Managment-The Customer Service Industry

Workplace Relationships

Josh — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:14:03 +0000

Relationships in the workplace can potentially cause big problems. They can create unneeded drama that will create big distractions. Distractions that will cause your employees involved or not to be distracted from their work. Overall this will hurt your company because distracted employees will not pay the attention to detail that they should. Emotions in most cases will play a large role in how people act towards one another if someone is emotionally distraught than they will more than likely not be worried about how they treat others, they will have more worries about how they are feeling. Its not really a matter of them being selfish its more that it cannot be held back sometimes emotions cannot be withheld no matter how hard that you try and for some this is really difficult to understand.
As a manager it is important to try to understand why people act the way that they do, weather it be an employee that is going through a bad breakup that is making them very emotional, or even a guest that seems to be complaining that everything is wrong just because they want something for free. It’s a difficult job to be understanding and not lose your temper but somebody has to do it. Without a manager especially in a restaurant environment all hell would break lose because of people losing their tempers.

Integrity

Josh — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:35:02 +0000

Integrity plays a role in everyone’s life, everyone looks at it differently. Some have no integrity weather they would like to admit it or not. And there are other that live their entire lives with the utmost integrity even to the point that it my get them into trouble just to do the right thing but they do it anyways. Integrity can simply be defined as honesty, if someone is not honest can they ever be trusted again? If someone is caught taking food from the kitchen in a restaurant or something as small as a mint from a car if you are working in valet? It all relates back to integrity, and every manager has a tough decision to make. In both of the situations I just described I have seen people fired, and both times it was their first offence and other than that they had a clean record.

The only way that I can think about this and the reasoning behind why the could have been fired comes down to a few simple things. As a manager if you do not like an employee this may be the perfect situation to get rid of them they were caught in the act doing something that they were not supposed to be doing. But is that the right thing to do? I will leave that up to you. Or maybe you want to make an example of them, to show everyone else that if they do something wrong it could mean their job. Again this could be a very ethical management decision because this means you are putting someone out of work. In any case integrity plays a large role in everyone’s lives some people take it much more seriously than others. Some always keep their word and have a very good reason not to. Then there are other who always say they will do things and never do. Can they be trusted? I will leave you with that..

Opening Decision

Josh — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:19:54 +0000

Businesses make their money off selling things, and spend lots of their money on paying employees to sell things. Labor costs in my experience in the restaurant was kept right around 20% of costs, and they did whatever it took to keep they costs stay that way. On days like black Friday it is a difficult decision to choose when to open the store. If the store is open and sales aren’t good obviously the labor costs will be higher if the sales are lower. Some stores have a difficult decision to make weather to open at 10PM or 12AM or 4AM or even 8AM all times that stores open on the day of madness Black Friday.
Reason that this even crossed my mind was that when I was out at legends every store was open but Scheels. I found this very odd, considering the volume of people that was at the legends. If Scheels had been open than the store would have been packed… so I find it to be a very interesting decision that they decided not to be open late at night. Many reasons could be behind the decision not to be open late at night on black Friday. The main reasons that I could think of is to even keep that store open my guess is that it would take 75 people to keep it running even on a slow day. Considering the volume of people that would have been there that night they may have needed 100+ people to run the store. Plus consider the cost of labor that they would have to pay that many people and they would more than likely have to pay them overtime considering it would be a graveyard shift and on a holiday as well. May be all things that played into the reason the store wasn’t open. Just an interesting observation.

Black Friday

Josh — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 19:48:15 +0000

In the spirit of the holidays, or at least the holiday season all the stores open up early the day after thanksgiving and slash prices to kick off the holiday shopping. It has been deemed black Friday for reasons that we all know, Because your are up and out of the house when it is still dark outside of course. Everybody wants a good deal they want to go to best buy and get a $500 TV for $199 I mean who doesn’t? The famous Black Friday sales create quite a rush at all the stores every year. People line up outside hours before the store will even open. This year I think that their were people in tents outside some stores around 5PM and the stores don’t even open till Midnight. Some years people get trampled trying to get into the stores just to get their hands on one of the screaming deals.

Here in Reno the Legends outlets opened their doors at 10PM with each individual store offering their own discounts anywhere from 15% to 50% off the entire store. Granted it’s a great deal is it really worth braving the crowd to go? I was brought out their for the sales, and honestly it was the busiest I had ever seen the Legends entering a store was like being herded into a cattle truck as soon as you got in either you couldn’t even move or the lines to check out wrapped around the entire store. Great for stores business and bottom lines getting that many people in the doors that really want what you have to offer is difficult. I’m sure the storeowners wished they could do that on a weekly basis.

Quality Versus Quantity

Josh — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:44:38 +0000

Quality beats quantity, in most cases. For instance if someone is going out for a good steak dinner they would probably much rather pay the same price for a bit smaller steak that was prepared properly, cooked exactly to your liking and seasoned well versus going to a restaurant that served a lesser product. If given the option I think that most would choose this better quality product even though they must pay the price for it. Who wants to go eat and have a bad cut of meat prepared well done when you ordered it medium rare.
Point being that even if someone has to pay a bit more for you product if they see and taste in this case the superior quality of you product they will choose you over the other guys, and are much more likely to recommend family and friends to come to you if they feel the quality of their service was above and beyond their expectations. This situation is a key element in developing relationships with customers and building your clientele base. Businesses facing the challenges of today’s economy need to have a strong clientele base in order to keep their business operating with positive cash flows.

Current Market Challenges

Josh — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:51:24 +0000

The Reno market has been facing a lot of challenges since the economic downturn in 2008. Although we have faced even more challenges than that since the increase of Indian gambling in California it has taken a lot of our tourism business away. This has posed a large problem for businesses in Northern Nevada. There are many more things that play into the struggles for business in Reno. 2011 has been a very tragic year for northern Nevada residents and businesses. Starting with the shooting at Ihop in Carson, Numerous shootings in downtown Reno at or near the freight house district. The tragic plane crash at the Reno Air Races, and the shooting at the nugget in Sparks during Street Vibrations it has brought a lot of uncertainty to the local businesses.
Just today to add insult to injury there is a huge fire that started near Caughlin Ranch. Nearly thirty residents so far have lost their homes and businesses are reaching out to try to lend a helping hand to those in need. Effects of this fire have reached everyone including business owners. Just this morning I visited the Squeeze In South Reno and they were giving out free coffee with your breakfast, after we ordered the power went out and they couldn’t even serve us. There is no way to predict natural disasters, in situations such as these all you can do is keep your cool and make the best of the problems at hand. Keep your chin up Northern Nevada 2012 is right around the corner there are better days to come.

To Fire Or Not To Fire

Josh — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:07:07 +0000

In the past I have talked about the hiring process and the difficulties of choosing who to hire but equally as difficult as hiring if not more difficult is firing. The decision to fire someone may be the hardest thing that employer may ever have to do unless the employee makes it a clear decision. Meaning that they are say caught stealing from the company or hit a customer for instance.

It makes it much more difficult to fire someone when you are forced to cut your labor force. These decisions cant be personal they have to be completely professional and have some basis for why they are being fired. Weather it be they are always late or even something such as the fact that they are the least productive worker. This is where the tough part comes in, even if you may like the employee or may have some sort of personal friendship with this person it is in your professional interest to do what is right versus what feels right, for you friendship. Just as if you were to promote someone just because they were your close friend instead of promoting someone that had worked for that position for a long time. If would be unfair to promote the new guy just because he had an in with you. It all comes down to business ethics within the workplace. There is a learning curve and all things can be learned on the job its just a matter of how many people you annoy on the way their.

Book Review: Branding Yourself By Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy

Josh — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:54:09 +0000

Branding Yourself By Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy is a very informative well-written book that really keeps your interest. Dialogue between the authors is thrown in as well as a bit of humor and stories that breaks up the content rich text. A must read for anyone wanting to better their online presence and really make the most of social media.

Ethics Role in Business

Josh — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:51:25 +0000

Ethics plays a large role in the business world. I am a firm believer that you can only be as good as your word. Your word is your reputation if you have a bad reputation your words mean nothing and you more than likely will have a struggling business. In all reality who will visit an dishonest business and knowingly put themselves at the dishonest discression of the people who don’t even care about them, Just their money. To do something like that you must either be ignorant or just dumb.

Anybody in their right mind wouldn’t put themselves in a situation that they questioned weather they would come out of it getting what they actually paid for. Even if they had to pay a little bit more for the service that they a looking for at a reputable company they will more than likely pay for the quality of the work rather than just the economical price. Running a reputable business is key to having loyal customers. If they feel that they can trust you they are more than likely going to come back. Perception is everything, if you feel you have gotten a good deal you are also more than likely going to come back rather than going somewhere else that you don’t get that fulfillment.

Failure Starts with Miscommunication

Josh — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 07:42:33 +0000

As a manager it is your job to keep the business running smoothly. No matter the problem it is up to the manager in order to keep day to day operations in order and running smoothly. Just like Dale Carnegie said “Ninety Percent of all Management problems are caused by miscommunication.” Without the proper communication you can get nowhere in business. Say that your working in a grocery store, without communication you wouldn’t know when to order more produce or know when the produce may arrive. Without communication nothing could be done correctly.
Not just in a grocery store is communication vital. There are many other applications that have just as important reasons for communication. Communication is necessary in every aspect of life not just in business. It could mean life and death for someone in an operating room if someone is not properly informed on what they will be doing.