Just Do It

It’s March 2009.  We were in our second year as the top sales and profit in the Triangle.  We had won Symbol 2 years prior. We had been one of 9 stores chosen by Chick-fil-A to be part of the test for Recipe for Service in 2008, the beginning of Core 4 and Second Mile Service and the Hospitality push for Chick-fil-A.  

It was spring break.  We did a trip up to Charlottesville to see Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s home) via the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Afterward we drove out to spend an evening at Rod Stoner’s house in West Virginia.  He was our consultant specifically for the hospitality test. Former Executive Chef at the Greenbrier Resort (google it).  His place was beautiful. The food was unreal. Truly amazing experience of hospitality.

That evening we are sitting in his family room.  Big glass windows with a light snow shower. Big stone fireplace with a fire burning.  Rod is reading books to our little kids. Perfect Hallmark Moment.

After the kids go to bed Rod and I talk some business.  He asks how the store is doing and I’m honest. NOT GOOD.  Despite all those good numbers and apparent success I knew there was a problem.  I’d been paralyzed by success. I hadn’t been willing to make some decisions that needed to be made and they had piled up.

I summed it up by saying “I wish I could just start from scratch.  I wish I could do what a new operator does when they take over an existing store.  They get to decide who to keep and hire only those people. They don’t have to fire anybody because technically none of those people work for them yet.  People expect change when a new operator walks in. I wish I could just go in and take over my store like that.” He had a simple reply. “Why don’t you just do that?”  

The next day, on the drive home I began piecing together what was going to happen.  I didn’t do it all right. In fact, I did a lot of things wrong. BUT, finally taking action meant I finally started the movement toward CFAROX as we know it today.  This included as much change for me personally as it did for my staff.

Is there something I’ve been needing to do but haven’t?  Anything Rod would ask me “why don’t you just do it?” Is success paralyzing me?

Parking Lot

Sometime in 1998-1999 I was sitting in my office in the basement of my first store when I heard the voice of Jimmy Collins, president of CFA.  One of the best descriptions of Jimmy is one I heard another operator share. He said “If you heard Truett Cathy was going to visit your store, you may not sleep well the night before.  If you heard Jimmy was going to visit your store, you may not sleep well the entire week before”. Jimmy was tough. He had very high expectations. But, he was also consistent.

So, the visit starts off exactly as I had heard from others.  He would try the lemonade and the cole slaw. Then, if they were to his liking, he’d very sternly ask “Who made this?!”  Marcella, who was a very bold Jamaican, wasn’t shy and immediately said “I did”. It was all good.

Eventually, Jimmy and I headed to the parking lot.  We had probably cleaned it that morning but it wasn’t great.  Lots of little stuff like cigarette butts and straw wrappers. Jimmy looks at me and asks “what are you going to do about this?”  My simple reply was “I’ll get this cleaned up right away” but that wasn’t good enough. “No, what are you going to do to ensure this never happens again?”  Guess, where the parking lot timer came from? It’s evolved from once a day to twice a day, to hourly, including blowing the lot daily every day, not just in the fall when leaves are coming down.  

More importantly, the lesson was that anytime something isn’t just right, don’t only do the quick fix.  Find a solution that prevents the problem. Don’t keep dealing with the same problem day in and day out.  Solve it so you can go find the next problem/opportunity.