Page 93 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Standards

poration and the operator learned and developed along with the
process. This helped to develop a field staff of seasoned and pro-
fessional consultants who were, and still are, the envy of restau-
rant organizations throughout the world, with more than 950
field consultants worldwide currently. That clearly suggests the
importance of maintaining standards to the system to this day.
We reviewed and critiqued every aspect of the restaurant and
established grades for quality, service, and cleanliness, or QSC,
to determine how well the restaurant was operating. This pro-
cess was a powerful tool that took the QSC standards out of a
textbook and clearly defined them within the practicality of the
store environment. It did much more than simply establish a
grade for a particular location. It forced the field representative
to spend quality time in the restaurant, discussing operations
and consulting with the key stakeholders within that organiza-
tion. In reflection, the process helped all parties to grow. In most
cases, this interaction built a collaborative goal toward opera- 63
tional excellence and collective pride. It forced the field repre-
sentative to be well versed in all of the operational details, and
allowed him or her to pass on this information to the people
that mattered. It taught us how to communicate with these tra-
ditionally older and more experienced operators, and forced us
to learn the dynamics of communication and the art of con-
sulting. It also had the effect of demonstrating just how well the
restaurant could run, effectively setting the bar, as the franchisee
would always put the best foot forward during the visit. The
best consultants used this as a benchmark for how the restau-
rant should run all the time. And, a good field visit had its
reward, namely the collective rating for achievement of excel-
lence. A high store rating was greatly sought after and coveted
by all operators, serving as an indicator for qualifying for pos-
sible future store growth. Negative ratings had the opposite
effect, suggesting the possible beginning of a process for serious
action by the corporation.