“We don’t improve service in general, we improve service in specifics,” said Jim Sullivan, CEO and Founder of Sullivision.com who has over 20 years' experience in the hospitality industry.
To improve service and reach revenue goals, Sullivan utilizes two specific methods to measure productivity and improvement - Lag Measures and Lead Measures. Lead Measures target the new behaviors that will drive success on the Lag Measures.
Lag Measures – the performance that produced them is all in the past (i.e. P&L reports tell you what happened in the past).
Lead Measures - the most important things the team must do every shift to reach your ultimate goal.
“If you operate solely from the whirlwind you are never going to progress,” said Sullivan. Therefore, when determining what your Lead Measures are you need to ask yourself this one question in reference to that goal – From A to B by when?
Sullivan broke this concept down in order to make it applicable to each individual day, shift or hour your venue operates. For example, let’s say you want to increase sales by $120,000 in the next 12 months. This is a significant amount. “But that’s only $30,000 a quarter,” says Sullivan, which equates to only $10,000 a month or $178 dollars a shift; considering you have 2 shifts a day, 14 shifts a week equating to 56 shifts a month. This $178 a shift then turns into approximately $19.77 per hour.
How many repeat visits is that? How many burgers is that? Breaking it down into smaller more manageable increments makes a daunting task obtainable. It also allows you to easily track from A to B by when every day. “If you don’t hit your daily goal then you need to add it to the next day,” says Sullivan, to make sure that you stay on track.
Sullivan also encourages owners to communicate these numbers and goals to their team members. Does everyone understand them for each individual shifts? “People will do what you encourage them to do. Not what you nag them to do,” he explained. However, in 12 months, $120,000 more in sales is another $18,000 in tips.
Now, that’s encouragement if you ask me.