Get Your Employees to THINK and ACT like an Owner

How often have you walked through a mall and seen this…..

…a cart or kiosk employee sitting on a stool, twirling their hair, eating pizza, talking to their boyfriend or girlfriend on the phone?

Pretty common, isn’t it?

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You can be sure that if YOU see it, so do YOUR cart employees….and your PROSPECTIVE employees. It’s not uncommon for cart or kiosk employees to see working at a cart or kiosk as ‘SOCIAL HOUR’ at the mall.

If YOU don’t address their perception YOUR employees may have, you take the risk that they will be the ones sitting on the stool, talking on the telephone…..

So, how do you ADDRESS this issue with YOUR employees, and prospective staff members? 

Thank goodness there a lot of little things you can do to get your staff members to THINK and ACT more like an owner. Let me talk about ONE of those things today….

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In my last update, I ’suggested’ that you add a suggestion BOX to your cart or kiosk….one designed just for your employees.

I ’suggested’ you REQUIRE your employees to submit at least one suggestion per week to that box.  If you didn’t have a chance to read that update, I suggest you do that right now at:

http://www.kioskexpert.com/shamrock_shake_031306.htm

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Adding a suggestion box for your employees and requiring they add a suggestion once a week, can give you access to some great IDEAS that can really improve your business.

However, there is ANOTHER subtle, yet very powerful benefit to ADDING a suggestion box and REQUIRING your staff to submit a suggestion at least once a week.

In my experience, it is usually rather EASY for your staff to come up with suggestions AT FIRST. If you just opened, there are typically LOTS of little things ‘need work.’ And if you are hiring someone new, they see the business with ‘new’ eyes, and can offer a ‘fresh’ vantage point.

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However, after the first few weeks, sometimes the most ‘obvious’ suggestions have already been made…..

…it can start to be a little more DIFFICULT for your staff to come up with suggestions.

What this means is that they have to look a LITTLE HARDER to find those GOOD suggestions….they have to FOCUS on it just a little bit more than normal. ‘Cause remember…..they HAVE TO come up with at least one suggestion each week.

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What I found was that – over time – looking for ideas became a HABIT! My staff would keep their eyes open ALL THE TIME, looking for little ways the business could improve.

Of course, as an owner, isn’t that what we want? For our staff to be in the HABIT of looking for ways to improve the business? 

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It’s easier than you think….

Add a suggestion box and require your employees to submit a suggestion every week.

It’s ONE simple thing you can do to get your staff to begin to THINK and ACT like an owner.

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In May, I will be giving a presentation on ‘SEVEN simple things that you can do to get YOUR staff to THINK and ACT like an owner’ – at the SPREE show in Boston, MA. May 4-6, the Specialty Retail Report magazine is hosting their second annual ‘SPREE’ event – ‘The Show for Cart and Kiosk Retailers’ in Boston, MA.

You can hear me….and fourteen other experts in the cart and kiosk industry speak……and offer all kinds of ways for you to be more successful with your cart or kiosk business.

For more details, click on the following link:

http://www.kioskexpert.com/2006SpreeEast.htm

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Be profitable,

Brady Flower
The Kiosk Expert

The Lesson of the Shamrock Shake

Last week I was walking through the food court at a local mall here in the Twin Cities area. I peeked up at the menu board at McDonald’s and noticed an old favorite, the ‘Shamrock Shake’.

For those of you unfamiliar with the ‘Shamrock Shake’, here is what it is:

McDonald’s takes a basic shake. They add a little green food coloring, and some mint flavoring. Then they put it on the menu in the days leading up to St. Patrick’s Day.  

Do you know where the Shamrock Shake came from?

Back in the fifties, when Ray Kroc was expanding the McDonald’s franchise, he put a SUGGESTION BOX in the back of each one his restaurants. This wasn’t any ORDINARY suggestion box. It was a SPECIAL suggestion box.

Not one for his customers. It was one for his EMPLOYEES. Ray Kroc REQUIRED each one of his employees to submit AT LEAST one idea per week to this special suggestion box.  

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And as I understand the story, it was a sixteen year-old counter employee that suggested they add a little green food coloring to the vanilla shake – to spur shake sales in the days leading up to St. Patrick’s Day.

McDonald’s added a little mint flavoring to the shake, and the ‘Shamrock Shake’ was born.

Every year, a few weeks before St. Patrick’s Day, McDonald’s adds the Shamrock Shake to their menu as a seasonal option. And as I understand it, they go through a LOT of those shakes every St. Patrick’s Day!

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A few years ago, after hearing this story, I added a suggestion box under the cash wrap stand at MY cart.  And asked my staff to submit a suggestion at least once per week. We’d read the suggestions each week at our weekly breakfast meetings. Some of the suggestions I got were unfeasible, or were ridiculous, or were clearly just in jest. 

However, I also got a lot of GREAT ideas that helped make my carts run more smoothly. And got one BIG idea that led to measurable increase in sales of over a quarter of a million dollars in the last five years.

Would I have come up with that BIG idea on my own? We’ll never know.  But I don’t have to know.  Because someone on my staff gave the idea to me.

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You don’t have to be a huge corporation to profit by adding a suggestion box to your business. Whether you have one employee or a hundred, YOU can get access to simple ideas for improving your business each and every week.

Add a suggestion box for YOUR employees. REQUIRE them to add at least one suggestion per week! It’s simple. It’s easy.

All it takes is ONE good idea to make this pay off in a BIG WAY!

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Oh, and that reminds me….my diet has changed quite a bit since I was a younger.

I don’t usually eat at McDonald’s any more.

However, last week when I was walking by, I DID stop by and pick up a small ‘Shamrock Shake’. Seemed like it was the least I could do to pay them back for the use of their idea….

That’s it for today!

Be profitable!

Brady Flower
The Kiosk Expert