….to view your restaurant from. In my interview with Kelley Jones, he emphasized how vital it is that restaurant managers be on the restaurant floor interacting with guests as evidenced by the statement above which is on a sign that hangs in his office.
This axiom also applies to front desk managers, spa directors, and cruise directors alike. If you are at your desk, you are not with guests or practicing good ‘guest anthropology’ as mentioned in Jennifer Vollmert’s entry of October 1st.
Managers today, more than ever, are tasked with increasing amounts of desk work as many of these managers have absorbed tasks and duties from their down-sized colleagues. This led me to this little gem by Jena McGregor in BusinessWeek.com which offers some very solid tips from a variety of sources about Time Management. Please join me in offering your best tips to save time and spending it wisely on the guest experience.
Read the BusinessWeek Article here.
I learned two things from a Time Management session in 2004 that really worked. One, I only download email manually. This keeps it from interrupting me all day, and I go to it only when I am ready. The other thing I am less successful at, but it really works: After you open an email, try and ‘touch it’ only once, twice at the most. And like most seminars teach, I do keep a list of things that must get done that day; can’t live without it.