The SCORE 2014 Issue 4 2014 | Page 27

Pitino.“Truth makes a problem part of the past.”Enough said. • Be on time. Excuses are like...well, let’s say bellybuttons. Everyone has one. Next time, please just leave the house 10 minutes earlier. A short staff delivers poor service. • Build repeat business. A new customer will visit a restaurant once by either chance or by choice. A coupon for, or proximity to, our restaurant may foster a chance visit. A good or great experience on the part of our cooks, servers and managers converts“chance”to choice next time the customer thinks about where to eat. Repeat business is our lifeblood, and it means that the customer has driven past 20 or 30 or 40 other places to choose ours. Let’s give them something memorable every time. • Save the drama for your mama. Don’t act like the south end of a northbound horse. The truth is it’s not about you or me, it’s about the customer. If your mind set tends toward complaining and whining and being sarcastic, well that’s pure poison to the team and the customer. If you insist on endlessly railing to your fellow crew and managers about how this is a bad place to work, and it’s not like your old job, or that everything’s unfair, and that you would rather be somewhere else other than here, then it’s my responsibility to help relieve your misery by giving you a job at the competition. Things that matter most should never suffer because of things that matter least…just saying. • Continuous improvement. If you see, sense, or know a better way to improve our people, process or procedures please let me know. I promise to listen to your ideas before you have to listen to mine. None of us is as smart as all of us, so please bring your brain to work every shift and help us all move the business forward for our customers and colleagues. We must all have a bias for action to make things better all ways and always. • Have fun. Bottom line, we all get to work in the restaurant industry. It’s the best business in the world, and it’s a free circus and a free university every day. Yes, you get paid to have fun too! So have fun with what you do, who you serve and w