Cake Ordering Procedures

To all crew and managers,

In the past few weeks we have had a rash of special order cakes that have not been picked up after placing the order by phone. In order to keep this from happening in the future, all cake orders made by phone MUST have a Credit card number attached to it. This includes the expiration date on it as well. The customer needs to be made aware of this new process before placing the order. If they choose not to use a credit card or do not have one, then it must be placed in person and paid in full before it is created. If a customer comes into the store and orders a specialty cake, it also must be paid in advance. This is an inconvenience to our faithful customers and should be handled delicately. Do not get short with the customer, but explain that it is a necessary process and be apologetic for the situation. If the customer wants to leave the credit card number and pay in cash at pickup, that would be acceptable, as long as they understand that the card will be charged in the case of a non-pickup.

All special orders (like Dolphins or Tigers) will take the full 7 day pre order time frame. We can do Available edible images and Blizzard cakes in less time. If 7 days is unacceptable by the customer, then try to sell an available cake out of the freezer. If the order is taken, and does not meet the requirements that has been stated, Then the order taker will be responsible in making the cake of paying for the cake.

Table Settings

This is to show the difference between what we have and what we need to have. In all FULL service restaurant's they have caddy's like this on their tables. In most Fast food store you would not see these. This is one of the defining items that set us apart. We need to ensure that we are keeping all of our table settings consistent and organized. When checking out the dining room at the end of the day, this is one of the things that you should be looking for. It is not hard, and I think that is why it is being overlooked as much as it has. Take pride in your store, and give the AM shift a store that is set up for success. We are not expecting you as managers to do this, but we are expecting you to teach and hold your crew accountable for doing it. If it is not done, you are ultimately responsible for it being done. This is but only one small item. Please continue to look for ways to better our store and set it above the rest of the fast food industry in this area. We are the only DQ in town and we are setting the standard. Do not set it too low.

Jan 08' Newsletter

I realize that a lot of our managers have not kept up with this blog, but I am continuing to publish these due to the fact that it will be a good reference source for the future. It's a new year and we have now had our grand opening. All things are beginning to take shape as to how we will be operating for spring break. We have a lot of smaller issues to work out, but overall, we are looking pretty good. I will just share some key points and will be happy to see your comments on anything that you feel needs further info on.


1) Know your rules and guidelines!
As some of have already found, Their are very straight forward rules that we have set for our crew. If we do not adhere to them, how do we expect our crew to. We have all signed the paperwork dealing with the rules governing, Breaks, Smoking, Food discounts, Drinks, Uniform regulations, etc... There should be a firm understanding of the rules and stand by them throughout all shifts. You are Managers and you should act as such.

2) Follow these guidelines when taking cake orders!
Get a cake order form and complete it fully. There should always be a order takers name on the form. This is the person that will be ultimately responsible for incorrect orders or missed deliveries. Be aware of the following information:

• All Special ordered cakes must be made 7 to 10 days in advanced! (a special ordered cake would be anything that cannot be taken directly out of the ice cream case and completed within 10 minutes) We do not have blizzard sheet cakes available except for special circumstances and with the advanced notice time frame.
  
• All Celebration cakes are done in basic white, and can have any color gel layered on top of the boarder icing. This keeps from having a shortage or too much of any one color.
  
• Blizzard cakes are no longer to be written on. That is the reason for the inner circle of toppings and boarder. Only special order blizzard cakes can be written on.
• The pouch on the exterior of the flash freezer is only for completed cakes that are in that freezer. DO NOT PLACE ORDERS IN THIS POUCH. All orders should be placed on the pen board.
• Blizzard Sheet cakes are to be rung as open food with a $5.00 charge added on.
• We do not sell our deco pack toys due to the over cost of shipping and handling that causes us to lose money.
  
• If a Deco Pack is used, be sure to mark it on the box to ensure timely reorders.
• If you have not been trained in making cakes or decorating cakes, do not attempt to make cakes. This also applies to all crew members.
  
• If there is a special order taken, payment in full is due upon order placement. The order taker will be held accountable for any unpaid cancellations, or non pickup orders that were not paid in advanced.

These are rules to make you aware of what you are doing. Cakes can make us money or break us. Do not place orders if you do not know what you are doing. Thank you

3) Use your chain of command
Although Mike has an open door policy, use your proper avenues to deal with issues. If you are not comfortable with coming to Ray, or Tracy, then go to Cara. Only then should you be bothering Mike with issues that Cara, Tracy, or I can handle. By jumping over our heads, you can cause animosity that does not need to be there. In most cases Mike will most likely ask you as a first question is " have you talked to Cara about it" and very well could send you back to her. I truly don't know all the answers, but I will be glad to help you find the answers that you need.

4) SMILE!
I realize that sometimes it is a hard thing to do when you are having a rough day, and I know I am a bad example of that sometimes, But it truly makes all the difference in the world to the customers. If you have a Crew member that has lost a loved one, TAKE THEM OFF FRONT COUNTER! We need happy people up there. Cheryl is a great example of one that has a great attitude all the time, and I know that she has rough days too, but the customer never knows this. She can play the part very well.
We as managers should be mking rounds in the dining room during the busy period and asking simply how is their food and treats. Do not spend a long time with socializing, This is done to verify that there is not a upset customer in the dining room stewing in their seats. If you go to the first table and start a buddy buddy conversation, the booth next to them could be waiting for 30 minutes for their food and all they see is the manager hobknobing the table next to them. This can do more damage than good; Especially if it is someone that knows the owners. Do get the point?

5) What to do if an Owner comes into the store
They are coming into the store tocheck on their investment,which means you should be at their service, and help them in any way that you can. But sometimes they are coming in to eat with their family. Please respect them enough to enjoy their meals in peace. If their are things to share, by all means present yourself, and request some time to go over those things, but do not loomover their table while they are eating. You all have jobs to do, and you should continue to perform those jobs while they are here.
The owners should be offered a pride stride form to use as reference in their walk through. These forms are found in the filing cabinet in the office.
The owners have requested to pay 50% of their meals and orders. Mike will make it clear when he is ordering food for the surgical center, in which case they pay full price.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and continue to check in for more updates.

December 07' Managers Newsletter

It's the end of the year and all the focus is on labor, labor, labor. We have tried our best to keep all of our managers on salary but you are all aware of the reasons why we can't. Thank you for understanding the situation and working with us to make ends meet. There are a few things that we would like to stress:

1. make sure that if you are scheduled to start at 8:00 am that you clock in at 8:00am.
2. Make sure that when you take your breaks that you adhere to the same rules as crew and clock out for your breaks.
3. If there is too any crew working in any certain area, do the right thing and make the proper cuts or structure breaks to cut back during the slow gaps.
4. Incorporate yourself in the line when making your numbers of how many we have in any given area.

There has been too many communication break downs over the past few weeks. This has got to stop. Cara and I will be working on a way to have one Lead Shift manager that will call ALL of the shots for that shift. This way we can avoid having crew using the managers against each other. This will also help us to stream line our leadership skills, and give us an idea of what areas we need to work on. All managers will share this responsibility and who ever is the lead Shift manager will be also ultimately responsible for the safe for that shift. This means if Vicki is the shift manager and she cut half of the crew at 10:30 am, then we run with half the crew. There will be no calling Cara or Ray to figure out basic store running needs. This is the slow period and this is when we need all managers to step up and shine. We cannot wait until the middle of March to find out we don't have the strength in our management staff to handle the store.

The news so far with all of our future stores is still unknown. The properties that were being looked at have all fell through and the owners are searching for possible locations for development. We will keep you posted as we find out more information. This basically means that, YES, you will have to put up with Ray for the spring break time frame. We will be concentrating our management staff on the one and only store that we do have and make is a moneymaking powerhouse. This does not change our plans for sending all the managers to raining, but does give us a little more time to prepare for your testing. Please make sure that we have all of your serve-safe certs. on file and we will be informing you on your next portion of your training.

A new accountant has been brought on board and will be handling all of our financial needs as well as paying our bills. Once we get our inventory setup into the posi-touch system, he will be giving us feed back as to how well (or bad) we are doing. There also a new maintenance man that will be able to come in weekly if we need to change lights, do minor electrical, and other needs around the store. His name and number is on the contact list in gmail.

• We hope to be having a Grand opening in Jan. 08'
• We are currently looking for a couple of new hires for crew. We are looking for referred individuals only.
• We are happy to have Michelle joining us again as of next week on the management staff.
• When writing the Daily Activities e-mail, use the mailing list. This is done by going to the address box and pressing the letter "A" this will bring all matches that start with the letter A. The first one on the list is called Activities mailing list. This will help to ensure all the right people receive the e-mail
  

That all we have for now, but let's try to stay focused and continue to remember that we are the driving force behind how good this DQ experience in Panama City can be. This is more than a burger joint. This is the New face of Dairy Queen and want this place to make money hand over fist so that we in turn can make the cash. Any ideas that yo may have to boost or sales or market us better is welcomed. Have a Great week!

Activities Reports

As most of you have heard, we have begun the process of sending reports to the owners. These are good for a few reasons, It keeps the owners in the loop and it gives us a way to have all issues that we deal with on a daily bases. We can use them later to pull up reports on individuals and subjects to see how often they have occurred. A couple of things to be mindful when writing these reports. 1st off, label the reports in the header as followed "Daily Activities on --/--/--" or "Nightly Activities on--/--/--". By doing this it will be easier to pull up and review our reports. Next, in the report, please include your name and the names of the managers on duty. Also, if you are writing the night report, please include the final sales for that day and the labor percentage. These reports are not letters but informational reports of the activities. We should try and be as factual as possible by leaving full names of crew that we are talking about, and issues that are important to the running of the store. Individual complaints and stories about how everything happened. We need to be specific about our details, but leaving our emotions out of the report (just the facts). The best part about this process is that we are not leaving notebooks with personal information laying around the office. We would not want some of the things that we will need to write laying around for everyone to see. Last thing to be aware of is that we will be doing this for each shift. That means one for morning shift and one for night shift. It would be my suggestion to have the person that is doing the paperwork at the end of the night to put it on the list of things to do. That is only a suggestion and does not mean that the other managers cannot do the report. I hope this sheds little light on what is expected from you with the reports. As always, if you have any questions or need any help, please feel free to ask Cara or Ray at any time. Thank you again for all of your hard work.

The Curl Newsletter Nov07'

MANAGERS,

What we have created here is a news letter to inform you of issues that we are dealing with. Hopefully this will be helpful to understand our issues in each area and have to the knowledge to share when a crew member asks you about certain things. The Layout out will be as followed:

• Intro and where we are at
• Whole house
• Grill
• Chill
• Service
• Closers
• Openers
• Closing

Most of the issues will be brief but if there is any questions are you need further information, please feel free to contact Ray or Cara.

Entire House

1. Communication among Managers must stay professional. We will not be tolerating cursing at, to, or around crew or other managers. The ones that this pertains to know who they are and must cease. We are professionals and must speak as such.
2. Managers must also treat each other with respect. There has complaints of managers talking down to other managers. We are all equals when it comes to respect.
3. Coming in late, Leaving during shifts, and leaving early are becoming a regular occurrence. This is not an issue as long as it does not effect our labor and it is approved by the remaining managers on that shift. they have the right to deny the request if it causes issues within the shift.
   
4. Borrowing money from the safe by managers is still allowed, but must be paid back by the next paycheck. Crew are not to borrow from the safe.
5. Schedule changing of crew should be noted by a manager. This is to avoid crew scratching on the schedule and having uncovered shifts.
   

Grill Managers

1. Use timers on the fry station
2. Use Temp Sheets on every shift for record keeping (Forms are in the office)
3. Regulate food waste by not over cooking meat and portioning shrimp
4. Oil is to be done as pre-closing duties at night
5. Know you boosting codes
6. Fry freezer is to be unplugged and thawed on wed. nights

Chill Managers

1. Freezer is to be unplugged ad thawed on wed. nights
2. Lids must be on waffles to keep from getting soft
3. Pre-close duties should started and completed by 9:30PM

Service Managers
All Trash must be emptied

Closers

1. The quality of product is still suffering due to our pre-closing process. Do not sacrifice quality for timely closings.
2. If there is a process of pre-closing that will expedite our night get approval from Kenny, Cara, or Ray before putting into action
3. Take out all rags
4. Check your closing crew out before they leave
5. Check Garbage
6. Check for food in sinks
7. Check Cooler
8. Check Freezer
9. Money is the last duty not the first
10. All Managers must stay until all managers are done
11. Closers will be called in if these issues are left
12. PM Shift managers coming in are to support AM shift managers- This means that the AM shift Managers are in charge and will issue out breaks and cut crew as needed

Openers

1. Do not leave without setting up night crew
2. Check with closers before leaving

In Closing
Overall we are doing well. Our Labor has improved and we are getting deep into the off season without any problems. Some things to be aware of. We are going to be testing you on your Grill and Chill knowledge in Dec. This is a deciding factor on your training for upper management. Please find the training books and begin studying. Also if you are in need of the Servesafe course, get that taken care of ASAP. These are things that will determine the speed of your position in the company. Thank you again for being apart of this team and continue to take ownership in this store.