Chapter 46 Disadvantages of processes and systems

Management scientists who have no actual experience in shopping malls will definitely say that Haidilao should first improve its processes and systems before opening branches, so as not to lose its shape. But entrepreneurs must be dismissive of this suggestion. The philosopher's words are more in line with the entrepreneur's thinking, "If you don't live in the process, you will die in the process."It is absolutely impossible to design a truly effective process and system in advance, and it must be worked out while exploring. Zhang Yong is a perfectionist.He does things, or he doesn't do it, if he wants to do it, he must do his best.For example, Haidilao's first hot pot restaurant's work uniforms were tailor-made for employees based on the flight attendant's samples.

When I invited him to give lectures to MBA students at Peking University, he said: "One time I went to inspect a store and found that the watermelon served to customers was not sweet. The watermelon costs 30 cents a catty. Zhang Yong said: Since it’s for giving away, you should give the best one; if you’ve already given away 20 cents a catty, why not add another 10 cents to give away the sweet ones?” Haidilao spares no expense in the development of processes and systems. Zhang Yong wants to invite a world-class consulting company to help Haidilao develop and study the management processes and systems of hot pot restaurants.Unfortunately, hot pot belongs to China, Haidilao is already the best hot pot restaurant in China, and Haidilao's problems are the world's problems.So far, there is no consulting company that can solve the processes and systems needed by Haidilao.

What are processes and systems?To put it bluntly, processes and systems are procedures and disciplines for doing things.For example, doctors must wash their hands before going to the operating table. This is discipline.Washing hands must include arms, fingers and palms must be brushed with a disinfectant brush; washing must be done 3 times, each time for more than 1 minute-this is the process. In fact, it is not that the processes and systems themselves are difficult, but that it is difficult to match people with processes and systems.People are natural people, without effective supervision, processes and systems will become mere formalities.However, excessive supervision not only makes people feel uncomfortable, but also makes people become machines.

Zhang Yong’s problem lies here. Strengthening the formalized process and system makes it easy for people to become robots. In addition, Haidilao’s employees generally come from rural areas with low cultural quality. They are not familiar with the life and communication habits of urban people, so they often go too far. A netizen on Dazhong.com said: “Everyone says that Haidilao’s service is good, but not everyone thinks so. Last time we went, the waiter was a little too enthusiastic, asking this, asking that. A few of our friends wanted to have a good chat. chat, but he kept talking, which made us very uncomfortable. We expressed that we didn’t want to listen to him in such obvious ways as texting and not talking, but he still talked. This kind of service is a bit too much, which makes people feel awkward."

Why is the waiter doing this?Because Haidilao requires waiters to actively chat with customers.In order to check whether the work is done well or not, some stores use whether the customer's name and phone number can be left as an assessment indicator.Some waiters said: "I'm not very good at talking, and I often can't ask for the customer's phone number and name. When the foreman saw me standing, he said, don't be like a wooden stake, why don't you chat with the customer, master it Guest information?" The process and system also quantify the service, and use the number and frequency of the service to determine the service standard. Therefore, some stores often ask the waiter to change the hot towel for the customer, and change the ashtray for a long time; The restaurant in the restaurant takes whether the customer fishes the food by himself or not as the assessment item. If the customer fishes the food by himself, it means that the service is not in place.As a result, the waiter disturbed the guests every two minutes.This is of course easy to standardize and train the waiters, but the result is that it disturbs the normal dining of the guests.

A waiter complained: "Actually, we don't want to force ourselves to disturb the customers. But if we don't do it, the foreman will say that we don't provide detailed services, and if we don't follow the standard procedures, we will be punished..." In order to reflect the service with a smile, some waiters keep smiling to the guests and performing Haidilao salute (putting the right hand on the left shoulder and bowing forward).Some waiters even put their hands on their shoulders and kept smiling when the guests walked out of the private room. No wonder some customers said: "Why is the Haidilao waiter's smile getting more and more fake?"

Some waiters also said: "Recently, the three things that our store has grasped most strictly are service attitude, details and processes. For example, what to do first, what to do next, and tone of voice, movements and expressions. But in actual service, These 3 things are hard to grasp. "For example, the weather is very cold recently, the heating equipment in our private room is not good, and the room is very cold. According to the service procedures, after the guests come in, the first procedure is to serve the guests with towels, and the second procedure is to serve the guests with fruit. But I think If you are sincere to your guests, the best first thing is to pour a cup of hot tea for them!"

Yang Zhimin from Xi'an No. 3 Store is very representative of his distress on this issue.She said: "I look at the big private room. This room usually seats 12 people, but sometimes there are 14, 15 or even 16 guests, so I have to add more seats, which are very crowded. In this case, according to It is difficult to provide some desktop services that must be done according to the prescribed procedures, such as changing cups, adding drinks, cleaning the table, serving soup and picking vegetables in time. "Haidilao's customers generally use more than two cups, two bowls, and one saucer at the same time. Think about it, how much does 15 people need to use? If I follow the procedure, I will keep squeezing among the customers to do this and that. Sometimes It even requires customers to stand up temporarily. Therefore, I think it is more important to serve less at this time and let customers have a safe meal than insisting on service.

"However, if I stand and have nothing to do, the foreman will say: 'It's okay, why don't you do detailed services, and you can clean the tabletop! Look at the tabletop is so dirty, and you don't remove the empty cups! At least you can scoop it up for the guests. The dishes.' "When the leader checks according to the process and system, after all, he only sees a moment of the customer's meal, and our waiters follow the customer from the beginning to the end, so we know better what kind of service the customer needs.But if I don't follow the requirements of the leader, my evaluation score will be low.

"Also, according to the service procedure, we have to get food for the guests, but sometimes couples come to eat, and the man wants to show his hospitality, so we should let him do these things by himself. There are also those who bring the elderly and children to dinner, family members know better What they like and how to eat, you must know that hot pot is a semi-buffet way of eating after all. At this time, we should not impose fixed service procedures on the guests.” This is the drawback of the process and system, (1) Assume that the needs of each customer are the same; (2) Assume that each employee is lazy and mindless.

Employees who only follow procedures and systems will make guests feel uncomfortable: cadres who only follow procedures and systems will also make employees feel unnatural.Zhang Yong's practice of helping Yang Xiaoli's family pay off debts, visiting Feng Boying who is sick, and visiting employees at home is not only widely known to Haidilao people, but has gradually become Haidilao's family-friendly management system for employees.For example, the store manager and trade union cadres must visit the employees' homes regularly, and must visit the employees when they are sick. But human beings are weird animals, and once something becomes a system, it changes its flavor.For example, the care for employees out of sincerity and the care for the implementation of the family-oriented system are the same thing, but the feeling is different.And once it becomes a system, some people will take advantage of loopholes.Although employees are customers, some customers are not gods.Haidilao really has some employees who are lazy and take sick cases. Colleagues know it, but the store manager and cadres are kept in the dark;There are also some employees who gamble and lose all their money. They lie and say that their family is in trouble, and the leader lends him money for the sake of family management.As a result, the ability and authority of cadres are greatly reduced in the minds of employees. How to correct the shortcomings of the process and system itself? rely on people. By whom? Rely on well-trained, qualified and responsible people. The French pay attention to what kind of wine should be paired with what food to eat, so French restaurants have a position that Chinese restaurants do not have, called sommelier.It was a French invention and such a position is only found in high-end restaurants.The main task of the sommelier is to help the guests choose wine, and they usually appear after the guests order.If the guest is a person who knows wine or thinks he knows, they will stand aside and write down the wine he wants, never say a word, and only answer questions, so that the guests can enjoy the process of ordering wine comfortably ; If the guest is a person who does not know much about wine and is willing to ask them for help, they will match the wine that best suits the food you choose according to your price.Of course, if you choose more expensive wine, their service will be more attentive.But no matter the high or low, you can't go wrong with the wine they make for you. But such a sommelier, like a good bottle of French wine, needs good raw materials first, and then needs time. What Haidilao lacks is precisely these two things.