|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|||
| |||||||
|
|
Home > Contact Us > Employment Opportunities > Associates Associate's Private PageNOTE: The material presented here is private, confidential, and copyrighted. If you are NOT a currently-active associate of A Dash of Panache, you are required to immediately go back to a previous page and ignore this confidential page (yeah, we know it's tempting to stay but you're being very naughty if you do). If you ARE an active associate, you must keep this page and any links on it confidential. Many of the documents below require Adobe Acrobat Reader (a very common web tool that is safe to download). This page will eventually contain many useful documents for associates.
Team Calendar
|
(Note that tea
sittings are often booked a day before so there will likely be extra afternoon
hours...let's build the tea business!!!)
Sep 5, 2010 to Sep 11, 2010
(updated)
(NOTE:
Click on bullet point
to expand details, if any)Welcome Shannon Oliveiera, our newest associate! She will be working days as some of our associates are going back to school. Lots of training her first full week! Let's help her get up to speed as quickly as possible.
To recap the notice Scott posted recently: You work for a company that hosts a lot of events. As an associate of this company, IT IS YOUR JOB to be very familiar with our events. Anytime a guest calls asking about an event such as the Vintage High Tea, Mother's Day Tea, or any other event, IT IS YOUR JOB to be able to answer questions about these events. In case you don't know, you must at least find another associate that knows the answer or get back to the guest. STUDY OUR WEBSITE! Sign up for our newsletter! Be a fan on Facebook! Do it! It's your job! Do not leave a guest with the impression that you don't know and are not willing to get a quick answer for them!
The Associates at A Dash of Panache are awesome! We are so proud of this team! Great job! Read some of the reviews at TeaMap.com!
INTERESTING Statistics as of 12/31/09! (since May 2005). These statistics only include events with reservations, not cafe guests. Keep clicking on the bullet points to drill down into more details.
Total Overall Events (2005 to 2009): 2,537 events serving 19,063 event guests (averaging 7.51 guests/event). We're serving our community well!
2009: 860 events serving 5,488 guests. 44.1% increase in events (25.8% increase in guests) over 2008!!
2008: 597 events serving 4,364 guests. 8.2% increase in events (3.1% increase in guests) over 2007!
2007: 552 events serving 4,232 guests. 38.3% increase in events (10.7% increase in guests) over 2006!
2006: 399 events serving 3,823 guests.
2005: 129 events serving 1,156 guests.
Total Birthday Parties: 583 serving 5849 guests (averaging 10.03 guests/party, )
2009: 99 parties serving 992 guests (averaging
10.02 guests/party). 26.3% decrease in parties.
8.25 parties/month; 1.9 parties/week.
2008: 125 parties serving 1248 guests (averaging
9.98 guests/party). 17% decrease in parties.
10.42 parties/month; 2.4 parties/week.
2007: 150 parties serving 1470 guests (averaging
9.80 guests/party). 12% decrease in parties.
12.5 parties/month; 2.88 parties/week.
2006: 173 parties serving 1747 guests (averaging
10.10 guests/party)
14.42 parties/month; 3.33 parties/week.
2005: 36 parties serving 392 guests (averaging 10.89 guests/party)
Hosted 1,363 Tea Sittings serving 5,834 guests (avg 4.28 guests/sitting).
2009: 539 Tea Sittings serving 2,116 guests (averaging 3.93 guests/sitting). 54.4% increase in sittings, 36.6% increase in guests!
2008: 349 Tea Sittings serving 1,549 guests (averaging 6.55 guests/sitting). 22.9% increase in sittings, 30.9% increase in guests!
2007: 284 Tea Sittings serving 1,183 guests (averaging 4.17 guests/sitting). 129% increase in sittings, 87.78% increase in guests!
2006: 124 Sittings serving 630 guests (averaging 5.08 guests/sitting). 85.1% increase in sittings.
2005: 67 Sittings serving 356 guests (averaging 5.31 guests/sitting)
Holiday High Tea. Hosted 146 sittings serving 587 guests.
2009: 65 Holiday High Tea sittings serving 257 guests. 71% increase in sittings and 34.6% increase in guests! Very nice!!! Average 3.95 guests/sitting.
2008: 38 Holiday High Tea sittings serving 168 guests. 65% increase in sittings and 86.7% increase in guests! Average 4.4 guests/sitting.
2007: 23 Holiday High Tea sittings serving 90 guests. 64% increase! Average 3.9 guests/sitting.
2006: 14 Holiday High Tea sittings serving 49 guests. 133% increase! Average 3.5 guests/sitting.
2005: 6 Holiday High Tea sittings serving 23 guests. Average 3.8 guests/sitting.
Mother's Day High Tea. 67 sittings serving 253 guests (avg 3.78 guests/sitting)
2009: 23 sittings serving 71 guests (avg 3.1 guest/sitting). 64.3% increase in sittings, 39.2% increase in guests.
2008: 14 sittings serving 51 guests (avg 3.6 guest/sitting). 42.9% decrease in sittings, 72.5% decrease in guests.
2007: 20 sittings serving 88 guests (avg 4.4 guests/sitting). 100% increase in sittings, 104.7% increase in guests.
2006: 10 sittings serving 43 guests (avg 4.3 guests/sitting)
2005: Did not tract Mother's Day sittings separate from regular tea sittings.
Hosted 61 Showers serving 1040 guests (avg 17.0 guests/shower).
2009: 13 Showers serving 224 guests (avg 17.2 guests/shower). 18.2% increase in sittings, 10.9% increase in guests.
2009: 10 Baby Showers (175 guests, avg 17.5/shower). 233.3% increase in sittings. 212.5% increase in guests.
2009: 3 Bridal Showers (49 guests, avg 16.3/shower). 166.7% decrease in sittings. 198% decrease in guests.
2008: 11 Showers serving 202 guests (avg 18.4 guests/shower).
2008: 3 Baby Showers (56 guests, avg 18.7/shower)
2008: 8 Bridal Showers (146 guests, avg 18.3/shower)
2007: 20 Showers serving 308 guests (avg 15.4/shower)
2007: 10 Baby Showers (169 guests, avg 16.9/shower)
2007: 10 Bridal Showers (139 guests, avg 13.9/shower)
2006: 12 Showers serving 251 guests (avg 20.9/shower)
2006: 11 Baby Showers (219 guests, avg 19.9/shower)
2006: 1 Bridal Showers (32 guests, avg 32/shower)
2005: 5 Showers serving 55 guests (avg 11/shower)
2005: 3 Baby Showers (30 guests, avg 10/shower)
2005: 2 Bridal Showers (25 guests, avg 12.5/shower)
Hosted 22 Ladies Night Out events serving 257 guests (avg 11.7 guests/event).
2009: 3 LNO events serving 33 guests (avg 9.8/event). 33% decrease in events. 18.2% decrease in guests.
2008: 4 LNO events serving 39 guests (avg 9.8/event)
2007: 6 LNO events serving 74 guests (avg 12.3/event)
2006: 7 LNO events serving 76 guests (avg 10.9/event)
2005: 2 LNO events serving 35 guests (avg 17.5/event)
Hosted 206 Cyclical Events (network meetings, committees, board meetings) serving 2,513 guests (avg 12.2 guests/event).
2009: 96 Cyclical events serving 1118 guests (avg 11.6/event) 84.6% increase in events. 59.9% increase in guests.
2008: 52 Cyclical events serving 699 guests (avg 13.4/event) 100% increase!
2007: 26 Cyclical events serving 317 guests (avg 12.2/event)
2006: 29 Cyclical events serving 320 guests (avg 11.0/event)
2005: 3 Cyclical events serving 59 guests (avg 19.7/event--Mostly Mayor's Breakfasts)
Hosted 66 One-time Events (Misc meetings, committees, seminars, celebrations) serving 932 guests (avg 14.1 guests/event). Note: This figure is difficult to be accurate because these are only the events that end up on our calendar.
2009: 21 One-time Events serving 283 guests (avg 13.5 guests/event) 50% increase in events. 25.8% increase in guests.
2008: 14 One-time Events serving 225 guests (avg 16.1 guests/event) 16.7% decrease in events but 35.5% increase in guests!
2007: 16 One-time Events serving 166 guests (avg 10.4 guests/event)
2006: 11 One-time Events serving 201 guests (avg 18.3 guests/event)
2005: 4 One-time Events serving 57 guests (avg 14.3 guests/event)
Hosted 97 Large Group Meals (not events) serving 1,159 guests (avg 11.95 guests/event). Note: This figure is difficult to be accurate because these are only the events that end up on our calendar.
2009: 14 Large Group Meals (not events) serving 157 guests (avg 11.2 guests/event) 42.9% decrease in events, 21.0% decrease in guests.
2008: 20 Large Group Meals (not events) serving 190 guests (avg 9.5 guests/event) 20% decrease in events, 41% decrease in guests.
2007: 25 Large Group Meals (not events) serving 323 guests (avg 12.9 guests/event)
2006: 30 Large Group Meals (not events) serving 349 guests (avg 11.6 guests/event)
2005: 8 Large Group Meals (not events) serving 140 guests (avg 17.5 guests/event)
VERY IMPORTANT! New Winter Hours to help solve financial problems.
First of all, I want you to understand that I am being open and honest with you. If I were you, I'd want to know this information. However, I am pleading with you to keep this strictly confidential other than the public change of hours.
I have been meeting with a consultant to help determine ways to stop the bleeding of our savings account. I don't want to get myself into a financial crisis so I need to make some changes. The GOOD NEWS is that the situation is fixable. However, it will require some changes until the economy (and our business) picks up.
Here's the situation. To make a long story short, we are paying too much labor costs during times of the day when there is very little revenue coming in. This includes things like $25 Mondays and hardly any business in the later afternoons when we don't have tea sittings. Raising prices can help a little but the big problem is that we still have too little business during certain times of the day. This causes my labor costs to kill any potential profit. I need to drastically decrease the labor segment of my COGS (Cost of Good Sold), when the revenue can't justify it.
The Cafe is the main problem because I keep it open from 10a-5:30p whether we have business or not. While lunch time is usually barely busy enough to cover the labor costs, the rest of the day the Cafe usually loses money badly. My options are to either close the Cafe completely and only be a tea parlor and party place which means we'd only open when we have reservations OR to limit the Cafe only to lunch hours when it can typically pay for itself and be open later hours only when we have reservations (which we are getting a lot more of lately).
The Challenge is to be able to train our Cafe guests to come in when we're open and to help them be understanding when we're closed. The other challenge is to book a lot of tea sittings so we can remain open later and justify the extra labor costs. The major challenge as far as Associates go is to be flexible enough to work later w/o much advanced notice and to be understanding as a team that the overall payroll MUST be cut significantly and we just plain can't work when there isn't revenue to justify it.
Our Decision is to make the following changes (Click on bullet point to left if you don't see indented bullet points right under this):
Close the Cafe on Mondays UNLESS we have tea sittings or larger groups, etc. I'll have to work on "reservation rules' or set tea times. NOTE: We're booked the next few Mondays so this won't take effect until next year.
Change our Cafe hours to be 10:30a to 2pm Tue through Fri (11-4:30 on Sundays) UNLESS we have tea sittings or larger groups, etc. I'll have to work on "reservation rules' or set tea times. NOTE: We have several afternoon reservations the next few weeks so there won't be a drastic change until next year. However, on days when there are no teas, we'll close at 2pm and when the teas end early, we'll close shortly after.
To be more diligent about sending people home guest turnouts are significantly less than expected or later on Sundays if the Cafe is "dead." There will be a lot of Yellow on the work schedule, especially when many reservations only occur a day or two ahead of time.
What it means to you, an Associate: As a team you will be paid less. As individuals, the scheduling will depend on the following factors:
Your flexibility and availability.
Your attitude and quality of work. This might be stressful times for some of you but if you hang in there, be as helpful and efficient as you can, and be a joy to work with, you should be able to get enough hours (talk to me about your concerns over scheduling). If you are not completing your tasks or are buckling under pressure or are not flexible enough to work later with short notice, you might find some of your hours given to associates who are better for the business. Let's be honest here...it's my dollar and I need to spend it more wisely. The consultant got firm with me and kept saying that I was being too kind to my staff at a great financial expense by scheduling them when there wasn't revenue to justify it.
IMPORTANT: I care about each one of you. The consultant said I care too much and suggested I lay a few people off. I explained that in this economy, finding a job is almost impossible (he agreed) and because of school schedules and mothers and vacations, availability is already pretty sketchy at times and it will be difficult to be short staffed when we're busy because it is stressful and hurts our customer service. He mentioned (and I agree) that for everyone's benefit, our team better get good at bringing in new business and providing great service so we can increase our reservations. Also, we need to increase our sales and up-selling ability to help counter the losses.
We do not want to lose anyone from our team. I hope you are able to find enough hours to be satisfied at ADOP and to hang in with us during these tough times. I'm especially concerned about losing those of you who do a lot of parties because half of our team doesn't do them and it is difficult to fill in when you are missing.
If your hours drop too much, you have an opportunity to apply for partial Unemployment Benefits to help make up for the lost hours. I'd encourage you to look into this.
OUR OFFICIAL EXPLANATION TO THE PUBLIC:
"Due to the difficult economical times, we're shortening our Cafe hours
for the time being. If we have tea sittings or parties booked in the
afternoons, we might open the Cafe extra hours during those times."
"We're completely out of [fill in the blank]." WHAT? Coffee? Espresso? Milk? WHAT? (click to read)
When you pull out an ingredient, etc. and realize that we're running low on inventory, (sorry to be so blunt but...) WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT WRITING IT DOWN???
Come-on! You are PAID to do this! It's your job!
I can't begin to explain the graphic frustration our team has experienced when they find out someone else on the team was too lazy to write down items that we're running short on. Then our team finds out (when it's too late) that we need something ASAP.
We ALMOST lost two great revenue opportunities because our associates errantly tried to act like Party Coordinators and gave false information! (click on the bullet point to expand...)
For one guest, Scott called regarding a message where she requested a Saturday event. She was errantly told that, "We're closed on Saturday." She was not able to hold the event on Sunday and had written us off. When Scott first confirmed that Sunday was not an option, he then explained that we have an opening that Saturday night after 6pm. WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED is that the associate should have first clarified that she is NOT a Party Coordinator but that she could look at the calendar and see if there were any openings. If Sunday was absolutely not an option for the guest then the associate could have stated that Saturday evening "MIGHT" be a possibility but that the Party Coordinator will have to call them back. Remember that we ONLY book Saturday evenings when we'll lose the business because another day won't work (it's more expensive for us to open Saturday night only for an event when, on Sunday, we're open anyway). But booking the event is more important than losing it! Get that guest to a Party Coordinator!...get their name and phones!
For another guest who wanted to hold a BIG birthday party, she was errantly told that everyone had to fit in the Party Room and that the Tea Parlor could not be used. Unless it's completely obvious that we have the Tea Parlor booked during the party time, we can consider anything. When Scott called this guest, she said that she was in the process of looking for another location because a "lady" here at ADOP told her that they could only use the Party Room. Scott inquired further and ended up booking a fairly large Diva birthday (and charging the guest an extra $50 for use of the Tea Parlor AND $50 for an extra 30-min) AND the lady plans to have an OPEN TAB for all of the parents! THIS IS A NICE REVENUE PARTY! When you are confronted with tough questions, DO NOT lose that potential party! Instead, get that guest to a Party Coordinator! PLEASE!
Reminder to WASH HANDS before handling food! Remember that if you're taking an order for something like an ice cream cone, best practice would be to collect the money and then wash your hands with soap before touching the cone. Guests appreciate it and they do NOT appreciate it when they catch you going from money to their food.
Cost Saving Scheduling during slow days...
On days that no events or sittings are scheduled, we'll be scheduling only ONE associate later in the afternoon. Saundra and Scott feel this can be handled by most of the staff. It's important that you keep in mind the following:
If a large group comes in and wants food, the solo-Associate has to make a decision. Remember that the goal is to bring in revenue so be careful about how you handle this.
Be sure to notify the guests that you are currently the on duty and that it will take a little while to get all of the orders completed. We'd recommend saying something like this, "I am currently the only associate on duty and I think I can handle your order if you can be patient with me because it will take longer than usual." If they are willing to wait, then PLEASE handle the order.
If you are nervous about the quality of guests (e.g., rowdy teenagers or mental cases), do not accept time-consuming food orders that will put you in the kitchen where you cannot observe the guests. You can say something like "The kitchen is mostly closed down except for soup (or whatever you can make very quickly)." You might consider making the comment that "The owner should be back any moment but until he arrives, I can't prepare large food orders." Be sure to collect money before working on orders.
It's OK to START closing procedures early BUT DO NOT ice the soup or beans until 15mins before closing. Do not dump the coffee until the door is locked.
Do not go to the back of the building for more than a minute at a time because it's hard to hear the doorbell...and guests can also enter w/o the bell ringing.
Reminder! SPEED RECORDS!
We have been failing at this requirement. Our team
can always use improvement with preparing dishes
quickly. Please remember that each
associate is required to ATTEMPT a record at least once a month! Remember,
Scott or Saundra must be the official timer for an official attempt.
QUICKEST WAY TO INCREASE PROFITS.
There's a few simple rules to increasing profits when running a business. These include increasing sales, decreasing lost business, and decreasing variable and fixed expenses. While it's our goal to do all of these better, only a few truly stand out as easy and effective. Let's look at a few of these...
Increasing Sales. This is a sure-fire way to increase profits but think about what it takes to increase sales. We either have to get existing guests to buy more (through up-selling more, increasing prices, or offering new products they want in addition to what they're already buying), OR we have to attract new guests through advertising (which is often very expensive), better word-of-mouth, or positive exposure in other ways (donations, sponsorships, articles, etc.). It's a known fact that it is MUCH more expensive to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing one. ADOP needs more new guests because we have relatively few regulars. Because restaurants average about 10% profit on sales (once all overhead is accounted for), increasing sales by $100/wk might actually only be a $10 increase in profits.
Decreasing lost business. Every time we lose a guest, we not only lose future purchases from that guest, we can lose other existing guests and potential guests because the dissatisfied guest WILL tell others. This is serious. Imagine losing a guest who spends about $10/week at ADOP. That's $520 of LOST revenue each year, not counting the lost revenue from people this guest has given a bad testimonial to. I know a group of about 20 people that we alienated when we first opened and they seriously had great potential of being regular guests because they work close by. If they averaged only $10/week/each, that was a LOSS of $200/wk or $10,200/yr for the last 3 years ($30,600 total!). When I was a programmer, my team of buddies ate at a particular Chinese restaurant about 3 times/wk for more than a year (talk about repetition). With a full meal, beverages, and sometimes a dessert, we easily spent $15/ea per visit! After about 3 consecutive bad experiences there, we stopped going and soon got addicted to a different restaurant and gave them our $12,000/yr in business! Currently, we have a group of 3-4 ladies from the city that come AT LEAST 3 times/week right now and spend about $4/ea. That's about $32/wk for the group or $1661/yr! It's much easier to keep guests than to lose one! Value our guests!...they pay for your paycheck.
Decreasing variable and fixed expenses/costs. This is a
magical way of increasing profits because the elimination of expenses is a
100% savings! If we can break/damage less, waste less food, use less paper,
keep our heating/cooling down after hours, turn off lights when not in use,
etc. For every $1 of cost savings, we increase profits by $1...cool.
Likewise, when we keep payroll to a minimum (not schedule extra staff when not
needed), every dollar we save on payroll is pure profit as well (payroll is,
by far, the largest expense).
Things to do differently (for some of us):
We usually get good reviews (online) but occasionally we get bad ones. The bad reviews always seem to include comments referring to unfriendly staff and slow turnaround for food orders. These are business killers! If YOU are contributing to either of these complaints, YOU need to make a change quickly. We are all here to serve guests. If you are not feeling too friendly then you must "convincingly fake it" as your Handbook states. When we get orders out slowly, I need to know why. It's important that we figure out why our service is sometimes slow so we can work on fixing it.
Tablecloths. Scott recently took a huge stack of tablecloths from the kitchen to his home to do laundry. As he unfolded them over the washer, he discovered that only 3 of about 10 were soiled. The other 7 were spotless. Please only put DIRTY tablecloths in the kitchen. All clean ones should be stored in the cupboards provided. If they're not soiled, we can keep using them so do not wear them out by unnecessary washing.
There are some rather new, large gouges in the lower portion of the "hallway side" wall in the tea parlor. They were clearly made by the legs of the tables. We assume someone was careless when they set the table(s) down near this wall and allowed the sharp leg extensions to hit the wall. These are big eye sores that could have been avoided with a little more care. There were no Incident Log entries for this damage.
The ice cream dipping cabinet has been quite sloppy lately:
Rectangular covers missing or not snug,
sloppy smears of ice cream all over white plastic,
ice chunks down in the ice cream (yuck),
piled up ice cream flopping over onto metal guards or plastic covers,
thick layers of ice inside the cabinet (keep cabinet from properly cooling AND looks bad),
frosted over ice cream remnants inside the walls of ice cream tubs,
holes in the
BOTTOM of ice cream tubs! This is caused by associates plopping the tubs down
on top of the screws above the white rectangular covers.
pre-packed quarts of ice cream that are not packed full or have smeared ice cream on the outside, etc.
scoops not separated in the dipping well compartments.
Someone is STILL leaving long spoons in the "blue water" up front. The quat solution dissolves stainless steel so DO NOT SOAK spoons in this solution! After rinsing the spoon under water, dip it in this solution to sanitize and then let it drip-dry upside down in metal container.
Ladies Night Out pricing has changed (learn a little about pricing schemes by clicking here)...
Scott did a calculation and found that when we book 8 ladies for LNO at the old $19.95/ea price, we actually lost $3.40 for the evening! Under the new pricing of $24.95/ea, we will profit $36 for an 8-person event (8 is the minimum reservation number). This is still a low profit but often we can supplement this with Gift Shop sales, exposure, and future bookings. And for each person after the first 8, we can profit about an additional $12 per person!
If you're unfamiliar with our fun Ladies Night Out event, please read about it.
Message Pad messages (please read)...
It seems that we are increasingly getting extremely poor messages written on the Message Pad. Take a look through the carbon copies to see what I'm talking about. MANY messages do not have even the basics including a DATE (critical!), the name of the person writing down the message (so I can know who to discuss details with), LEGIBLE phone numbers (also critical), etc. Come on team, this is an easy fix! Just take a moment and write down a good message, please! If you get a message from the voice mail, please write "from Msg Machine" or "from Voicemail" somewhere on the message so I know it may not have all the details that you'd normally think to include. We have definitely lost business because of these errors.
Also, please get into the habit of writing down your messages directly on the message pad instead on of order forms, etc. first. There have been numerous cases where guests have claimed to have called in before but there was never a message officially recorded. I've also found lots of notes by the keyboard that were not on the message pad--some of these were quite important and were forgotten about. We keep old Message Pads to have a record of things like timecard adjustments, etc. and when you don't record this information on the "official log" then we won't have record of them.
Missed Breaks help cause over-budget pay periods (click to see details).
After review of recent pay periods, Scott has found that there are a LOT of missed breaks and work well past scheduled stop time, causing over-budget payrolls. Team, this is critically important! While there are some times that unexpected traffic or new reservations might require extra work time and make SOME breaks difficult to take...however, many of these occasions didn't have any apparent reason and there is no explanation on the log file or message pad. You MUST have managerial approval for any missed breaks and when a manager isn't available, you must write the details (including date/time AND reason). When your scheduled to be off 15mins after closing, PLEASE clock out and leave as scheduled unless you have permission to continue working on something...PLEASE. Payroll is BY FAR the most costly expense and is also the
We have FREE Wireless Internet access for our guests! Until we get some signs up, feel free to let people know about it! Anyone can now connect to "Roseville_wifi" and when they open their browser, it will present a login page that only requires an e-mail address (no junk mail will be sent and they can even enter a bogus e-mail address). We are now an Internet Cafe!
Let's remember to following these procedures! (click the bullet point to expand):
When taking the order, REPEAT IT BACK carefully so the guest has a chance to correct anything that was misunderstood...and it gives us a chance to realize missing things like bread types or dressings or sizes, etc. Remember to enter the order into the POS and put on hold if working on a to-go order.
Before starting preparation of an order, CAREFULLY REVIEW THE ORDER form so you are sure you're making the right item with the right ingredients.
Before closing the lid on to-go items or delivering them to a table, STOP AND LOOK AT THE PREPARED ORDER! Does it match the order form??? MAKE SURE!
When delivering the order to a guest (whether at the table or to-go), REPEAT BACK THE ORDER to them so they can agree that what you're giving them is what they ordered. This is critical on to-go orders because there's nothing more frustrating than for a guest to take it back to their desk only to find out something is missing or wrong.
Team, we are a team and when one of us messes up, our team messes up. When our team messes up, our guests get frustrated and our business (our source of income) suffers. PLEASE be brave enough to gently remind your teammates when they forget to do one of the above steps! It is the responsibility of all of us to keep each other in check. PLEASE don't let each other be lax on this subject! Oh, and it's awesome to give and receive praise too!
Out of Fritos? Seriously?
On a past Sunday, we discovered that we were completely out of cold cup lids (12/20oz). There was no warning and whoever has been getting down new packages never noticed when we were down to only one package left and then didn't notice when they opened the last package. I would assume that because we attempt to keep the opened lids stocked, the person who was getting down more was not under pressure or in a rush so we all were flabbergasted (dumbfounded, extremely surprised, etc.) when we were suddenly OUT of the lids. Someone really dropped the ball (a few times) on this puppy.
Also on a Sunday we found out we were completely out of Vanilla syrup! Not only are we unable to make a vanilla latte (a basic and popular latte), but we can't make whipped cream!!! THAT WAS A PROBLEM. The situation begs the question: Who opened the last Vanilla bottle without checking to see if it was the last one? Seems important enough to notice, doesn't it?
Then our team discovered that we were completely out of Fritos...a primary ingredient in our popular Haystacks. Again, we could not believe it! When there are no Fritos in the kitchen, an associate has to walk to the back closet to get more. How can an associate possibly not realize that there are only 2 or 3 bags left back there and not think, "Hey, I should write this on a shopping list so we don't run out."? Then how can an associate not realize that there is only ONE bag left and still not think to notify anyone? Even worse, how in the world can anyone not realize they are taking the very last bag and that it is critical that they not only write it down but actually urgently tell someone about it? Again, we were at a loss to explain this. Either a guest stole them right out of the closet or we are making some serious mistakes.
Scott was then informed that we have small condiment lids but no small condiment cups (1oz) AND we have large condiment cups but no lids (2oz). No one noticed until they were gone. The team was using plastic wrap as lids today and STILL no one took time to write them on any shopping list (when Scott was finally told about it--he had to write it down himself because no one else had done so).
Also, Scott mentioned that the Vanilla ice cream tub has been empty for 2 days now and no one has taken time to rotate up a new one. He was then informed that there were no more vanilla tubs below. Ouch! Tonight is Downtown Tuesday Nights and we're missing Vanilla ice cream?! Ouch!
HEY TEAM! PLEASE HELP! It is OUR job as a team to notice when we're getting low on something. Yes, sometimes we are in a hurry to open a new package while in the middle of a rush but we HAVE TO take time to record when we are getting low. Here's why (click the bullet point to expand):
Guests get frustrated when we're out of product, especially when we don't notice until they've paid. It's a loss of sales and at least a loss of trust when someone "needs" something we don't have. They might (or might not) order something different but we still hurt our trust with them.
ADOP looks disorganized and unprofessional when it's out of product.
Associates get very frustrated when they discover we're suddenly out of something they just accepted payment for. They have to go back to the guest and apologize and try to make a situation right again...something that would have been avoided if we noticed stock levels were getting low.
Many items cannot be purchased in a day. We can order some products only once every 3 or 4 weeks (because an order requires a $500 minimum purchase level...that's a lot of extra stuff when we only need cake cones). This requires we know way ahead when we are getting low. Karen buys some items in Sacramento and she has to do so on her lunch hour (she has few open lunch hours and she usually has to schedule a shopping trip several days in advance). It's a hassle and waste of gas and time to run to Sam's Club or Wal-Mart every other day because we could not look ahead a few days and determine what our needs will be. Your cooperation with reporting low quantities ahead of time will help us run smoother with less stress.
IMPORTANT! As long as you are employed here at ADOP, you do not have permission to give job references for other associates (including ex-associates) when those references have anything to do with their performance here at ADOP. This is a legal issue for which ADOP can be held liable and it is critical that you understand that you are not allowed to give such a reference (there is a lot of background and legitimate reasons for this so talk to Scott if you don't understand). Only Scott will have the ability and right to give references for ADOP associates and past associates. Again, this is important!
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT (This section contains important examples and reminders to help us all improve our performance for guests and the business's bottom line):
We received a Tea Map review that read, "Variety (4 of 5): Artistry (3 of 5): Service (2 of 5): "Although I liked the tea I chose, and the food was tasty. Delicious scones. The decor dark, and very slow service will prevent me and others from our group revisiting the Dash." - debbie of folsom 07/20/07. Nice comments on the food! Dark decor is part of the design but we'll keep that comment in the back of our minds. However, the comment about the "slow service" was unfortunate because our host/hostesses should be tuned into the needs of our guests. Remember, tea guests have priority over everyone except party guests. The remark that the slow service "will prevent me and others from our group revisiting the Dash." is extremely unfortunate because it's a comment to be read by all. There are several nice comments on Tea Map (which I'd encourage you to read) but the negative ones are the painful ones to read because they have such widespread influence.
A while back a situation
occurred that serves as a good example to share (in general) with the
whole team. The total cafe revenue for the day was around $85. This means the
day was a very slow day...which means there was time to get a lot of things
done between opening and closing. However, it was discovered that the
associates unnecessarily waited until AFTER closing to perform multiple tasks
(including a thorough cleaning of the bathrooms, washing a mess of dishes,
etc.) that should have been completed well before closing. It is very likely
that the associates involved did not receive/remember their training but we
want to clarify the following: The bathrooms need to be cleaned daily (and
more often as necessary), preferably in the mid afternoon or early morning
when business is the slowest (especially when we only had $85 of revenues).
All day long we must monitor the bathrooms to ensure they look and smell clean
but the thorough cleaning can be almost any time (remember that no guests are
here between closing and opening to enjoy a clean restroom). Dishes should be
washed throughout the day and during slow times...there is no excuse for
leaving a big load to the end of the day. After closing, the only remaining
tasks should be putting away food such as soup, beans, etc., washing the
coffee air pots, bringing in the table from outside, covering the ice cream,
etc. It is OK (and preferred) to clean the bathrooms earlier, mop the floors
earlier, etc. Of course throughout the day we may need to touchup a floor or
bathroom, etc. depending on how messy our guests are.
WHY is this important? Because associates are, by far, the most expensive budget item
for the business and the owners would rather pay associates to complete as
many of the necessary tasks as possible during regular hours (when we are Open
for business) instead of after hours when there is not offsetting revenue (no
guests to buy things). We need associates to be acutely aware of this business
aspect and work towards efficiency. "Closers" are expected to clock out and
leave as soon as they can. Just because the ending time might say 6:15p on the
schedule, the goal is to get all tasks done and to clock out as soon as
possible...efficiency.
Stick to Standard Recipes! Does that salad have everything the menu says it has? Did you remember the side of bread? Dressing goes on the salad unless the guest asks for it on the side. The Broken Sugar Cone Sundae is NOT made with broken waffle cones. Use sugar cones please! The side of salad on a Tuscan is a small side...not half the plate!
Scott has noticed several cases where call-in orders were not immediately put into the POS (on hold and with the guest's name). This is a requirement. There has been several cases where associates have taken the call, entered it into the POS (on hold), and taken the order form to the kitchen. Yet then we find the receipt still on hold long after the guest received the meal...meaning the guest either didn't pay for the meal (rare) or someone created their own receipt after the guest arrived (probably after asking them what they ordered--making us look unorganized) without using the one that already existed.
Time Off Request Form - If you don't say otherwise via one of these forms, it is assumed that you are available to work. Please take responsibility to ensure your availability and non-availability on the Team Calendar is accurate.
Performance Evaluation - This form is used for your periodic evaluation. The owners will usually ask you to turn in a self-evaluation using this form. Your self-evaluation will be compared to their official evaluation (hopefully both parties agree on strengths and weaknesses). If you haven't had one before, once you feel you pretty much "know everything," ask Scott if you can fill one out.
W-4 Employee Withholding Allowance Certificate 2009 - If you'd like to change your withholding allowance for the NEXT pay period, please print off this form, fill it out completely, and turn it in to management.
City of Roseville Police Department
Commercial Parking Permit Application - If you need to park a vehicle while
at work, you will need a parking permit to park behind ADOP in the parking lot
for more than 2 hours at a time. The city WILL ticket violators (and one ticket
costs more than the permit). The permit costs $20 for a year or $10 after July
1st. Instructions are included in this document.
This list of information is STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL!
| Name | Cell Phone | Home Phone | E-Mail (remove spaces before using) |
| Scott Alvord | 799-0240 | 784-0240 | Owner @ ADashOfPanache.com |
| Karen Alvord | 835-0240 | 784-0240 | kalvord @ lilliput.org |
| Keither Alvord | 622-6372 | 784-0240 | KeitherAlvord @ hotmail.com |
| Sharna Alvord | 768-0240 | 784-0240 | SharnaAlvord @ hotmail.com |
| Kyler Alvord | 300-6651 | 784-0240 | KylerAlvord @ hotmail.com |
| Jamie Carlisle | 532-2868 | 729-2653 | n/a |
| Jennifer Gadberry | 459-5183 | ||
| Katie Mazza | 224-3182 | 771-5659 | katiebob1 @ yahoo.com |
| Veronica Martinez | 223-2188 | vhurleygurly @ hotmail.com | |
| Kim Owen | 909-800-0863 | 408-7147 | owenfam5 @ yahoo.com |
| Chelsea Rogers | 749-2779 | 783-9922 | ivoryduckjam @ yahoo.com |
| Korin Slaght | 247-6153 | n/a | kpslaght @ gmail.com |
| Nelly Thompkins | 475-6938 | 344-8571 |
nellerzz @ gmail.com |
The Adobe Acrobat Reader format (.PDF) is very common on the Internet and you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC in order to view these documents. If you do not already have the reader installed, you can click on the button below to install it FOR FREE.
A Dash of Panache is located at
217 Vernon Street, Roseville, CA 95678. Phone:
(916) 788-4FUN (788-4386)
|
