Troubleshooting a Business

There are times I am called in to do what I call; “Troubleshoot” a commercial enterprise.

Sometimes I play a customer or client, sometimes an employee,

I have had varied experiences and tend to have found certain particular situations which are so prevalent that I gave them people’s names so that I could contact my office and say; “Bruno…” and my secretary would know that the security guard at the gate was so offensive that he has to go, or “Keisha” which meant a front desk clerk who was more fascinated by the telephone than the people in front of her.

I would make these prelim observations so that when I did my report my secretary could pop in particular phrases on an almost ‘Find & Replace”, making the report not so laborious.

Most businesses, if they don’t have a Bruno or a Keisha are often over employers.

Businesses run best when there is one less person than required.  This means the managers have to go ‘on the floor’.

For example; this supermarket has a manager, an assistant manager, an office manager, an assistant office manager.

It has a produce officer, a meat officer, and their seconds.

This supermarket has five check out girls and three baggers. There are four produce clerks and they often double as shelf packers.

This supermarket has lines going back more than ten people by each checker.   The baggers are rushing around.

Customers hate this supermarket and do most of their purchasing elsewhere when they can.

The managers are sitting around, collecting salaries.

I suggested putting on new cashiers for the busiest time as there were eight cash registers and having eight baggers, and getting rid of the management.

One manager, one deputy was all that was needed,

The owner said the supermarket needed the management and couldn’t afford more cashiers.

I was not at all surprised that the business had to be sold.

This hotel had a similar problem with its restaurant.   There were eight waitresses,  but there was not that kind of business to require more than four.

The owner had the same attitude.

Then one day, waitresses who were sitting around, doing not much, got into a fight, the chef tried to stop it, he got stabbed.

The hotel soon after had to be sold, for the publicity had put ‘paid’ to their status.

Amusingly, a newspaper had the same over staffing.   They imported a gang of trouble shooters to go from floor to floor to see the ‘weak spots’.

They went about the floor checking who was on the phone on a personal call.   They returned fifteen minutes later. They looked at those they had checked, and if they saw them on the phone, another check.

[It is easy to determine a personal call from a business by body language is one isn’t close enough to catch the words].

Double checked were discharged that Friday.

This got rid of 1/3rd of the employees.

Most businesses have too many workers in the wrong place, whether too many managers and not enough staff, or too many staff members in regard to the work.

If your business isn’t doing well, check for that Bruno or Keisha, and if you don’t have them, see how many people you have in the office contract those on the floor, and how many on the floor have nothing to do.