Column: Handling the changing economy

Column: Handling the changing economy
Tags: Independent Restaurant, Online Services, Operations Management, Systems / Technology
May 10, 2009 - George Green

* George Green is vice president of Nashville-based Bread & Company.

During the recent challenging months for the economy and our industry, I have frequently been asked what it takes to be a successful independent operator in this environment. I'm not sure that anyone has a solution to dealing with such financial uncertainty, but there are a number of things that can help even the smallest operators succeed in any environment.

Our banks, investment firms and other formerly esteemed and respected organizations face uncertain futures. Unfortunately, many of our customers and employees are overwhelmed by the fear of losing their investments, jobs and homes.

Communicate your uniqueness

As far as customers go, the fast casual segment offers a great combination of value, affordability, convenience and quality not found in restaurants across other segments. To further spread this message, sell your employees on your brand's unique value proposition and have your teams communicate this to current and future customers. With more people than ever trading out of restaurants, and eating prepared meals from grocery stores or just eating at home, this communication battle will become more important each day.

I make sure that people know we provide a fresh, natural, and preservative-free product made fresh daily and delivered quickly. For example, I've never had a customer who didn't know how to make a sandwich at home. However, I make sure they know the choice is between our bread made daily using only four or five simple ingredients and store bought bread produced days earlier using seventeen or more ingredients. In addition, large chains often have to make compromises in product quality that small operators can avoid.

Promoted properly, a commitment to excellence can make your employees and customers take pride in your uniqueness. This nation still loves an underdog and believes the little guy can win. Celebrate your quality and make sure you deliver on it every transaction.

Communicate certainty and unity

As far as your employees go, try to communicate certainty or, at least, a common purpose. They know what is happening in the economy and have recently seen friends or family members suffer financially. Let them know that even though sales may be down, you are doing everything you can to keep as many of them employed as possible. In fact, ask them for ideas to cut costs.

You will be amazed at both the quality and number of ideas you will receive. More importantly, when your teams get involved, they gain a common sense of purpose that makes the "them" they are fighting someone other than management or you. Handled properly, I have seen across-the-board pay cuts unite a team and decrease turnover instead of destroying morale. Whatever you do, make sure that you are honest and forthright with your crew. They will not forgive being misled or having things held back.

Be Creative

I've never had the luxury of huge budgets, large staffs, or the great buying power that large companies have, but that has never stopped me from trying to beat these firms in the market. Here are some tricks you can put to use easily.

Invest in affordable online advertising: Employee recruitment and selection can be greatly improved using very inexpensive technology. In my opinion, other than food quality, nothing is more important than our people. In the last few years, I noticed traditional newspaper classified ads no longer work for us. Like many of you, I was intrigued by online ads but I didn't have the budget to try out the dozens of providers, or even knew if they would work. So, I went to Google adwords and bought words like restaurant, manager and job for our town. With this service (or those sold by other search engines), I was able to set the amount of money I wanted to spend each month on online ads. We found that we got as many or more responses to our online applications through Google than most online job boards.
Accept applications online: Prior to our experiments in online recruiting, we decided to convert to online-only job applications. We found a great and very cost effective service called Sysdine ( JobApp is good, also) that provided online job applications and screening tools that gave our managers more applicants to chose from, and simple tools to help them better choose new hires. The impact was amazing and virtually immediate. We had hundreds more applications than we ever had previously and were able to be much more selective in hiring. The simple ratings tools our vendor provided helped our many first time leaders quickly hire wisely. As a result, turnover plummeted and has stayed down. According to The People Report, each instance of turnover costs more than $2,000 so this ads up to serious money very quickly.

For even more ideas, read publications and Web sites daily such as Fast Casual, shoot me an e-mail and join the Fast Casual Alliance, where executives from companies large and small share ideas and promote our wonderful segment of the restaurant industry.