For those of you who missed part one of ‘What attracts you to Chick-fil-A, here is the link. For this week’s post I want us to continue that thought and add on to it just a little bit. For those of you who don’t know, for the past few months we’ve been doing a lot of recruiting. And if you don’t know this that probably means you haven’t been working very much. Have you seen all the new wonderful team members who have started working alongside of us? I love it. And I’m so thankful for people like Blair and others who are continuing to make the effort to bring good talent into the doors of Renaissance Village. Many of you have even done some active recruiting yourselves. And we are truly thankful for your efforts.

Did you know that over the past couple of months we’ve brought in almost 30 new team members to the roster. That’s incredible! That means that we’ve increased our entire team by almost 30% in just about two months time. Tons of people are truly attracted to the business that is Chick-fil-A.

But here is a question for all of you. How do we keep people attracted to Chick-fil-A once they get on our team? Now I’ve only been married for a little over 6 years but I’ve learned a thing or two about the whole marriage relationship thing. One thing that is incredibly important is that as a husband you need to keep ‘dating’ your wife even after you tie the knot! Just because I put a ring on it doesn’t mean that I can just sit back, watch ESPN or play golf and assume that my wife will feel perpetually fulfilled doing the dishes and raising our child. It doesn’t work like that. Her fulfillment in our marriage doesn’t come unless I’m intentional about pursuing her and making her feel special long after the marriage ceremony. And the same goes for our new CFA team members. Yes, we did a good job catching them. But now the key to success is our continued intentional pursuit of their growth in our family!

So am I asking you to try and get a date with the newest team members? Absolutely not! Men (and ladies), you better behave! But what I am asking is that you pour into them as you would like to be poured into. Yes, we have ‘certified trainers’ on our team and they do a great job leading in our training efforts. But what is stopping you and everyone else from passing the valuable CFA knowledge and life skills that you have learned here to those with less experience? That is my challenge for you for our third quarter. With all of these new team members I charge each and every one of us to take personal responsibility for raising up the next Renaissance Village leaders. You’ve heard the saying, ‘it takes a village to raise a child‘. Well, that is definitely true in our little restaurant community. So what are you going to do about it? I’m excited to see how each and every one of you rise to the occasion. And I’m excited myself to help us get there.

 

Hey team,

We have some celebrating to do! For those of you who don’t already know I wanted to introduce you to two of our newest team leaders at Renaissance Village.

Ms. Amanda Latorre has been working for us for a number of years and we thought it best to reward her for her hard work and dedication with a promotion.

 

And Lindy has also served as a team member now for a couple of years. It’s been an amazing experience to see both of these ladies grow and mature over the years. Please take some time to congratulate them next time you see them. I hope these videos serve to show just a little bit of our gratitude to both of them (as well as embarrass them just a little!)

For those of you who don’t know, becoming a team leader or a leader in general at our restaurant is a pretty big deal. We have a very successful business and most of that success is attributed to who we chose to lead. Some of you might be wondering what it takes to become a leader in this organization. I and the rest of the leadership team definitely welcome any questions you might have if you are interested in pursuing more responsibility. Please don’t hesitate to ask. For now, please give Lindy and Amanda a pat on the back for the accomplishment. I’m excited to see how these two ladies can help us be our best!

(Quick Drive thru update: As of tonight we are ranked 132 in the chain with our drive thru goal! Are you kidding me!!? This is so exciting! When I used to play soccer 50 years ago my coach used to encourage us after we scored a goal by yelling, ‘Give me 5 hard minutes!’ He would say this because the tendency would be to slack off a little after pulling ahead in the game rather than keeping up the intensity. So I’m asking you now, ‘Give me 5 hard minutes!!! Keep it up guys. Just 32 more spots to reach top 100. We can do it!)

And now the blog:

For those of you who have interviewed fairly recently with us you are familiar with this question. We always ask our perspective team members this question during the second interview. And this is the question I’ve been asking myself over the past number of months. What attracts you personally to Chick-fil-A?

We get a number of responses from this, but I just got finished telling my wife that I bet about 99.99% of the responses revolve around our great treatment of our employees or our incredible customer service. And while I think this is absolutely accurate from an outsiders perspective I’m a little skeptical at how we actually follow through with this assumption. Don’t get me wrong. I think Renaissance Village is absolutely one of the best places to work in the Triangle. We put an incredible amount of energy in hiring and training the best people, and we strive with blood, sweat, and tears to make this a great place to eat and relax for our customers.  But I’ve become increasingly convicted about what we are intentionally doing to continue making our restaurant an attractive place to work and eat now and in the future. I mean, is this sort of reputation something that just happens arbitrarily? Or are there systems in place to actually continue making our restaurant a comfortable home to some of the most talented team members and loyal guests in the area?

These are the thoughts that I’m having about the business right now. I personally desire each one of you to feel comfortable and challenged at work. I want you to have fun. And I think the result of that morale will translate into great customer satisfaction. But I’ll be honest. I think I’ve missed the mark on a number of occasions to build this culture such that everyone is excited to come to work and truly happy to dine with us.

So here is what I want to do. I know it is the middle of June but in the business world we’re already thinking about the third and fourth quarters of the year. The 3rd quarter begins in July and ends on September 30th. My goal for us all is to sit back after that last Saturday in September with confidence that we’ve done our very best in intentionally creating a working environment that truly makes Chick-fil-A Renaissance Village a great place to work. One of the results I’m looking for is for your friends to look at our business and ask, ‘Wow, how can I be a part of that business? It seems like you guys work really hard and have an amazing time doing it.’

Is that something you all would like to be a part of? I sure hope so! We as a leadership team have some more specific plans to aid in ensuring our restaurant continues to be the best place to work in the triangle. And we’ll definitely need all hands on deck to get us there. So stay tuned in the coming months. We’re excited to continue our success together as a team and I’m just flat honored to be a part of this story with you all.

Hey folks! Thanks for taking care of the ship in my absence this past week. It sounds like we had an eventful week. That’s awesome! Today I just want to highlight two of our team members who went above and beyond the call of duty. It was raining really hard and Will Eaker and Aaron Barrow decided to put themselves on Umbrella Patrol. You guys are awesome. And that wasn’t just a sprinkle out there. That was a monsoon! You guys illustrated Chick-fil-A today. I really appreciate it!

Have you ever asked yourself that? What really makes Chick-fil-A great? Some of you might first talk about the wonderful history of the company that Truett Cathy started so many years ago. Others of you might answer by talking about the wonderful products we sell or maybe the necessary job skills that you can acquire here in order to prepare you for a competitive future. I honestly believe that each one of us would probably give a different response to that question. And that’s ok. But let me be a little more specific.

What is it that makes you personally want to work for CFA? Or maybe even more specific than that, what makes you want to work at CFA Renaissance Village? This is a question that I’ve been asking myself for quite a while now. And to be honest, I’m not that impressed with my current answer. I mean, I know why I personally want to work at CFA Renaissance Village. But I really want to know why you come to work every day. My fear is that I feel as though there is a disconnect between what you want from a job and what we are currently providing for you on a day-to-day basis. 

In the recent Gallup article ‘What Millenials Want From Work and Life‘ we see that 87% of millennials feel that professional development or career growth opportunities are very important to them in a job. It goes on to say that millennials ‘look for work that fuels their sense of purpose and makes them feel important.’

Are we as a leadership team hitting the mark on this one for you? Do you feel your sense of purpose to an extent when serving guests? Do you feel like you matter or are important at our restaurant? I sure hope so. But if I’m honest with myself I bet there are some things that we could do to help you feel more connected or more fulfilled at the workplace. And to reassure you, these are things that I’m concerned about for you. I personally want to know how we can get to that point as a team. I promise to work hard to get us there.

So here is where I need your help. Today I’m asking for you feedback. What will it take to make CFA Renaissance Village great for its team members? What would you change? What would you add? And on that note, what should we subtract? The world is your oyster. But I am truly asking because I want to know. Please leave us some feedback. In the comment section of this blog feel free to speak your mind. We really want to know.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Team, let me just say that I’m really stinkin’ proud of all of you. We had another killer weekend with sales and I loved seeing each of you perform at the top of your game when we were honestly a little short-staffed. It was really encouraging personally to see some of you step up into new roles that you may not have been completely comfortable with. Thank you so much for your hard work. It’s seriously paying off! Our guests love you!

So where are we at with out drive-thru goal? As of tonight at 9:30pm we are sitting at number 148! YESSSSS!! (this is how Ms. Cynthia says it…)! We’re nailing it! All engines are at full throttle and we’re moving forward at an amazing pace. 148 out of all the restaurants like us is an amazing score! Having said that, I still want us to keep pushing for those 30 second transaction times. We’ve come a long way and I know you guys can get there!

On another note, as the title states, summer is in fact upon us, and I want all of us to be ready for a few new items on our menu. You should already be familiar with these new items, but I will highlight them below to give you a little help.

Product one: Introducing the new Smokehouse BBQ Bacon Sandwich!

Isn’t she a beauty!? I want you to take a good look at this one and be able to describe it perfectly to a guest. I mean I want your words to force the guest to salivate just like Pavlov’s dog as you describe it. Yes, that’s a gross image, but I mean, come on! Even if you don’t like bacon, you have to admit that this sandwich looks good. And from personal experience, it is good! And if you don’t get the Pavlovian allusion, google it. And you better believe that you’ll be quizzed on this one.

Product Two: Introducing the new Watermelon Mint Lemonade!

I’ve tried this one and it too is pretty incredible. Refreshing? Yes. Mouthwatering? Check. A very simple recipe of natural watermelon and mint flavors mixed with our very own fresh squeezed lemonade. Martha Stewart’s got nothing on this one and Paula Deen just wishes she would have come up with this on her own, but our Chick-fil-A friends beat them to the punch (pun intended). You can also enjoy the Watermelon Mint flavor with our freshly brewed iced tea and frosted lemonade.

Product Three: Seasonal Limited Time offer Peach Milkshake:

Most of you are already familiar with this one as we’ve sold it each summer for a number of years now. I encourage all of you to try it so that you can join in the revelry that our guests have already experienced for years now.

All three of these products are now available to you and our guests. The official launch is actually this coming Monday on the 22nd. All the POS terminals should however be updated as of today.

Please let any leaders know if you have any questions about ingredients or any other information. But have fun selling this stuff. Chick-fil-A has done a bang up job in producing these new products. Now we have another opportunity to provide our guests with more REMARKable products for the entire summer.

 

Ok, so on the last post I goofed and I apologize. But it’s a really good goof! When I was talking about our rankings for our drive thru I actually was dead wrong in reading the data (I went back and updated the previous post if you are so inclined to check). I told you before that we were hovering around number 266 in the chain. Well, as of today we are actually number 160! Wow! Way to go team! We’ve almost reached our goal and we have more than a month and a half to get there. Should we shoot for top 50? Maybe… but for now we’ll keep our feet on the ground a little and simply keep our sights on top 100.

But here I want to take just a few moments and break down our goal a little bit more for you all. Since most of you are in high school (or you’ve already had the pleasure of graduating) I’m sure you’ve had experiences writing longer essays, right? I know, I know, using an illustration about writing an essay is probably not the smartest move… But stay with me. Think back to that first 2,000 word essay that you had to write. It seemed like a pretty daunting task to begin with, I’m sure.

If you’re like me the first time you had to write something of such length you probably didn’t know where to begin. But your teachers helped you through the process by giving you a step-by-step plan. Maybe before turning the final paper in you had a bunch of smaller assignments with different due dates. You first had to gather your sources and turn in a bibliography. And then your second task would be to write an outline and turn that in. And then you probably had to compose an introduction and then a rough draft, right? Well, what was the point of all those little assignments? It was to show you for one that you could do it and develop a solid process for writing future papers. But it was also to show you that to achieve such a lofty goal, you must first break it down into smaller segments. I’m going to call those smaller segments behaviors. And at that I will no longer talk about essays or school…

To reach the top 100 we must start with these kind of small behaviors. No, I’m not going to make you write an outline or a rough draft. I’m not going to ask you to write anything at all. But I am going to give you small behaviors that will ultimately develop into habits that will hopefully push us forward incrementally toward our goal.

In the last post I mentioned that we’re about $1,000 short of reaching the 100 spot. So how do we increase those sales? Well the broad answer is that we need to get more cars through the drive thru, but there are a bunch of smaller behaviors that we must employ in order to make that happen.

The first behavior centers around focus. My challenge for you for the foreseeable future is to treat every transaction as if you only have 30 seconds to complete the order. For you folks in the window this should be your goal. When the car pulls up you should greet the guest with a smile, repeat their order, take the transaction, and then your bagger should come behind you and push the food out the window. I realize that kind of intensity comes more naturally during our peak periods when we’re already trying to go as fast as possible. But why not have this mentality for the entire day?

If we develop the behavior or habit of getting our guests to the window and out in around 30 seconds, just think about how much trust this will build with them as they scoot in and out of our drive thru every day. And think about how they will talk us up to their friends. Pretty soon people will be pouring in because they know that when they enter the Renaissance Village drive thru we mean business. Can you do this 30 second thing for me? I know you can. We’re all in this together. I hope you all have a great week!

Alright, so how many of you would call yourselves competitive? Anyone? How many of you are  the board game kings or queens in your household? When it comes to Monopoly or Go Fish you’re the champ, right?  How many of you agree with the great Ricky Bobby when he says, ‘Second place is first loser.’ Or,

Are you with me? Does this resonate with anyone? I’m sure at least some of you agree with Mr. Bobby on this one (…and I am neither confirming nor denying that I have seen this movie…). There is just a part of you that thrives on competition. You have to win! Right? I am totally with you on this. My wife could tell you. I hate losing! No matter what I’m doing, whether I’m on the golf course or on the soccer field (I was on the soccer field a long time ago…right now it’s the stock market because it doesn’t require as much physical prowess…), I want to win!

Which brings me to my point. Whenever your compete you have to know the score because you want to know who is winning! I’m sure most of you tuned in to those final moments when UNC played the Zags just a few short weeks ago in the Final Four. You probably even subconsciously were checking the time left and the score as the game drew to a close. I knew I was. I didn’t have many finger nails left when that game was over. Or a voice…

But again, my point is that everyone checks the score. It’s vitally important to any competition. Without a scorecard the competition would be well, not very competitive… Imagine going to a UNC verses Duke basketball game when they decide not to keep score. What if Roy was like, ‘We don’t want to offend anyone by picking a winner or a loser. We just want to run up and down the court and see how many times we can pass the ball and dribble and stuff…’ That would be awful! Gross!

Well, it’s the same in our business at Chick-fil-A. Without a scorecard, we’re lost! If we don’t consistently define and measure success, what are we really doing when we show up for work? What’s the point?

Today I want to give you some insight into how we are actually competing as a Drive Thru. And I’m going to be honest. We are among some really stiff competition. For those of you who are keeping up with this blog (and it better be all of you!), one of our goals is to become one of the top 100 Drive Thrus in the entire CFA chain. That’s a type of scorecard right there, right? And yes, that is an incredibly lofty goal.

But what exactly will it take to get there? Will we just magically appear at number 99 or whatever on a chart one day when we’ve met our goal? Not at all! On our journey to the top 100 we need to satisfy a ton of requirements. Here are Chick-fil-A’s metrics on what makes for a successful Drive Thru:

1. Average Drive Thru Sales per day
2. Average Drive Thru Transactions per day
3. Average Order Accuracy %
4. Average Speed of service %
5. Average number of Carry Out orders compared to total transactions %

So, at the end of the day, all of those metrics are compiled, and we get a composite score compared to all the other CFA restaurants in the chain. As of today we are sitting at number 160! Awesome Sauce! That’s actually really really amazing! As of Monday, May 8 that’s only 79 more spots to reach our goal! So how do we get there? Good question. I’ll focus on just one of those metrics right now, and then we can follow up on more in the future. But for now, the number one metric that is preventing us from moving forward is the amount of sales that we have in our drive thru per day. In other words, we need to make more money in the drive thru to really get into this game. For those of you who follow college basketball we’re currently like a University of Florida or Georgetown, or something…, but we really need to be like a UNC or Duke. Or maybe for you car buffs, we’re currently driving like a VW bug, but we really need to be driving something with more horsepower like an Audi R8 or a BMW M3. Got it? Ok, enough of that…

So what does that mean for us for the month of May? Currently our average daily sales in the drive thru is around $9,400 per day. The restaurant sitting at the 100 spot does close to $10,400. So…in order to make it to the top 100 we need to increase those sales by right at $1,000! Can we do it? Yes we can! So, what’s the action step? I’m going to be really specific here. Our action step for the month of May is to really focus on boosting sales in the drive thru on Fridays and Saturdays. That’s it. Just those two days. For those of you who work on those days this is going to require an incredibly intense focus on getting as many cars through the drive thru as possible. We’re going to take it one car at a time. Whether you’re in the window at 6:30am on Friday or 9:59pm on Saturday I am asking you to be all in! 

Each week in the month of May I will give you an update as far as where we are with sales. And for those of you that I see working especially hard in this competition I definitely look forward to rewarding you handsomely. Who is going to shine and set themselves apart this month? I look forward to seeing how competitive we can be as we enter the big leagues. By the end of May I want us to be at the top 150 or better. And then by the end of second quarter (June 30th) we’re going to make it to the top 100 or bust. So here we go! Saddle up and I’ll see you at the finish line!

How many times have you heard that during your time at Chick-fil-A. Some of you have probably heard it more times than you’d like to remember. It’s that moment when all eyes immediately drift to the parking lot, and it’s as if time literally stops. Honestly, I love this feeling. It’s quite comical at times. Even our patrons dining in with us at the time sense the anxiety that is soon to follow. Personally, I love it. You know why? Because it gives us an opportunity to really show people what we’re made of. Every single time that bus unloads, whether it’s a sports team or a gaggle of unruly hangry(this word btw was just recently added in to the Oxford English dictionary) teenagers, I get excited. I have the utmost confidence in you all and how you can perform in high pressure situations. We simply have the best team and you knock it out of the park every time this happens.

This past Saturday the proverbial ‘bus’ happened at around 7:30pm when we had the opportunity to serve the entire Syracuse Women’s Lacrosse team. About 50 players and coaches unloaded and after beating our UNC Tarheels 13-11 that day, they were ready for some Chick-fil-A! And you know what? You nailed it! George and Nate showed great composure taking each of their orders on the front counter while James and others quickly and efficiently got all of the food out in a timely manner. Carlos was at the helm in the kitchen making sandwiches with typical Salvadorian lightening speed, but you know what really made the day?

Our very own Comfort Johnson and Jayla Branch kept the drive thru going without practically any help from others. It was awesome. Jayla was on the headset taking orders and bagging at the same time for Comfort. What a sight! And Comfort (who hasn’t been with us very long at all) persistently greeted each guest who came through, repeated their order, and kept things running smoothly. It was quite the spectacle, and I’m really proud of them both.

Sure, tensions were high, and at times, it wasn’t pretty. But we got through it and did our jobs. And at the end of the day we had an opportunity to show those Orange women how us Southern slow-talkers can really turn up the heat when we need to. Jayla and Comfort, I’m proud of you. I really appreciate your hard work and ingenuity when times got tough. Congratulations on a job well done to you all. This is a prime example of who we want to be at Renaissance Village. I’m confident that we showed both those athletes as well as the other guests present just what it means to provide truly REMARKable service. Let’s make it a great week at Chick-fil-A!

Alright team. I have a challenge for you. In the previous two posts we’ve talked about our big buckets for the second quarter of 2017. Bucket one reflects our desire to build a Culture of Excellence at Chick-fil-A Renaissance Village. And Bucket two mentions specifically that we have a goal of becoming one of the top 100 drive thrus in the entire CFA chain. A lot of you might be saying, ‘This is all well and good…but how do we get there?’ I’m glad you asked.

The first step to achieving our goals this quarter and this year is recruiting more people! One of my favorite books of all time on business/leadership is Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins. In that book he talks about how the most successful companies achieve and sustain success over long periods of time by getting the right people on the bus and putting them in the right seat. This is where we are as a company. We’ve got a lot of talented people like yourselves, and we’ve done a pretty good job of placing you in the right seats. But, in order to go further, we simply need to fill a lot of seats that are currently empty!

So here is where you come in. We need you to recruit your friends to join our team. It’s up to you to fill that bus! To be specific, your homework assignment this week is to email or text me five of the most talented people that you know. Some of them might even have a job and some of them might not. Either way, I need you to send me their email address or phone number and I will handle the rest.  You never know, for some of those people Chick-fil-A might be the ideal job for them. All you have to do is get me their info. And the due date for these names is this Saturday, April 15th by 5pm.

One suggestion is to go ahead and take 5 recruitment cards with you when you go into the restaurant next time. You can take them from the poster board in front or just ask one of the leaders to get them for you from the manager’s station. Here is what they look like.

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. And remember, you have the opportunity for a financial reward if we hire one of your recruits. You really have nothing to lose. Some of the best team members we currently have, which is you, were originally brought to us by others who were already serving on the team. I’m incredibly excited to see my inbox fill up by the end of this week with all the names you send. Thanks in advance for you hard work in this. With our powers combined I truly believe we can make this company great!