If you’ll allow a simple analogy… sometimes putting a problem into another context helps give clarity.
You own a pretty good “upscale” sports bar – drinks/dinner meals and desserts. You routinely have a good crowd of patrons – but rarely a weekend waiting list. The restaurant manager keeps the place very clean – kitchen, bathrooms, dining area. Your place passes routine inspections with a score of 95 or higher due largely to him. This manager keeps the place unique in terms of décor changing it out routinely to keep it interesting. Under his direction, your social media presence is very good, but not as good as other restaurants you’ve noticed. You average 4.1 out of 5 on customer reviews –lower than 2-3 other similar restaurants in town whose averages are 4.5+. The menus and prices are very similar. Some of your lower rated customer reviews cite long wait times for food while others cite appetizers which are less than appetizing. Servers were noted as sometimes not being very friendly. The general manager hires/fires the chef, cook staff and wait staff. You’ve spoken to him about the customer reviews and he is slow to make meaningful changes. Months pass. The average customer review drops to 4.0. Turnover has increased among the staff. The attitude in the restaurant is starting to get “tense”. Your monthly profit and loss statement is not trending in the right direction even though you are still making bank.
At a social gala you notice two owners of the other competitor restaurants sitting at a table and talking. You ask to join and pretty soon you all are talking “shop”. You find out their restaurants typically have 1+ hour weekend waits – while yours never does. You check your phone and notice that each maintained their average 4.6 customer review while yours is hanging on to a 4.0. The talk turns to restaurant general manager (all seem to have very similar duties) and you discover that they’re paying their guys only slightly better than you do – yet they (apparently) receive much better results.
Options you consider driving home:
Now consider our UT Vols GM is making north of $5M a year. The “supervisors” are making north of $1M a year. The staff is all making between $300 and $600k a year. They’re running an enterprise whose brand is worth $100s of millions of dollars with a national audience and legions of stakeholders we call “fans”.
You own a pretty good “upscale” sports bar – drinks/dinner meals and desserts. You routinely have a good crowd of patrons – but rarely a weekend waiting list. The restaurant manager keeps the place very clean – kitchen, bathrooms, dining area. Your place passes routine inspections with a score of 95 or higher due largely to him. This manager keeps the place unique in terms of décor changing it out routinely to keep it interesting. Under his direction, your social media presence is very good, but not as good as other restaurants you’ve noticed. You average 4.1 out of 5 on customer reviews –lower than 2-3 other similar restaurants in town whose averages are 4.5+. The menus and prices are very similar. Some of your lower rated customer reviews cite long wait times for food while others cite appetizers which are less than appetizing. Servers were noted as sometimes not being very friendly. The general manager hires/fires the chef, cook staff and wait staff. You’ve spoken to him about the customer reviews and he is slow to make meaningful changes. Months pass. The average customer review drops to 4.0. Turnover has increased among the staff. The attitude in the restaurant is starting to get “tense”. Your monthly profit and loss statement is not trending in the right direction even though you are still making bank.
At a social gala you notice two owners of the other competitor restaurants sitting at a table and talking. You ask to join and pretty soon you all are talking “shop”. You find out their restaurants typically have 1+ hour weekend waits – while yours never does. You check your phone and notice that each maintained their average 4.6 customer review while yours is hanging on to a 4.0. The talk turns to restaurant general manager (all seem to have very similar duties) and you discover that they’re paying their guys only slightly better than you do – yet they (apparently) receive much better results.
Options you consider driving home:
- Replace the general manager
- Replace the supervisors
- Select the few cook/wait staff that need replacing
- Do nothing. A 4.0 rating is better than most restaurants in town and with a little pressure on the GM, things will turn around (eventually) albeit costing you revenue in the process.
Now consider our UT Vols GM is making north of $5M a year. The “supervisors” are making north of $1M a year. The staff is all making between $300 and $600k a year. They’re running an enterprise whose brand is worth $100s of millions of dollars with a national audience and legions of stakeholders we call “fans”.
