SBU ’98 Business Sessions: Profits and liability are key concerns

Each year, the National Association of Concessionaires features noted concession and business-specific speakers at its Snack Bar University convention, and 1998’s line-up was packed with sage and witty advice. Following are highlights of the three featured speakers.

All concessionaires agree that customer service makes an impact on customer buying habits, and that an incentive for front-line workers must be present to effectively increase sales. Consultant Paul Russell demonstrated his Reactive Profitability Model to SBU attendees to show how a small difference in concession sales techniques can greatly improve a company’s bottom line.

In reality, workers alone cannot increase per caps, but they can increase frequency of visits (through superior customer service) and items per customer. Russell pointed out that very few concessionaires track the items per customer statistic.

"If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it," says Russell. "You need to get people passionate about a number that will move the number you are passionate about," says Russell, referring to manager’s obsession with the bottom line.

Russell encourages managers to experiment with numbers—see how much a slight improvement in items per customer makes without having to increase expenses or traffic.

Russell, in his fifth appearance as a featured SBU speaker, is president of Russell Training Group, Olathe, Kansas. Russell has consulted for many major companies, including Pepsi, Anheuser Busch and Tasty Bakeries.

The basic rules to remember in any workplace regarding sexual harassment were learned in kindergarten, according to Deborah Adams, a Harvard graduate attorney. Her examples: keep your hands to yourself, keep your mouth clean, and when someone breaks the rules, tell the teacher. She says the only way for employers to win in the plaintiff-friendly environment of sexual harassment law is to prevent the harassment from occurring in the first place.

Adams urged managers from companies without an existing sexual harassment policy to develop one immediately. She also encouraged employers to keep fact-based performance reviews of employees up-to-date and to monitor employees’ job health.

The most common place sexual harassment will occur is a hostile working environment, says Adams, and by discouraging a hostile working environment, according to Adams, and by discouraging factors that would offend someone, right down to inappropriate jokes or comments, a reduction in lawsuits may occur.

"People sue because they have been devalued and their feelings have been hurt," says Adams. "Limit the sleaze factor so it won’t become pervasive."

Adams, a partner with the law firm Frost & Jacobs, Cincinnati, Ohio, specializes in labor law and sexual harassment cases and frequently lectures on company sexual harassment policies.

Thanks to a lifetime of concessions and foodservice experience, as well as a law degree, Dr. Tony Marshall is an expert on limiting liability in foodservice operations. Slips and falls in foodservice operations are the single most common accident, according to Marshall, and they, as well as other accidents, can be prevented using reasonable care.

Marshall espouses the following theme throughout his presentations: a concessionaire is required to exercise reasonable care, and a lack of reasonable care is dumb. He says every operation should have a law of slips and falls in place, and it should be posted and signed hourly. He encourages concessionaires to inspect their safety manual to make sure it serves and addresses two audiences—the employees who abide by it and the attorneys that could represent a disgruntled customer.

Other points Marshall highlighted were updating procedures for new delivery people, identifying hidden danger zones and investigating color problems, such as rug color being too close to the floor color or not clearly identifying possible places to trip.