Management Attitude
How to Destroy Any Business: A Tale of Two Restaurants
Applies to every business and service. Example: City Fire vs. Hacienda Country Club — a contrast of management styles
Synopsis
- Management can be blind! Some pay attention to the wrong things; others are just too arrogant! Every job has customers: the programmer writing internal systems, the maid in a hotel, or the person selling cars. Restaurants provide a microcosm for all businesses, large and small.
Why these two?
Both restaurants serve mainly retired patrons in The Villages, FL.
City Fire, under private ownership, has thrived even through the Coronavirus. Hacienda Hills Country Club, owned by The Villages developer and supporting a major golf course, did well at first, then failed under four managers before they tore the place down.
The restaurant business is tougher than it appears to outsiders. It survives on regular customers and thrives on occasional walk-ins. Both went the direction they have, one up and one down, due to management styles. I have seen the same techniques used in other businesses, from small and local to national in size, with the same results.
City Fire — what they do right
They are a typical neighborhood bar with live music almost every day. The music, trivia game and karaoke pull people in, but it’s just like the title of an article, the content needs to be good to keep them there.
My wife’s diet is so special due to a medical condition that she cannot eat most normal bar food. The manager, Keane Runion, told us that they would fix anything she wanted as long as they had the ingredients in the kitchen! She eats two items from the menu, radically altered, plus one that isn’t on the menu at all. We never know what the price will be for that item. They make up a price that shows up as “open food” on the ticket.
As for me, I worry about portion size so I can keep my weight reasonable. For example, they serve flatbreads which I like. They will fix a half-size lunch portion any time of the day and a side salad. I eat just the salad if I want cake for dessert.
Hacienda Hills Country Club — what went wrong
Hacienda Hills is a perfect example of what happens with mismanagement.
The Hacienda Hills restaurant served two types of customers — people who want to go to an upscale restaurant in a pleasant setting and golfers coming off of the golf course. Club restaurants are designed to handle both, though people tend to dress up more for dinner.
The golfer stereotype from 1930s movies shows multi-millionaire players standing around with glasses of champagne talking about their stocks. There may be a few such places in the world, but The Villages is not one of them. There could be a multi-millionaire in the group, but you won’t know.
The Villages golfers come in from the course, want a good lunch or snack, and talk about every shot during the round. My neighbor told me the story of what happened to him.
It was their first time there. After changing from spikes to regular shoes, they walked in wearing their usual golf attire. The manager told them they could sit only in a very small area reserved for golfers, even though most of the restaurant was empty.
The manager’s whole arrogant attitude made them feel unwelcome!
Then, they looked at the menu. The regular hamburger was way overpriced, more than double other upscale restaurants in The Villages! One person ordered an overpriced BLT, the cheapest sandwich on the menu, and didn’t think it was great.
Nobody ever went back.
He told me and probably a few hundred other people - potential customers.
We don’t golf, so we go to restaurants for the food and atmosphere. Hacienda Hills was beautiful, with tall windows overlooking the golf course. The developer used that championship golf course and clubhouse for years in their advertising and tours.
Our story was different, except for one similarity.
We went there for lunch. They had a buffet, but we wanted to order something smaller from the menu. The manager told us we HAD to eat from the buffet. They would fix nothing from the menu. We left.
We decided to try one more time. My wife wanted something from the menu modified and we wanted to split the plate. All we asked was for them to send out an extra plate and we would split it.
The manager told us each meal was designed to be perfect and they would not change it. In addition, there would be a charge to split the plate. We again left and never went back!
Our experience and our neighbor’s were similar in a couple of respects:
- Management’s arrogant attitude made them feel unwelcome!
- Food was way overpriced compared to similar area competition
The restaurant business itself
The restaurant business is tougher than it appears to outsiders. It survives on regular customers and thrives on walk-ins. We see many regulars at City Fire.
We budget two restaurant meals per week or about 100 per year, now mostly at City Fire. Since the virus shutdown and reopening, we go to City Fire 5 times per week for the entertainment instead of the town squares. Sometimes, we eat dinner at home and I just have dessert at the restaurant, but our drink order still provides a good ticket for them.
They usually had a single singer and restricted dance areas during the partial reopening (see the article link at the bottom).
My neighbor golfs 3 or 4 times per week, or about 200 tickets per golfer per year. Just by driving away 10 foursomes, Hacienda lost 8,000 tickets.
Same with meals-only customers like us. We might go only 40 times per year, but our other neighbors may go 5 times a week. Just drive 10 of them away and they lose 2,500 much larger tickets per year.
I suspect Hacienda’s management drove away many more customers than my small sample count. No wonder they went out of business.
Conclusion
All businesses survive on their customers. Management must pay attention and listen to the customers or else!
The real problem is knowing the difference between whining and a legitimate complaint, a trivial incident and one that costs 1,000 sales, and something in their own attitude that drives away customers.
Management should worry about their projected arrogance, their assumption that they know everything, and taking their customers for granted. The customer base is always changing and they must be aware to survive.
Management arrogance can destroy any business They drive away their new and existing customers
What are you doing in your business?
Follow-up
The Villages developer has the same attitude as the Hacienda restaurant managers, which is not surprising since the developer hired them. They claimed they didn’t at a county commissioners meeting, but actions speak louder than words when they start destroying Villages landmarks (that’s another article).
People talk, and with the internet, they post things for the world to see. I Googled “The Villages” recently. This was the fourth item in the list: “Is The Villages Really Florida’s Friendliest Home Town?”
The chickens will take longer to come to roost for the developer, just due to size. For me, The Villages is still a great place to live. We won’t move, but others might never move here.