing bus tubs, the trash is also overflowing and the station is in a general state of disarray. This raises your radar so you begin to scan the area around you, noticing napkins on the floor and a few nearby tables still littered with dishes and glassware from the previous guests. Maybe youre dining in a restaurant with an open kitchen and you have a clear view of the chef and his crew preparing all of the dishes. Then, your eyes are drawn to the staging area, where you see garnishes littered about, dirty plates or utensils, food dying in the window. This raises your radar, so your eyes gaze down to the floor where you can clearly see that a broom has not hit the area since the restaurant opened. Youre visiting your local retailer and you realize that you need to use the restroom. Upon entering, Have you ever been shopping in a fine boutique at a fancy hotel and as you approach the cash wrap you see that clutter abounds, there is a copy of next weeks schedule in clear sight, the sales associate has her purse on the back counter and what seems like half of her belongings are splayed out on it. Does anyone need a shopping cart at your local market but cant get one because they are all out in the parking lot, strewn about? These scenarios play out in the best of establishments every day. Sometimes, an operator may simply be understaffed or the rush was so overwhelming that it takes a while to get everything back in pristine shape. But that is not always the case. Many times, what is actually occurring is what is called tacit conditioning. This term simply means that the staff has been so accustomed to not doing a regular floor sweep, or theyve seen their manager walk right past the napkin on the floor, or they have not been accountable for the half hour restroom check, that to them, an unkempt or disorganized work area is the norm. This happens when the staff is not held accountable and the simple, everyday tasks that need to be accomplished are sacrificed for the easier, softer way. As owners and operators, we should be looking at our establishment each and every day through the customers eyes, not our own. Often, we become focused on certain specific things in our day to day operations that we develop a sort of narrow focus, or we put the blinders on. We may have looked at that piece of tape stuck to the counter with tinsel on it from the last holiday season for so long, that we dont see it anymore. However, the customer may look right at it and think to themselves, Hmm, they must not care very much about their image. The customers line of sight is simply that. It is anything that the customer can see or observe from their vantage point. It starts in the parking lot, the grounds and exterior of the building and proceeds through the front doors. And it continues throughout the customers entire visit to your establishment all the way up until they get back in their car and drive away. Next week, we will begin to focus on what specific steps we can take to make certain that the line of sight is as clean, neat and professional looking as possible each and every time the customer enters your place of business. Until next time... Shawn November 9, 2008 TIPS |
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