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opportunities and weaknesses are facing that business. And once
I’m armed with that information, I take a good, hard look at the staff.
I interview key players such as management, some team leaders,
maybe the front of house manager, the host manager, the dining
room leader if there are such, as well the kitchen manager or chef
and some of the head line cooks.

It’s interesting what you learn from interviewing staff. They kind
of sing like canaries and give you a very good picture of what’s
going on in that business. So it all starts with interviews and
understanding. And then we go to work on what I call the A, B,
and C Teams. Now, this may sound harsh, but every restaurant has
a C Team. And sometimes the C Team can literally be like the tail
Do we pay back the money and quit, or do we just say, “We’re going wagging the dog where they want to run your business or they want
to make this happen on $40,000 less than what you need in start- your business to run the way it works best for the staff versus the
up capital?” That was the decision we made. Somehow we made it other way around or what’s best for the customer. And I’ve definitely
work, and the business just grew from the get-go. found that the C Team are morale killers and they’re really not there
for the right reasons.
Nick:
OK, that is pretty crazy. I wasn’t expecting to get that answer. Sorry Very, very critically, what the staff says and does has a huge impact
that happened though, but let me ask you this. Tell me about your on your repeat business in a restaurant. And many, many times this
hiring and firing philosophy. What were some of the most effective has been repeated, in my experience, that what those staff say and
recognition ideas? do can sabotage your business, but also your repeat business. And
that means that those customers aren’t just not coming back again,
Roger: but they’re telling everybody they know negatively, “Don’t go to that
Starting with the philosophy, I guess I made the mistake that lots place. This is my experience there.” And with the advent of online
of restaurant owners make in the beginning when I started, and I reviews, Yelp and TripAdvisor, you can absolutely get slammed in a
would hire people with lots of prior experience. And I found that short amount of time. It’s really hard to get that business back, and
people brought lots of bad habits if they had prior experience. And it’s really hard to damage control your reputation.
they didn’t necessarily fit my culture of what I wanted this restaurant
to be, which was all about hospitality and teamwork and respect. So So no matter what, if you’ve got C Team players, get rid of them
I changed my hiring philosophy, and I hired on approach, attitude, immediately and then focus your attention on developing your B
and desire to serve the customer. I would do some pretty intense Team. Your B Team are those people in your restaurant that show
screening of my candidates before I did that, and that proved to be promise. They’re there for the right reasons. They care about serving
probably the key to getting that A dream team that I’m talking about. the public, but maybe they need some polish and maybe some
training and coaching. And it’s really up to the manager to develop
Nick: that team, to nurture that team, to recognize their strengths, to
All right, Roger. So let’s dive into the meat of how to build your dream build on those strengths, and reward them for stellar performance,
team. I’m sure there are a lot of restaurant and bar owners out there and that’s what turns them into A Team players. You’re A Team
who are not the happiest with their staff. They try to do stuff that they players are your leaders. They’re the ones that dazzle your customer.
can. I hear stories like this all the time from my clients, where they just They’re the ones that your customers ask for by name when they
can’t get their staff to do what they want, to show up on time, to give come back again and again.
the best service. And people obviously go to you, being the expert, to
create these dream teams for restaurant owners or bar owners. Tell I’ve always used, in my restaurants, my A Team to have my B’s
me, when you walk into a bar or restaurant and you’re going to help shadow the A’s to learn those best practices, to learn the culture,
an owner and you’re sitting down with the staff, what are your first to please the customer, to go above and beyond to deliver amazing
steps you do to really start building that dream team and get the staff experiences. So that’s really what it’s all about, and then we can get
members to change the whole environment of the restaurant or bar? into what the recognition and the rewards are.

Roger: Nick:
Well, it really starts with the basics of what I call a SWAT Analysis. So you go in there, and let’s just say someone opens a restaurant or
You may have heard that term. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, they open a bar. They don’t know much about service at all. They just
Opportunities, and Threats. And I have the bar owner or manager fill love the business. They’re a chef, they love the food, or they get into
out a very detailed questionnaire that gives me a very good idea of the bar business because they like the hospitality side of things, or
the mission of this business, the hospitality culture of this business, whatever it might be. But how do you go up to tables? How do you
the theme of the business, and what their strengths, weaknesses, wow customers? How do you take this staff member and say, “Hey,

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