Teambuilding for the future
In the late nineties, in a bid to reward our frequent customers, I decided to introduce a loyalty card for the restaurants.
It was exclusive to our regulars and offered a discount of £1 per person for the holder and the entire table. That scheme ran for a few years until we went technical in 2006 and introduced a digital loyalty version with chip cards.
The other thing that I began doing was a monthly newsletter which I called Krimo’s Screamers. I designed a simple A4 sheet of paper folded in half and filled it with restaurant news, photos, menus and competitions.
The prize for one of the competitions was the chance for the winner to win a meal for two but with the catch of having to do a “mystery diner” report on one of our restaurants. I am not very sure that the offer of a free meal made up for the homework the diners had to do as the questionnaire was about four pages long. I ran that competition for around four months and then replaced it with a simple food quiz.
Most of the ideas for customer engagement came from the various catering magazines I read and tourism seminars I attended with a few of our managers. At the time, there were many courses and workshops on customer care in hospitality. They were often offered through the local tourism department. The latter helped engage businesses through a small group called Passport to Hartlepool which met every couple of months to discuss the state of tourism and think of ways to bring more visitors to the town. I enjoyed being part of that group for many years. Apart from the free courses we were able to access, the group brought together many like-minded business people from various local companies interested in promoting Hartlepool as a tourist destination. The sharing of ideas proved beneficial to us all.
Before opening Portofino, I worked full time in Krimo’s kitchen at Seaton and was in constant contact with the staff while Karen looked after the waiting staff. We discussed problems and resolved them on the hoof or over dinner.
As Portofino got busy, I found myself even busier dealing with staff problems. There was a lot of bickering and infighting. Among the courses that I attended, the one that helped me most was one that focussed on staff development and better organisation. It eventually led to us achieving Investors in People in 2003. The course came as a godsend. It introduced me to real “people management”. I learnt that communication was the answer to all problems and set up weekly meetings with management and chefs. Over the years, all that knowledge was passed on to the managers and chefs.
I learnt about motivation and organised monthly ten-pin bowling matches between the restaurants. Later, we even entered a team in the local 6-a-side football league. All these efforts helped create a pleasant team spirit in the restaurants and make all the hard work worthwhile. I also discovered the art of delegation and soon bought myself a Pools season ticket to sneak away on Saturday afternoons.
In late 1999, as the marina began taking shape, we decided to relocate Krimo’s down there.