130: Restaurant Operations Trending Topics Revealed

Adam Lamb: 00:00:08

Welcome to another episode of Turning the Table, . From time

Adam Lamb: 00:00:12

to time there are some glitches that occur especially with scheduling.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:18

We had planned to have Jennifer Kern.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:21

Host of Restaurants Reiimvented to talk about heart led leader.ship.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:26

Unfortunately she couldn't make it.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:27

So Jim and I are actually gonna shift and start talking about some other things.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:32

This is episode 130 and I'm Adam Lamb of Chef Life Coaching with my

Adam Lamb: 00:00:37

co-host Jim Taylor, Benchmark Sixxty, and we're dedicated to bringing

Adam Lamb: 00:00:40

you solutions to the hospitality industry's most persistent challenges.

Adam Lamb: 00:00:44

Links to the videos and other things discussed in the show can be found

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in the comments, in the show notes.

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And please leave a review on apple Podcasts or some star ratings on Spotify.

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It really does help other people find the show.

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And I just wanted to say, How are you?

Jim Taylor: 00:01:08

I'm great, Adam.

Jim Taylor: 00:01:09

How are you?

Jim Taylor: 00:01:10

I know we're gonna go into the specifics of Howard, but I'm, good.

Jim Taylor: 00:01:14

, Adam Lamb: right?

Jim Taylor: 00:01:14

How are you Really, , how are you?

Jim Taylor: 00:01:17

You know what, I'm I had an awesome day yesterday with

Jim Taylor: 00:01:20

the family, with Steve for the day.

Jim Taylor: 00:01:22

Took the day to detach a bit and yeah, so I'm, rare.

Jim Taylor: 00:01:27

I'm, there's lots of good stuff going on

Adam Lamb: 00:01:30

fantastic.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:31

I am gonna say I'm probably between medium and medium.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:35

I've had few challenges with some physicality in my back and my

Adam Lamb: 00:01:38

legs and stuff, but today I feel great getting a lot of stuff done.

Adam Lamb: 00:01:42

And we want to thank our friends at Chowco.org for providing

Adam Lamb: 00:01:46

this temperature gauge.

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We really encourage anybody who's interested in using a device like

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this in order to get a better idea of where the emotional temperature

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is in your, of your team.

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This is a really great way of doing it and there are others but DM us and

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let us know and we'd be really happy to to forward that information to you.

Adam Lamb: 00:02:08

Jim, you were talking before we got on the show about something crazy.

Adam Lamb: 00:02:13

One of the great things about Pandemic and the great reset is that everybody's

Adam Lamb: 00:02:17

getting really, creative about not only staff retention and, protecting staff

Adam Lamb: 00:02:24

workload, but also trying all kinds of different things in order to drive sales.

Adam Lamb: 00:02:28

And so why don't you tell our listeners what you came across?

Jim Taylor: 00:02:33

I actually had a, you're right.

Jim Taylor: 00:02:34

I There's so much going on in, in terms of the people side of the industry right now.

Jim Taylor: 00:02:39

There's all this, discussion and innovation happening in terms of what's

Jim Taylor: 00:02:44

going on in terms of the business side of the, industry, which I think you and

Jim Taylor: 00:02:49

I talk about people a lot and we talk about caring for people and protecting

Jim Taylor: 00:02:53

people, and employee experience and retention, all that stuff, which that

Jim Taylor: 00:02:56

obviously is never gonna go away, but I think some of the innovation

Jim Taylor: 00:02:59

that's happening in our industry is going to be really, cool long term.

Jim Taylor: 00:03:03

And not necessarily talking about robots, anyway, I have a couple people

Jim Taylor: 00:03:08

actually send me stuff yesterday about some of this subscription service

Jim Taylor: 00:03:13

stuff that's starting to come up in, in restaurants, mostly in the QSR space,

Jim Taylor: 00:03:17

but in other full service restaurants.

Jim Taylor: 00:03:20

True too, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:03:21

I taco Bell and Parent Bread and, some of these other companies that are

Jim Taylor: 00:03:25

doing things where I think that what I, and I hope, I don't mess this up,

Jim Taylor: 00:03:29

but I think what I saw was Taco Bell is has a $10 a month subscription.

Jim Taylor: 00:03:35

You get a taco a day for free for the first month, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:03:39

And then you get discounts and stuff like that.

Jim Taylor: 00:03:42

Some of the other companies that were, doing things like a hundred dollars

Jim Taylor: 00:03:45

a month and you get a date night once a month and you get a free app every

Jim Taylor: 00:03:50

time you go and these kinds of things.

Jim Taylor: 00:03:51

And it's, interesting to see that companies are starting to

Jim Taylor: 00:03:54

think about how to create more.

Jim Taylor: 00:03:58

Almost guaranteed revenue, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:04:00

Where as people are starting to change their spending

Jim Taylor: 00:04:02

habits and maybe go out less.

Jim Taylor: 00:04:04

So it's, cool to, to see that the industry's thinking

Jim Taylor: 00:04:09

about things different.

Jim Taylor: 00:04:09

And some of the stats that were attached to some of the stuff that I found

Jim Taylor: 00:04:12

really interesting were in pre pandemic.

Jim Taylor: 00:04:16

The average person in, North America had, I think it said was four subscription.

Jim Taylor: 00:04:22

Maybe it's Netflix.

Jim Taylor: 00:04:23

But they have four.

Jim Taylor: 00:04:24

Sure.

Jim Taylor: 00:04:26

Now it's almost seven.

Jim Taylor: 00:04:28

So just across the board that's starting to be something that people are

Jim Taylor: 00:04:31

trending to more than they were before.

Jim Taylor: 00:04:33

And it's, I think it's of cool that the industry, the restaurant

Jim Taylor: 00:04:35

industry is starting to pick up on it.

Adam Lamb: 00:04:37

You know what it reminds me of, Jim, it reminds me of

Adam Lamb: 00:04:40

when gift cards first came out.

Adam Lamb: 00:04:43

And I think the stats, and don't quote me on this.

Adam Lamb: 00:04:46

But I think the statistics are, is that people, like the redemption

Adam Lamb: 00:04:49

rates on most gift cards is like somewhere what, 30, 40% maybe?

Adam Lamb: 00:04:55

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:04:55

Only I think it's under 50 for sure.

Adam Lamb: 00:04:57

So it's free money.

Adam Lamb: 00:05:00

, they end up in the junk drawer.

Adam Lamb: 00:05:02

But I'm saying from the operator, whether they're booking that as

Adam Lamb: 00:05:05

revenue or or in some other line item.

Adam Lamb: 00:05:09

And I've seen some different companies moving that stuff around.

Adam Lamb: 00:05:13

Whichever makes best for tax purposes, but it strikes me as that just like a

Adam Lamb: 00:05:21

gym membership man, or a subscription, again, you have the best intentions

Adam Lamb: 00:05:25

when you sign up for it and then six months later you're wondering what

Adam Lamb: 00:05:27

this $10 debit is on your credit card.

Adam Lamb: 00:05:29

And you're like, oh, yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:05:32

Which your minds me.

Adam Lamb: 00:05:33

I haven't had a taco for three months.

Adam Lamb: 00:05:35

. Yeah,

Jim Taylor: 00:05:36

It's, but it's, a, I think a really interesting.

Jim Taylor: 00:05:40

approach for the industry and if they can market right and, get in front of people,

Jim Taylor: 00:05:43

I think there's really good opportunity.

Jim Taylor: 00:05:45

So I guess I would challenge any restaurant operator that's maybe listening

Jim Taylor: 00:05:49

to us or seeing that stuff in the news.

Jim Taylor: 00:05:52

Think about conceptually how to make that work in your restaurant, because

Jim Taylor: 00:05:55

it's, if companies like Taco Bell and Panera are doing that kind of thing

Jim Taylor: 00:05:59

it's it's gonna, it's gonna stick.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:03

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:04

And the other thing that jumps right out at me is it's a great

Adam Lamb: 00:06:09

way to build loyalty, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:06:13

Okay.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:13

So if it's not a crude as expense or as income until the card is actually

Adam Lamb: 00:06:19

used then the secondary benefit of that is to jumpstart a loyalty

Adam Lamb: 00:06:29

club where folks are consistently showing up on a regular basis.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:33

And I'm also thinking of the model that's used in.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:38

Country clubs, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:06:39

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:39

You get X amount of dollars to use in the restaurant, whether you use it or not.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:43

And some have points and stuff, so it should be really interesting to see

Adam Lamb: 00:06:47

how the different companies use that.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:52

because I'm sure there's gonna be some mistakes

Adam Lamb: 00:06:55

. Jim Taylor: Sure.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:55

It's for sure.

Adam Lamb: 00:06:56

And, I think you hit the nail on the head with the loyalty side of it because let's

Adam Lamb: 00:07:00

say a, restaurant maybe not the size of Taco Bell or something like that, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:07:04

But let's say it's just like a normal, a lo more localized restaurant

Adam Lamb: 00:07:09

company, let's say they get, I don't know, 500 people to subscribe to

Adam Lamb: 00:07:13

something that is a small monthly.

Adam Lamb: 00:07:16

right now.

Adam Lamb: 00:07:17

If that, if each of those 500 people maybe went to a different restaurant

Adam Lamb: 00:07:21

a couple times a month and now because they have a subscription, they're

Adam Lamb: 00:07:24

gonna be more loyal and go to that restaurant one more time every month.

Adam Lamb: 00:07:28

That adds up, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:07:29

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:07:29

There's a huge opportunity there.

Adam Lamb: 00:07:31

So you're right, some of it's about revenue, but a lot of it's about loyalty.

Adam Lamb: 00:07:35

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:07:35

And I imagine that it's also a great way to boost forecasts.

Adam Lamb: 00:07:45

, so I wonder what that calculation is on a forecasting model and how that relates to

Adam Lamb: 00:07:52

schedules and making sure that everybody's staffed appropriately and, not getting

Adam Lamb: 00:07:58

slammed and one of, one of our favorite topics protecting workload for employees.

Adam Lamb: 00:08:03

Yeah, for sure.

Adam Lamb: 00:08:04

But if it's a loyalty program, maybe that's a, interesting way of

Adam Lamb: 00:08:08

smoothing it out over the course of a.

Adam Lamb: 00:08:11

, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:08:12

As opposed to those high traffic days of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Adam Lamb: 00:08:15

Maybe now Tuesday and Wednesdays there's a little bit more lift.

Adam Lamb: 00:08:20

, and it'd be really curious to see how that affects customer behavior too.

Adam Lamb: 00:08:24

Right?

Adam Lamb: 00:08:25

if they're getting if, they're getting a taco, are they actually getting

Adam Lamb: 00:08:28

anything else on on the side of that.

Adam Lamb: 00:08:30

Absolutely.

Jim Taylor: 00:08:31

And I think as people's behave, like you said, customer behavior

Jim Taylor: 00:08:35

changes especially heading into what some people are worried about being

Jim Taylor: 00:08:38

a recession or that kind of thing.

Jim Taylor: 00:08:41

There's an interesting, probably a really cool and fun exercise to go through,

Jim Taylor: 00:08:45

but working on the positioning of what.

Jim Taylor: 00:08:47

Promotion actually looks like, or what the subscription gets you.

Jim Taylor: 00:08:51

Because if, you're a family of four and you know you've got two little

Jim Taylor: 00:08:55

kids and you're worried about what's happening recession wise, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:08:59

So every time you go out, maybe now that you're not, because many prices

Jim Taylor: 00:09:02

are higher and cost of living is more expensive maybe you're not gonna

Jim Taylor: 00:09:07

order the dessert for the family.

Jim Taylor: 00:09:09

Right?

Jim Taylor: 00:09:10

But if your loyalty subscription gets you free dessert every time you go.

Jim Taylor: 00:09:15

You're gonna go there.

Jim Taylor: 00:09:16

Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:09:17

Sure.

Jim Taylor: 00:09:17

So there's, definite connection and opportunity from a business model

Jim Taylor: 00:09:22

and positioning perspective of subscription to, to really lean into

Jim Taylor: 00:09:25

what's going on in the world right now.

Adam Lamb: 00:09:27

And so what are a couple other topics, Jim, that seem to be coming at

Adam Lamb: 00:09:31

you over the last week and a half or so?

Jim Taylor: 00:09:37

The, whole wage model thing is starting to come up a lot more,

Jim Taylor: 00:09:42

I think, as there's more discussion about increased minimum wage, excuse

Jim Taylor: 00:09:49

me, there's more discussion about.

Jim Taylor: 00:09:52

the industry is starting to hire more people, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:09:55

There's more applicants starting to come back.

Jim Taylor: 00:09:58

But restaurants have to pay them more.

Jim Taylor: 00:10:00

And I had a discussion with a CFO the other day where he was talking about that

Jim Taylor: 00:10:07

the restaurants in, the group that he was overseeing, they were paying too much.

Jim Taylor: 00:10:14

Their payroll number was too high.

Jim Taylor: 00:10:17

, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:10:17

He just, the way that he was looking at this information was they're spending

Jim Taylor: 00:10:20

too much on payroll and we ended up in a dis an interesting discussion

Jim Taylor: 00:10:23

about that because they weren't, depending how he looked at it, they

Jim Taylor: 00:10:27

weren't actually spending too much on payroll from a workforce perspective.

Jim Taylor: 00:10:30

They were spending the right amount to take care of the customer.

Jim Taylor: 00:10:33

The reason it looked like they were spending too much was because

Jim Taylor: 00:10:35

the customer has been spending less than they were before.

Jim Taylor: 00:10:39

That was inflating the labor cost percentage.

Adam Lamb: 00:10:42

Which kind of proves out the point of how Benchmark 60 approaches

Adam Lamb: 00:10:47

these, particular conundrums, because it might not necessarily seem at first

Adam Lamb: 00:10:51

blush that this is an accurate this is an accurate labor cost percentage.

Adam Lamb: 00:10:58

And I know that we've spoken to lots of companies and some managers are not

Adam Lamb: 00:11:04

even quite clear from an informational standpoint what that number should.

Adam Lamb: 00:11:09

. And then how, if you don't know what the number is, then how can you accurately

Adam Lamb: 00:11:14

adjust that in a way that's not okay, I'm cutting four servers and then

Adam Lamb: 00:11:18

getting slammed at nine, nine o'clock.

Adam Lamb: 00:11:21

Do you know what I mean?

Jim Taylor: 00:11:21

Yeah, for sure.

Jim Taylor: 00:11:23

The other just cuz because you asked the question, the other thing that's been,

Jim Taylor: 00:11:26

I've had a lot of discussion coming at us a lot recently is, And we've talked about

Jim Taylor: 00:11:33

it a little bit, but this development gap that was caused by the pandemic.

Jim Taylor: 00:11:36

Yes.

Jim Taylor: 00:11:37

Yeah This I was a, fairly new level manager.

Jim Taylor: 00:11:40

When the pandemic hit, I was on a development plan.

Jim Taylor: 00:11:43

I was learning, my goal was to be a gm and when I say my, I don't mean

Jim Taylor: 00:11:46

me, people who are in the industry.

Jim Taylor: 00:11:48

Sure.

Jim Taylor: 00:11:49

And then for two and a half years, they were focused on packing, takeout,

Jim Taylor: 00:11:54

and re hopefully retaining a few people and taking wearing multiple

Jim Taylor: 00:11:58

hats and all these different.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:00

And a lot of companies, not to their own fault, but they weren't

Jim Taylor: 00:12:03

worried about sales because they were getting subsidy and they weren't

Jim Taylor: 00:12:06

worried about labor because they were getting subsidy and they weren't.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:09

It was just find a way to stay afloat and shift the model.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:12

And now those people who, sure, they have three or four

Jim Taylor: 00:12:16

years of management experience.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:17

but it's not the way that the industry is typically used to.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:20

And they're in a position where the gm, they're the GM of the restaurant.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:23

They're facing decisions they've never learned, had to deal with before.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:28

And it's the conversation I was having with with someone about this the other day

Jim Taylor: 00:12:32

was the industry used to be able to rely on strong GM and chef level management

Jim Taylor: 00:12:38

to make decisions and drive results.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:40

Mm.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:41

But it's shifting and this isn't taking anything away from

Jim Taylor: 00:12:43

the people in those positions.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:44

Now it's more about high level strategy, understanding information,

Jim Taylor: 00:12:48

what's the data telling us and how to drive the organization that way.

Jim Taylor: 00:12:52

I dunno, I'm ranting here, but you're, what's

Adam Lamb: 00:12:55

on that?

Adam Lamb: 00:12:55

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:12:56

So it seems to me is like there's two different subjects and I just wanted to

Adam Lamb: 00:12:59

shout out to to one of our good friends, Michelle Moreno, because she did a post

Adam Lamb: 00:13:05

today on LinkedIn where she's finishing conducting her 20th leadership workshop

Adam Lamb: 00:13:10

with this one particular restaurant group.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:12

With one restaurant group, yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:13

And that is . She's doing not only front of the house, but back of the

Adam Lamb: 00:13:18

house and she's doing good, quote unquote whole house training . But

Adam Lamb: 00:13:22

the fact that this company understood what that development gap was and was

Adam Lamb: 00:13:27

open to listening to Michelle pitch.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:30

On on back into the title of the show, the ROI of, really addressing

Adam Lamb: 00:13:37

that gap in development so that everybody's ready to jam on that.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:44

I, think there's so many great.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:52

trainers, mentors, coaches out there that are just chomping at the bit

Adam Lamb: 00:13:56

to be able to assist operators.

Adam Lamb: 00:13:58

And yet if they think that some operators, I think you're still stuck in that.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:04

It's, still the old way.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:05

We can still do it the old way because we haven't necessarily been forced to.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:11

Although with the fluctuation in the labor market and such a slow unemploy

Adam Lamb: 00:14:16

such a low unemployment number, if they're still not getting people in the.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:20

Then I think it's a great opportunity to start looking at everything . Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:25

About how they're showing up to their showing up to their staff.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:29

And this kind of piggybacks back on our first topic about not the

Adam Lamb: 00:14:34

subscriptions, but the loyalties.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:37

if, and I just I, just did a podcast about this.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:41

It'll be out tomorrow morning, but about communication and relationship

Adam Lamb: 00:14:45

oh, business is all business.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:47

It's just business, man.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:48

Take it easy but, really all business is relationship and most.

Adam Lamb: 00:14:53

most successful operators understand that and put a premium on giving their staff an

Adam Lamb: 00:14:59

opportunity to create those relationships.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:02

Not rushing 'em off the tables not, double triple seating them but understanding

Adam Lamb: 00:15:07

that hospitality comes before eating.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:12

And I know that there's some, a lot of operators that are jumping on that, but

Adam Lamb: 00:15:16

still to your point about the wages, I keep a close eye on, the developments and

Adam Lamb: 00:15:23

there's still a lot of back of the house positions, even in senior management.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:29

Where I look at the operation.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:31

I go 35, 45, 55, 60 5,000.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:36

Are you kidding me?

Adam Lamb: 00:15:38

And the place is doing five, anywhere between five and $11 million.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:42

That's just, that ad will sit there forever.

Adam Lamb: 00:15:46

And this morning I was driving and listening to the New York Times and

Adam Lamb: 00:15:55

the Daily Podcast, and they're running the series of Humana advertisements

Adam Lamb: 00:16:00

on it where Humana's saying basically pre pandemic, nobody really cared

Adam Lamb: 00:16:06

about dental insurance or vision insurance and things like that.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:10

But in a, tight labor market, adding those to the benefit

Adam Lamb: 00:16:13

package can be a game changer.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:16

And you and I are fans of some of those kind of out of the box thinking benefits.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:22

But again, if the operator's still approaching it from this is what

Adam Lamb: 00:16:25

we've always done, we can't really see any reason why we should change it.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:30

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:32

I, just, I, how bad does it have to get before someone goes, Hey,

Adam Lamb: 00:16:35

maybe we can try something else.

Adam Lamb: 00:16:38

Yeah,

Jim Taylor: 00:16:38

and I, think back to when I was a me, a floor manager

Jim Taylor: 00:16:44

or a general manager, or even a regional level district manager.

Jim Taylor: 00:16:47

and it was very much about words like grind and drive and Yep.

Jim Taylor: 00:16:54

Things like figure it out.

Jim Taylor: 00:16:56

We talked about that stuff.

Jim Taylor: 00:16:57

It was like it was a GM's job to drive profit and it was a chef's job.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:02

Job to drive fee

Adam Lamb: 00:17:03

cost to, yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:17:05

To slash and cut.

Adam Lamb: 00:17:06

To trim.

Adam Lamb: 00:17:07

Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:07

Whether that means trim or work harder or grind,

Jim Taylor: 00:17:11

or whatever it might be.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:12

And you know what?

Jim Taylor: 00:17:13

There's nothing wrong.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:15

Working really hard to get a result, but the industry is at a point right now where

Jim Taylor: 00:17:20

I, firmly believe this and for anyone who I've interacted with regularly they,

Jim Taylor: 00:17:26

probably heard me rant about this, that it's more complex than that now, and that

Jim Taylor: 00:17:31

approach won't get anyone anywhere, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:17:34

Wages are different.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:35

Pricing is different.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:36

Cost of goods is different.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:38

Labor market is d.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:40

rent is different cost of you name it, it's changed.

Jim Taylor: 00:17:43

And unless you understand the information that goes into what making

Jim Taylor: 00:17:48

decisions is all about in today's industry, it's just so difficult.

Adam Lamb: 00:17:52

Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Adam Lamb: 00:17:54

And there's, no real simple solution, , it's remember doing an inventory and.

Adam Lamb: 00:18:02

I'm a couple points off my cost.

Adam Lamb: 00:18:04

It's never just one case of shrimp, right?

Adam Lamb: 00:18:06

It's all the little things that kind of make that whole thing up.

Adam Lamb: 00:18:09

And to your point about the grind, the push, the tr the, trim, the

Adam Lamb: 00:18:16

slash you know, it puts managers who mean in really in, in positions

Adam Lamb: 00:18:23

where they might sacrifice a little bit of their integrity because

Adam Lamb: 00:18:27

they're gonna do everything they can.

Adam Lamb: 00:18:29

To make that number, even if it's fudging numbers and Sure.

Adam Lamb: 00:18:33

Based on my own personal experience it started with a five pound

Adam Lamb: 00:18:37

box of shrimp and one inventory and two inventories later.

Adam Lamb: 00:18:40

I, it was a case of shrimp because it just kept ballooning and

Adam Lamb: 00:18:44

there was no way to trim it back.

Adam Lamb: 00:18:48

I, recognize that type of pressure is really, difficult to handle.

Adam Lamb: 00:18:52

And there's again, no real simple solution except to consider what

Adam Lamb: 00:18:58

your core values are and decide whether or not this employer really

Adam Lamb: 00:19:01

mirrors those core values or not.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:03

Because I know for a lot of us, for a long time we got the job because

Adam Lamb: 00:19:08

that was the job that was to be had.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:10

And there was a lot of other people competing for that position.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:13

So you were lucky to get a job that you could sufficient.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:17

Pay bills and stuff like that.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:18

So there wasn't a whole lot of choice about where you're, where you were headed.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:22

Yep.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:23

And yet, I know in this time there's a lot of choice.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:26

So if there's anybody out there that's really frustrated with management there's

Adam Lamb: 00:19:31

only so much managing up that you can do.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:34

But this is a great opportunity to again, take a step back, reconsider

Adam Lamb: 00:19:39

what your values are how does that, balance between your personal

Adam Lamb: 00:19:42

life and your professional life?

Adam Lamb: 00:19:44

And if it need, look for another employer because there's so

Adam Lamb: 00:19:48

many the chef ads are crazy.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:51

There's so many of 'em out there.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:53

I think what the US is at 3% unemployment right now.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:55

Something like that.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:56

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:19:57

So that means that everybody who wants a job is basically working

Adam Lamb: 00:20:00

that the o that 3% actually measures unemployable, either unemployable

Adam Lamb: 00:20:06

or people who've stopped looking.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:09

And to me, I think that's just fascinating.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:14

Some, ads are great.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:15

I'm seeing some really fantastic just ad placement above the fold

Adam Lamb: 00:20:21

of like a company's position.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:23

What they're what they really stand for, their core values, their vision,

Adam Lamb: 00:20:28

mission before it's like requirements.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:31

Like they're trying to match, they're trying to get out in front

Adam Lamb: 00:20:34

of it and really be where most of these perspective staff members are.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:40

Emotion.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:41

And I think that's a really great thing.

Adam Lamb: 00:20:43

And if you

Jim Taylor: 00:20:44

look at some of the companies in the US or Canada in mean

Jim Taylor: 00:20:47

pick market, that are fully staffed I would be I would be very confident

Jim Taylor: 00:20:54

in saying that there's something very different that they're doing.

Jim Taylor: 00:20:58

I was talking with Anthony Valletta from our taco the other day, or Zach

Jim Taylor: 00:21:01

Feinstein from Feinstein Group in Florida.

Jim Taylor: 00:21:03

Their labor models and the way that they take care of their people are

Jim Taylor: 00:21:07

like completely different than.

Jim Taylor: 00:21:10

, everybody else in the industry.

Jim Taylor: 00:21:13

Bar Taco is growing like crazy and Anthony is a great guy.

Jim Taylor: 00:21:17

He's gonna be a, an a guest with us on the show here soon to talk with us.

Jim Taylor: 00:21:22

They're, every single person who works in one of their restaurants

Jim Taylor: 00:21:26

makes the same amount of money.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:29

So Explain, tell me more.

Adam Lamb: 00:21:30

They

Jim Taylor: 00:21:31

pool all their tips.

Jim Taylor: 00:21:32

They don't have server.

Jim Taylor: 00:21:34

I'll, I don't want to spill the, tea too much here cause that's gonna us

Jim Taylor: 00:21:38

through this, but you don't have surfers.

Jim Taylor: 00:21:40

They rely on technology like QR code and whatnot.

Jim Taylor: 00:21:42

They have people to make sure that the customer's having a great experience,

Jim Taylor: 00:21:45

but then they take the gratuity and they pull it across everybody.

Jim Taylor: 00:21:48

So whether I'm working on my first day as a dishwasher, or I'm the most senior

Jim Taylor: 00:21:52

line cook, or I'm working in the front of house, making sure the customer's having a

Jim Taylor: 00:21:55

killer experience, they all make the same

Adam Lamb: 00:21:58

amount of money.

Adam Lamb: 00:22:00

There's, a place here in there's a place here in Asheville, the golden

Adam Lamb: 00:22:03

pineapple that does the same thing, which means that dishwashers are

Adam Lamb: 00:22:08

making $25 an hour, maybe more.

Jim Taylor: 00:22:11

And it's crazy because people, there are still a lot of people in our

Jim Taylor: 00:22:15

industry that say, oh that's That's.

Jim Taylor: 00:22:18

nuts.

Jim Taylor: 00:22:18

That won't work.

Jim Taylor: 00:22:20

It's interesting cuz those places are the ones that have no labor shortage.

Jim Taylor: 00:22:25

. Adam Lamb: So I think Monty Silva's

Jim Taylor: 00:22:30

that too when he shows up because I know from following his content that in

Jim Taylor: 00:22:36

Tampa Bradenton, that area of the west coast of Florida, places are jamming

Jim Taylor: 00:22:42

and they are satisfactorily staffed.

Jim Taylor: 00:22:45

Nobody's rushing.

Jim Taylor: 00:22:46

Nobody's he's seeing high levels of hospitality in these in these restaurants

Jim Taylor: 00:22:53

where typically a seafood restaurant on the Intercoastal is slamming, jamming

Jim Taylor: 00:23:01

there's no foreplay with tourists.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:02

You get one chance, you go for it.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:03

And yet he's like looking around, going, I don't know what everybody's talking about.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:08

So it'll be really great to have him on so that he can reflect

Jim Taylor: 00:23:12

back to us what he's seeing there.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:13

That works because I know that Florida's such a tough market.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:18

For seasonal labor up, down, constantly fighting, being overstaffed for

Jim Taylor: 00:23:23

most of the, for most of the year.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:25

And then all of a sudden the bottom drops out and.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:28

understaffed because everybody got let go and yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:31

It so it's I think he's probably gonna have some great intelligence for us

Jim Taylor: 00:23:36

when he comes up in a couple weeks.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:37

Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:38

Looking

Jim Taylor: 00:23:38

forward to that for sure.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:39

Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:41

Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:41

I think it's just the message here is whether it's a subscription service

Jim Taylor: 00:23:45

or a different way to look at a labor model or there's all these

Jim Taylor: 00:23:48

different ideas floating around.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:49

But I think the, message is, for one it's, about we gotta make sure

Jim Taylor: 00:23:53

that our people are well taken care.

Jim Taylor: 00:23:55

That there's good loyalty with customers and just think

Adam Lamb: 00:23:58

differently.

Adam Lamb: 00:23:59

Yeah I, couldn't agree more.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:00

And I just want to put a pin in it and say, the other thing that's really,

Adam Lamb: 00:24:06

critically important right now is to own the narrative and to really

Adam Lamb: 00:24:11

be crowing about those really weird things that, that you're promoting.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:16

Because if you don't own the narrative, somebody will.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:19

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:20

And we lost the upper hand.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:22

We didn't lose the upper hand, but during.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:25

all that was coming out was just how shitty it is to work

Adam Lamb: 00:24:29

in, the hospitality industry.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:31

And to a certain extent, they were absolutely right on the

Adam Lamb: 00:24:33

money, a hundred percent.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:35

But yet it gave us an opportunity as operators and and people who just love the

Adam Lamb: 00:24:39

industry to take a fresh look at it and go, man, this is a great opportunity, man.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:44

If we can, if we, not if, but working towards these different types of things.

Adam Lamb: 00:24:49

And the thing that I think probably can't be stressed enough about that

Adam Lamb: 00:24:53

subscription service is just having a stable environment within the restaurant

Adam Lamb: 00:25:00

of knowing what your what those cover counts are gonna be from day to day.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:07

Because I, it'd be interesting to see, okay, so I get a free taco.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:11

Does that mean I'm in there every day, every other day?

Adam Lamb: 00:25:14

And how, much, how many tacos can you have from Taco Bell in the middle of the day?

Adam Lamb: 00:25:18

I'm not talking about at two o'clock in evening.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:21

When you're trying , I'm not talking about late

Jim Taylor: 00:25:24

night when you need a

Adam Lamb: 00:25:26

Right?

Adam Lamb: 00:25:27

But the, really interesting thing.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:33

I, don't think there's some operators that are not scared at

Adam Lamb: 00:25:36

all about trying stuff like this.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:39

They're gonna keep, they're gonna keep bringing things out until

Adam Lamb: 00:25:42

they really hit their drive.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:44

And yet they don't consider any of the, if it doesn't naturally

Adam Lamb: 00:25:48

work out the way that they want.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:49

But they're not looking at that as a failure.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:51

They're looking at us.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:52

Okay now we're able to drill down even further.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:54

Now we're, gonna get really, good.

Adam Lamb: 00:25:57

looks like for our particular clientele, our tribe.

Adam Lamb: 00:26:01

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:26:01

Because those are the people that we most want to serve.

Adam Lamb: 00:26:04

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:26:04

Which to me also, Has some legs around kneeing, down in menus and,

Adam Lamb: 00:26:12

becoming really, good at maybe one or two things that you become instantly

Adam Lamb: 00:26:17

known for, and that's perfect opportunity for a subscription model.

Jim Taylor: 00:26:21

You know what a really interesting part of the discussion

Jim Taylor: 00:26:23

around the Taco Bell thing?

Jim Taylor: 00:26:25

The free taco a day for a month when you subscribe.

Jim Taylor: 00:26:28

So it's 10 bucks a month.

Jim Taylor: 00:26:31

It's very, cheap, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:26:34

Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:26:35

And so you get a free taco every day.

Jim Taylor: 00:26:38

So thinking about some of the psychology around this.

Jim Taylor: 00:26:40

So what do they say?

Jim Taylor: 00:26:41

It takes 28 days to create a habit.

Jim Taylor: 00:26:43

Yep.

Jim Taylor: 00:26:44

So having gone through this type of analytic type stuff with lots

Jim Taylor: 00:26:49

of restaurant companies around customer spend and behavior

Jim Taylor: 00:26:52

and all these different things.

Jim Taylor: 00:26:53

So here's what I predict would happen in a lot of cases in terms of this Taco Bell.

Jim Taylor: 00:26:59

, someone who likes Taco Bell, they may not Uhhuh be like going to Taco Bell

Jim Taylor: 00:27:02

every day, but they like Taco Bell.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:04

Sure.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:04

They subscribe to this $10 be because they're drawn in by the fact that I

Jim Taylor: 00:27:09

get a free taco every day for a month.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:11

Sure.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:12

Okay.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:13

They now go and get a free taco every day for a month, but maybe

Jim Taylor: 00:27:16

not every day, but quite a few days.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:18

They probably order something else.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:19

Yep.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:20

So the big picture of Taco Bell's model might change a little bit because.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:25

people are gonna maybe go and buy something from Taco Bell a little

Jim Taylor: 00:27:30

bit less, so their average customer spend might come down slightly, but

Jim Taylor: 00:27:33

their traffic is gonna increase.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:35

So all in all their, businesses, it's generating more.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:39

So that's good.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:40

The psychological byproduct of it though, is that as the consumer,

Jim Taylor: 00:27:43

I've now gone and had a Taco Bell taco every day for a month, and

Jim Taylor: 00:27:48

next month it's not free anymore.

Jim Taylor: 00:27:50

So I'll probably still go more often than I.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:55

It's like just, it's the pusher on the street corner, man.

Adam Lamb: 00:27:57

First one's free baby, then you gotta pay . Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:02

But that there's a, you know that, again, when I said

Jim Taylor: 00:28:04

this earlier, that companies like Taco Bell, you gotta know that

Jim Taylor: 00:28:07

they've done their homework on this.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:09

If you've seen anything about the new drive-throughs, so come on.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:12

But so here we go.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:14

There's some psychological hook the customer on this.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:17

And it it's, smart if you ask me.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:21

. Adam Lamb: Yeah, I think so too.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:22

I think so too.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:23

I think it's a little bit more difficult for say a restaurant

Jim Taylor: 00:28:27

that has that kind of Americana.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:30

Trying to please everyone model cuz then what do you like, what would

Jim Taylor: 00:28:34

be the value add on that menu?

Jim Taylor: 00:28:38

I think it would be a little bit hard to say just because you're trying to

Jim Taylor: 00:28:41

be everything to everybody, right?

Jim Taylor: 00:28:43

Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:43

And, maybe it's a a free appetizer every time you come in.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:47

Or a free drink every time you come in for the period of time.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:51

Yep.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:52

And then like you said with the gift card example, after that

Jim Taylor: 00:28:55

there's this big percentage of people that aren't gonna use it.

Jim Taylor: 00:28:57

And their prob, their margins probably increase even if they give away something

Jim Taylor: 00:29:01

for free every time those people come

Adam Lamb: 00:29:02

in.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:03

And by the time you actually catch it like that third or fourth month

Adam Lamb: 00:29:06

and you cancel it, what's the percentage of people who are not gonna

Adam Lamb: 00:29:10

even pay attention to that month?

Adam Lamb: 00:29:11

To month To month?

Adam Lamb: 00:29:13

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:14

Like you said, I don't think Taco Bell would've done that if they

Adam Lamb: 00:29:17

didn't do some really great ground.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:21

Probably in a particular market somewhere where it was a test and

Adam Lamb: 00:29:24

and they tried to drill that data down, but I'd be something I think

Adam Lamb: 00:29:27

I'm gonna be watching very closely.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:29

Yeah.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:29

Yeah.

Jim Taylor: 00:29:30

I was thinking as we were coming on onto the show today,

Jim Taylor: 00:29:33

I knew we were gonna talk a little bit about some of this kind of stuff.

Jim Taylor: 00:29:36

I was actually thinking that for, the bonus content that we're gonna do today,

Jim Taylor: 00:29:39

it'd be good to leave people with three creative new ideas that they could

Jim Taylor: 00:29:43

implement in the business like tomorrow.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:46

I love the idea.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:47

Right on.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:48

Right on.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:49

And if you stayed with us this long that's correct.

Adam Lamb: 00:29:52

We always do a little, we shut down the studio and we move to the back

Adam Lamb: 00:29:56

dock and and sit down on some milk crates and record another 10 or 15

Adam Lamb: 00:30:01

minutes of exclusive bonus content, which will be the link for that will

Adam Lamb: 00:30:05

be available tomorrow when we do the.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:08

And because this show is scheduled for another guest, I'll have to

Adam Lamb: 00:30:11

actually bring it down and then repost it again with the correct heading.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:15

So there'll, be a little bit of work for me to do, but it, we will be

Adam Lamb: 00:30:18

able to clean it up and I'm really looking forward to bringing Jennifer

Adam Lamb: 00:30:22

on because her show is great.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:25

She always has some great topics and guests, so I think it'll be a

Adam Lamb: 00:30:30

real value add for our listeners to be able to find out what she's.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:36

. Jim Taylor: Completely agree.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:37

Yeah, too.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:38

Bet you couldn't join us today, but definitely looking forward to that

Adam Lamb: 00:30:40

conversation.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:40

You bet.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:42

And just wanna say thanks to everybody for following following the show.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:48

We continue to add more and more people.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:51

Yes.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:52

Last week I think we added another 51 followers here on LinkedIn.

Adam Lamb: 00:30:57

So it's, the lift is incredible and I think currently, The show sits at

Adam Lamb: 00:31:03

number 70 in podcasts Canada Business.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:10

So we're really grateful for that, for everybody's enthusiasm and participation.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:16

We love the, questions and, the chat.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:18

And I want to end the show by saying, DM us, sent us an email.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:25

, what kind of content are you looking for?

Adam Lamb: 00:31:27

What's your most vexing problem right now that we can go out and

Adam Lamb: 00:31:31

search for solutions and bring it back and serve 'em to you?

Adam Lamb: 00:31:35

Because that's what we're here for.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:37

And Jim and I, think the conversation today was fantastic.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:40

Touched on a lot of different things, but I really wanna make sure that our

Adam Lamb: 00:31:44

listeners are served in a way that.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:47

On other shows to be frank.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:49

Yeah, agreed.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:51

All right everybody, thank you very much.

Adam Lamb: 00:31:52

This has been turning the tables with Jim Taylor, benchmark 60 and

Adam Lamb: 00:31:58

me, Adam Lamb of Chef Life Coaching.