April 2010: Tips from Tom Mazza
Preaching the Gospel of Preparation
Ineffective managers and owners share a common trait in my view, namely they are re-active rather than pro-active.
I was training chauffeurs the other day when I repeated to them a line I have said a thousand times. "95 percent of being a great chauffeur is being prepared on an every day basis." It occurred to me that the same holds true for every position in your company.
Here is an example, when I train dispatchers, I always start by asking, "If we have an ASAP call for an 'as directed run' in an hour, who would you go to?" Sometimes there is an immediate response other times the question is met with an absolute look of surprise. If you are a normal company and even 5 percent of your business is same day add on, why would this question be a surprise to you?
When I am dealing with a company that has heavy weekend business I ask on what day are you meeting with staff to plan out the weekend? Can you do it on Wednesday, Thursday? DO WE have planning meetings? Again, sometimes the response is immediate other times it is a look of surprise. The planning makes it easier. It's a simple concept but sometimes the buy in from your staff is an issue.
I was with a veteran GM the other day that was scrambling to hire 5 chauffeurs to cover the busy prom and wedding season. When I asked "why" with many years experience in the business he let it go to mid-March he told me he was "too busy" to have made that happen. "Nonsense" was my reply. Running classified ads in February and reaching out to every former chauffeur who left on good terms was simple. Putting a "Drivers Wanted" sign on the marquee outside the office was easily accomplished.
Do you want to change your company culture from reactive to proactive? Here is my advice:
- Meet regularly (even daily in the beginning) with your team and ask questions that force them to look ahead and challenge them. But do it in a fun, upbeat way not sarcastic or mean, please!
- Have short 15 minute meetings/calls BEFORE high volume days. Assign your hourly or charter work as early in the week as possible.
- Put a calendar together for the year that is visible to your team and can be written on.
- Give individual people in your company "ownership" of specific areas. "Lauren, you are our Prom person. Keep us on track and take care of all the items we need to maximize our prom business. Get the dates in January and February, run the ads, work with dispatch etc. Keep me (the owner) informed and on the time line."
- Be a leader! Give your team the issue and guide them to the right solutions. Keep them focused on how much better your company will be when the culture has changed. Be generous with compliments and be there to assist. If YOU are the de facto GM of your own company, discipline yourself to make this happen.
TMC Online Reservation Training Program
TMC is offering 1 on 1 training for your reservations department and new hires.
YOU PROBABLY DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO TRAIN PROPERLY! You set out with the best intentions but "Carol"; your top reservations person has neither the time nor the energy to train "Mary" the new girl the right way. What happens is that your training is rough and often interrupted by your busy office. We train online at a time convenient for you.
We have expert, trained instructors that knows the Odyssey, Livery Coach, Fasttrak, Limo Anywhere software programs.
Training costs are $35 per hour for 1 on 1 instruction with a 3 hour minimum and a small fee added to connect via PC Anywhere. Contact tom@tommazza.com for more information or to reserve training time.
From a Report in Hospitality Magazine:
WHY CUSTOMERS REALLY QUIT USING YOU OR COMING TO YOU
1% Die
3% Move Away (job transfer or life change like retirement)
5% Economic Reasons (choose a cheaper alternative out of class)
9% Competitive Reasons (a competitor makes a better case and performs better)
14% Product Dissatisfaction (you don't walk your talk)
68% Quit because of the attitude of indifference towards the customer by a company employee
Help Wanted: Looking for Experienced GM for Western CO Company
TMC Executive search is looking for an experienced operations professional interested in relocating to western Colorado for an exciting opportunity. Excellent salary, benefit package, and relocation expenses available. Successful candidate must be ready to start within 30 days. Send Tom Mazza your resume at tom@tommazza.com, immediate response and interview with qualified candidates. (We are looking for an experienced operations manager or owner.)
Check Out TMC's Post-Recession Survey:
Dr. Yvonne La Mar, my crack colleague at TMC has put together an interesting survey on the post-recession limousine industry.
Part of an Interview with Kip Tindell, CEO of the Container Store in the NY Times that every Entrepreneur needs to read:
"We preach a lot here that team is one of the most beautiful of all human experiences. You do great things together, and you go home at night feeling wonderful about what great things you accomplished that day. That's what people want, and that's what wise and sophisticated leaders help cultivate and know that people want. Every bad boss you or I have ever had thinks that what people want is the exact opposite of that.
The way we create a place where people do want to come to work is primarily through two key points. One of our foundation principles is that leadership and communication are the same thing. Communication is leadership. So we believe in just relentlessly trying to communicate everything to every single employee at all times, and we're very open. We share everything. We believe in complete transparency. There's never a reason, we believe, to keep the information from an employee, except for individual salaries.
I always make it a point to give the same presentation I give at the board meeting to the staff, and then that trickles down to everybody in the company. I know that occasionally some of that information falls into the wrong hands, but that's a small price to pay for having employees who know they know just about everything."
What else?
A. One of the other foundation principles is that one great person could easily be as productive as three good people. One great is equal to three good. If you really believe that, a lot of things happen. We try to pay 50 to 100 percent above industry average. That's good for the employee, and that's good for the customer, but it's good for the company, too, because you get three times the productivity at only two times the labor cost.
For Full interview, go to nytimes.com and enter "Three Good Hires" 3/14/10
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