Lagniappe is a French Creole term that I learned quite a few years back while living in the Southeast.  It means a small gift given with a purchase.  The original use that I can think of when I was young was when a bank would give away a free toaster for anyone that opened up a new account.  Today, of course, we see all kinds of gifts offered with a purchase in a variety of businesses.  This term also goes hand in hand with the Law of Value that was discussed a couple of weeks back in the Go-Giver blog post.  The restaurant industry is changing, and every restaurant out there has to fight and claw for every sale possible.  The question becomes what can we do as a company to give the “lagniappe” or little something extra to earn that business from our guest?

• I was listening to a fantastic interview with Jon Taffer the host of Bar Rescue on the Entreleadership podcast a few weeks ago and almost went off the road taking so many notes.  He had discussed the idea of the third visit.  He talked about how the percentage of likely to return by a guest would increase from visit one to visit two and ultimately to visit three.  His key belief is that if you can get the guest to visit number three, you can become part of their routine.  Once you become part of their routine, you have a regular guest.  At each of the first three visits, his company would give a little lagniappe to get that guest to return.  On the first visit, their company would give the guest a red napkin.  This napkin would signal everyone that they all had an opportunity to make a great first impression.  The manager would also personally stop by and greet the guest during the visit.  At the end of the visit, they would offer the guest a bounce back coupon for a specific offer only given for a second visit.  Then when the guest would return with that specific offer they would welcome the guest back and again everyone would know that they could again make a great second impression.  Then at the end of the second visit, the manager would ask how they are enjoying the business and offer the guest another unique bounce back for the third visit.  To me, this idea seemed so simple yet so brilliant that I am planning to work this concept into my upcoming full team meetings.  How can we take all of our first-time guests and turn them into regulars?  What can we offer on each visit as a little lagniappe to keep them choosing us over the competition?
• I think that this concept ties in nicely with the idea of building relationships with our guests.  Learning their name and remembering their face goes a long way.  One thing that always helps keep Culver’s on top is our hospitality.  Our hospitality is a natural point of lagniappe that we need to use to our advantage even more so than we currently do.  The strength of Culver’s lies in its dedicated owner-operators and great management teams.  I think that we have the ability to connect with our guests, unlike many other brands.  My challenge to all of our teams is that every manager should be spending at least 1 hour per week of scheduled time working either in the dining room or greeting and talking to guests cueing up in the drive thru line.  What a way to make sure that we are connecting with our guests and building that long term relationship.  As an owner/operator that should always be one of my main focuses.  As an owner, I have an opportunity to not only connect in the dining room but in the community as well.  If people in the community can put a local face to a business, it helps build that personal connection.  This idea ties directly into the idea that was mentioned last week about trying to have at least 1,000 loyal, raving fans turned into walking billboards for your business.  Imagine the power of momentum that this can create, especially in the digital age.
• The last piece of lagniappe I would like to touch on is how we can apply this to our team members.  As the labor market continues to tighten are we doing everything that we can to be the employer of choice?  Does our team feel valued?  Does our team believe that we go above and beyond what is expected to create relationships?  As leaders we often want others to sign the dotted line to follow us, but we forget that we must earn that signature in our blood, sweat, and sacrifice.  As mentioned above, it is our team that sets us apart, and it is our team that has the power to make every visit memorable.  We need to remember to spend as much time and effort in building our relationships with our team as much as our guests.
• Ask yourself what you are going to do on your next shift to offer that “lagniappe” and make everyone you come into contact with feel valued.

I recently had an opportunity to attend an incredible mastermind that focused on the book called “The Go-Giver” written by Bob Burg and John David Mann.  It is a great book that goes over five straightforward yet effective laws of success.  These rules of success can be applied to a business or even at a personal level in your daily life.  The real key, once you learn about the laws, is to practice and live each core value every day.

• 1. The Law of value.  The law of value states that real worth comes from what you give in value versus what you receive in payment.  Is the service or item that you have to offer people worth more than what they pay?  Do your customers leave feeling like they got a great deal or do they feel ripped off?  In your job, do you provide more value than what you are paid?  What makes people about buying your product or using your service?  If you consistently give more value than what you charge you will have an endless supply of customers that will happily pay you for product or service.  Value comes first, the money that follows is a bi-product.  In your job, the value comes first, the promotion and raise that follows is a bi-product.  One question I like to challenge our team with is if we had to double our prices tomorrow what would we do differently to make it worth the price.  Then the challenge is how do we start doing those things without raising our prices.
• 2. Law of Compensation.  The law of compensation states that your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.  This idea is very true in a setting like a restaurant or a service provider.  In our restaurant, we can serve up to 1000 people per day.  Each guest that comes into our restaurant can have up to 20 interactions with our team.  We have the opportunity to create 20,000 moments per day.  The key is to create positive moments and work on building the relationship with each guest.  People want to do business with those that they know, like and trust.  The more we can remove the friction or pain points from the guest experience, the more they will want to return.  We also need to remember that we also must serve our team members as well.  Wouldn’t it be great to have a line of people just waiting for a chance to work at our company due to our reputation!
• 3. Law of Influence.  The law of influence states that we can only gain influence by placing the need or interests of others first.  How well do we serve others?  We need to figure out what others want and help them solve their problems.  Take a drive thru transaction for example.  People want the correct order, and they want it to come out fast.  If we can execute on these two priorities, our influence grows as a choice for their business when they are in a hurry.  We need to go out of our way to put their needs above ours.  One of my favorite parts in the book talks about a 50 / 50 result is a loss every time.  So many times in life and business we try to win or if we compromise we try to get a to a 50 / 50 result.  When we end up here, we have already lost.  We want the other person to leave feeling as though they won.  If they feel as though they have won, they will be back!
• 4. Law of Authenticity.  The law of authenticity states that we need to be genuine and be true to who we are.  This goes as both an individual as well as a company.  As a business owner, I always try to be true to who I am both inside and outside of my business.  I want people that come into contact with me to be treated the same way no matter what.  We all have a unique gift to share with others, and we can achieve this by being ourselves.  I challenge myself every week in my journal by looking at myself as a personal brand.  Did I live up to my brand standards during the week?  Does my personal brand match my business?  I also write down one thing I want to do to work on improving my brand for the following week.
• 5. Law of Receptivity.  The law of receptivity states that we need to be open to receiving the things in life that we want.  There are two sides of the coin on this law.  The first side is that of what we think about comes true.  We need to remember that as humans we tend to live up to (or down to) our expectations.  I once heard that the best way to predict the future is to create it.  I love that idea.  The other side of the coin almost can be classified as karma.  The laws of the universe always seem to come back to us.  We reap what we sow.  The more give, the more you can receive.  The more you receive, the more you can give.  The most common mistake we make is that we reverse that two statements.  We say that we will give more once we receive more but then we never end up receiving more so we never end up giving more.
• If you ever have the chance to attend a Go-Giver mastermind, I would highly recommend it.  At a minimum, this book should be on every leader’s “must read” list.

Interesting how much I tend to focus on culture and team building both in my blog posts as well as at Culver’s.  The entire debacle at United Airlines is proof positive that the leaders in any company are the ones that must drive the culture.  If the leaders of United drove a positive, guest focused culture these situations this past week would have never happened.  The two main situations were the doctor that got dragged out of the plane because an employee needed the seat and also the couple on their way to a wedding that moved into open seats that were just a little larger.  Then you have the CEO after seeing the online video have the audacity to say that the doctor was unruly so that is why they took him off the plane.  If this is the attitude of the CEO it is not surprising that the rest of the team follows his lead.  I guess no one reminded United lately that they are really in the people business, not the airline business.  This is why some may argue that Southwest has become the gold standard in customer relations.  Remember as leaders our team members will watch and listen to how we treat our guests and they will follow our lead.    As Jon Gordon points out in his new book “The Power of Positive Leadership”, once you know what you stand for decisions are easy to make. 

• Another related point to remember is that we are always on stage.  In the day of social media and smart phones chances are good that someone is watching you.  Not only other team members, but other guests will also watch how you handle certain situations.  Not only situations with other guests but guests will even comment on how we interact with team members.  In a small confined area like a restaurant chances are good that someone can hear or see you at any given time.  People tend to make most decisions based on emotion which can help or hurt us as a company.  If we can build the relationship and have a positive emotion associated with our business they will become loyal, raving fans. 
• The actions of United also shows us that merely having a great mission statement isn’t worth anything if your company doesn’t live and breathe its mission statement.  “Fly the Friendly Skies” is the United slogan.  What does this exactly mean?  The United Airlines skies don’t seem very friendly these days.  If United lived and breathed this slogan, the CEO would have come out and condemned the actions taken by the crew and made immediate change.  Remember our mission statement, every guest that chooses Culver’s leaves happy.  When making a decision in the heat of the moment we need to ask ourselves if what we are doing or saying will help us achieve this goal.  We also need to remember that my guest is anyone that isn’t me.    
• In closing we need to remember that there are three basic things that every customer of any business wants.
  • 1.  The items / service to be defect free.  In our case complete and accurate.  In the case of an airline they want the plane and luggage to go where they paid for it to go.
  • 2.  They want this in timely manner.  If it will be late people want to know as soon as possible that it will be late.  In our case this is our speed of service.  In the case of an airline they want to arrive on time and not be delayed.
  • 3.  They want people to be nice.  In both cases this means that they want to have a pleasant interaction with the company.  People want to do business with companies that they know, like and trust. 
• It is our responsibility as leaders of our company to make sure that we provide a culture that can achieve the three items listed above.  Remember that our goal is to create loyal, raving fans every single day!  We cannot simply talk about culture, we must act accordingly. 

Our recent monthly manager training was based off the book 212 Degrees of Leadership by Mac Anderson.  The concept is as simple yet as brilliant as it sounds.  At 211 degrees water is hot but once you get the one extra degree and get to 212 degrees, water boils.  When water boils it creates steam and steam can power large machinery.  Just 1 extra degree can make the difference. 

• Think about how many Olympic races are won or lost in less than 1 second.  That one second isn’t even always made or lost during the race.  Most of the time that 1 second is created during the training process.  Athletes train for years and years to simply improve by 1 second.  This little bit can make the difference between an athlete and an Olympian. 
• I know we have touched on the idea of a boat or airplane that takes off and goes just 1 degree off course.  After a few hours, the boat or plane is miles off course.  Who would think that just 1 degree can make such an impact in the long term? 
• For a long time I had a quote on my email signature that read “there is a remarkable difference between 99% and 100% commitment.”  We touched on last week about seizing the moment; we cannot seize the moment if we are not 100% committed and all in.  If we can teach ourselves to give 100% when it doesn’t matter, we will always be able to give 100% when it does. 
• There is also the age old riddle that asks if you would like to have $1,000,000 today or a penny that doubles every day for 30 days.  Most people say the million dollars without hesitation.  If you chose the penny that doubles every day, you would have over $5,000,000. 
• Ask yourself what you can do to give that 1% extra.  What can you do at home or at work to simply improve by 1 degree?  One statement I start my day with is, I try to be better person today than I was yesterday.  The only person I try to compare myself with is myself yesterday.  When it comes to Culver’s, that one extra degree is the essence of what sets us apart from the competition.  The neat thing about the one extra degree is that most of the time it isn’t even very noticeable at first but long term it can make a 10X difference.   
• Next week I will post a list of action items to help add that 1 extra degree in our business.