Welcome to the August 07 edition of The Dynamic Dispatch, the email newsletter of Dynamic Advantage.
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This Month’s Dispatch Data
- Service call: Motivating teen workers
- Tips & tools: Helping your staff earn their tips
- Exemplary shopper
- Customer service nightmare: The bank with no change
At this year’s Western Foodservice and Hospitality Expo, we had the honor of meeting Ken Whiting from Whiting Foods at his educational seminar, “Waves for Success system: How to Recruit, Educate, Motivate and Retain Today’s Teens.”
Whiting Foods started doing business with our client Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in 1953, and since then has grown their family business into not just the largest food and beverage supplier for the boardwalk – but also the largest employer.
Ken’s years of experience in working with teens (or early twenty-somethings) enable him to offer sound advice and great insights into working with today’s younger generation. As an example, here are his top ways to Motivate Teens:
Are your workers (young, old, and everything in between) as motivated as they should be? We can provide customized recognition and feedback programs designed to reinforce good behavior and deliver results -- for you and for your customers. Contact us.
Whiting Foods started doing business with our client Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in 1953, and since then has grown their family business into not just the largest food and beverage supplier for the boardwalk – but also the largest employer.
Ken’s years of experience in working with teens (or early twenty-somethings) enable him to offer sound advice and great insights into working with today’s younger generation. As an example, here are his top ways to Motivate Teens:
- Instill pride in their jobs and in the organization
- Provide frequent recognition
- Listen to what teens have to say
- Treat teens with respect and dignity
- Show a caring attitude
- Give clear directions and expectations
- Provide the right amount of feedback
- Help teens to have a sense of accomplishment about their work
- Reduce job boredom
- Do not play favorites
Are your workers (young, old, and everything in between) as motivated as they should be? We can provide customized recognition and feedback programs designed to reinforce good behavior and deliver results -- for you and for your customers. Contact us.
It’s important to remind employees that tips are something to earn – not to expect. We all understand that tips supplement service workers’ income, and when you receive great service most people are more than happy to compensate for it. But sometimes it seems these days that some workers just expect things, and expect them quickly. Tip jars are everywhere, and with the growing quick-serve credit-card payment systems, tips are often expected before service is even provided. What happened to earning tips?
Moving your staff’s tip jar to the order pickup area (instead of near the cash register) will send an important message: that customers rightly expect good service in exchange for a good tip. As Earl Nightingale said, “The only people who make money work in the mints, the rest of us have to earn it.”
If you want you increase your bottom line (and your staff’s) always remember - earn tips don’t ask for them.
Make sure your staff is earning the tips they deserve. Call us at 866.870.1251 (toll free). We'll set up a program to increase employee recognition while helping to keep your customers coming back.
Our Exemplary Shopper of the Month, Joe (HO9144), lives in Colorado, where he has been shopping for us for 4 years. As an Exemplary Shopper, Joe provides the highest level of insights into our clients' retail transactions, something both we and our clients appreciate. He says he likes the flexibility we offer (as well as the cash) and enjoys helping clients improve their customer service.
This funny/awful story comes courtesy of our own Stefan Doomanis.“I recently visited the Washington Mutual branch near my home. I needed to cash a check in order to set up a bank for a charity car show I was working on, so I asked the teller for a specific number of bills in each denomination. The teller said he did not have enough ones or fives for me.
“Finding it hard to believe that the bank did not have $150 in singles and $100 in fives, I asked if he was sure. Without a smile or an apology, he insisted that was the case, and that the best he could do was $50 in singles and $40 in fives. After I accepted this offer – figuring that he should know what he can or cannot do – he takes my check and hands me a piece of paper, telling me to ‘Go over to that machine to get your money.’ It turns out this bank’s new way of helping its customers is to make them go to a machine, punch in a code and wait for it to dispense the cash.
“After going to the machine and getting my cash, I realize that it gave me my money in the fewest number of bills it could, so now I had a pile of twenties, exactly what I did not need.
“I returned to the same ‘gentleman’ who did not help me, and explained that I did not get the bills I needed and would need to exchange my twenties for the fives and ones. He actually told me that he could not do that and that I could go to a ‘conventional bank’ to do that. (No kidding.) He then told me they must not have any fives or ones. I said that I could not believe that and asked if there was someone else I could talk to. He simply turned away, threw open the door to the back office and forced it shut as he went in.
“About one minute later he walked out with another employee who punched a few numbers in a computer and walked away, without even acknowledging me. Next thing I know, he is handing me exactly what I had asked for, still without a smile. I thanked him and said goodbye. He said nothing, except ‘Next!’
“I think next time I need to find a ‘conventional bank.’”
Let us know what you think! Email us at info@dynamic-advantage.com. We’d love to hear from you.
Dynamic Advantage | 866.870.1251 (toll free) | info@dynamic-advantage.com
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