No Waffling Here

A 30-something year old guy, clearly a contractor, knocks at the door of my little car warehouse.

He introduces himself, hands me a card and explains that he is the General Contractor building the Waffle House restaurant across the street, as he does across 3 southern states. He politely asks if his guys could park their trucks in front of my place for the day, as big equipment has squeezed them off-site.

“Long as they don’t block the door, that’s fine,” I replied.

I’m half shocked they’re building at all. The restaurant sector is in steep decline, and staff turn-over is always an issue. In the case of the 24 hour short-order Waffle House, inexpensive greasy fare doesn’t generally attract the highest quality servers. They’ve a long reputation as a hangout for smoker’s swilling endless coffee refills. I figure this guy keeps one eye on Monster.com for anything with more promise – such as cleaning aquarium tanks.

I venture a question about work. “Oh my gosh,” he replied. “Things are the best they’ve ever been, and here’s why.” I am beyond shocked at his answer…

Before he tells me, let’s look at the Waffle House, from the outside in. 

First, know that the restaurant sector and in-home service contractors battle it out for first place in highest business failure rate. (Not coincidentally, “poor marketing” and “lack of leads” is cited in both cases as top reasons for failure.) 

Next, Waffle Houses are “narrow” buildings, crammed onto small lots, so diner quantity is tiny, like 16-20, so management must force “table turns” at a higher rate to be profitable. (Industry jargon for a table’s refilling with customers.) Staying open 24 hours sounds like a great idea, until you consider “who” is coming in with a serious hankering for blueberry waffles at 3am. A staff is still necessary, as is security. 

Plus, the lower end of the economic spectrum is who quit going to restaurants during the recession, whereas more affluent ate out less, and spent less as a whole from 2008-mid 2012, but it’s eking up slowly. Yet, the affluent didn’t hit the Waffle House. The “word” was out about the awful smoke, the unruly patrons, and generally dim service. 

Times were dire. Until 3 things happened that changed the world.

I asked my newest contractor friend, “I bet the no smoking policy killed your business”. He said, “Heck no. Best thing that ever happened.”

Taken aback, I asked, “How? With so many hard core patrons who sought you out?”

“That’s the thing” Jeff said, “At first, business dried up. I mean, half our clientele just quit coming.” He paused. “Then our CEO got the bright idea to reposition Waffle House as a clean, smoke free family environment. He figured if Las Vegas could do it, Waffle House could do it. So our marketing got all cleaned up, mailed out, and new customers started coming in.” 

(AH: Yes, note “mail”, as in paper things with stamps on them for a privately held company with 1,700 locations, second only to Denny’s in category.)

Since I’d done so well with my “no smoking” guess, I asked about the recession’s hit on his business. 

“That actually turned out pretty much to our advantage too,” Jeff said.

Another Turnaround?

With a look of now perpetual stun, I asked him to go on. “Before, we were attracting a nice enough staff, but sometimes toward desperate, and our tippers weren’t the greatest,” he said with some understatement, “but things have changed.”

“With unemployment, we started attracting far higher quality staff, we invested in training, and upselling. We began marketing that we were hiring and growing while everyone else was letting people go. We now have a backlog of great quality people. Plus, our profit sharing went up, which didn’t hurt.” 

From this random knock on the door, I’ve gotten 3 lessons, even though you’ve only just seen two. 

The Missing Ingredient Revealed

The third – and most important – is attitude. We don’t create our circumstances, but we dang sure create our reaction to them. 

A smoker’s paradise suddenly hit with a smoking ban could consider that bad news… or an opportunity to reposition. 

A lower-priced restaurant losing customers amid a recession could consider that bad news… or see an opportunity to hire a higher quality grade of workers, and attract similar patrons. 

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that marketing these messages to the people that patronize and work there cemented the attitude. That, plus the contagious atmosphere that positive people, with positive outlooks, yield positive results.

I invite Jeff in for an impromptu car tour. We talk cars, racing, guy stuff. “One of these days,” he said pointing to a particularly potent street machine, “I want to have one of those.”

“Jeff,” I looked at him keenly, “with your outlook and attitude, you may as well start making space in your garage.”

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