Design vs Operation
Many years ago, the company for whom I worked at the time was opening a series of high-end airport lounges and it was laid on me to handle all operation training, talent consulting, and sourcing. However, the client had also hired a bar consultant, a wine consultant, a design consultant, and our company, the operators. I worked side by side with the bar consultant we worked together to improve his cocktails and identify proper vessels for his needs. I trained all the staff to his exacting needs and created all the SOP’s based on his requirements and our own service expectations. Working with the bar consultant led to a seamless operation, in which the staff knew what they needed to do, how to do it, when to do it, and to do so with a smile.
However, there was a significant gap between client expectations and the operators’ practical experience. We knew what we would encounter and offered infrastructure to match, but per the client, design trumped operational ease. The service section of the bar (where the servers pick up drinks) intersected with the beginning of the buffet and the entrance to the kitchen. This meant that three off the four highest traffic zones in the lounge all collided in one six-foot square.
What this meant was not only a traffic jam for customers and servers, but a chain of problems. Glassware needed to be returned to be washed and polished, but the glasswasher was behind the bar, which meant that glasses needed to be returned through the traffic jam or over the bar (terrible idea). The trays would stack up next to the service area, but servers couldn’t get to them because the guests were in the way, or the kitchen was using the space to set up the buffet for the next service. We ended up increasing spend on glassware because they broke more often, increasing spend on labor because our bartenders couldn’t keep up with the pace due to a constant flow of glasses that had to be walked five additional feet to the washer and then polished.
Overall, what this meant was that regardless of our ability to train an effective and responsive team, a lack of communication between the operators and the designers led to significant problems in ongoing expenses, increased labor cost, longer ticket times, and thus a poorer guest experience. At least the guests got a pretty wall to look at while they waited ten minutes for a vodka soda.
I cannot say we solved these problems, though we mitigated them with additional cost. I learned from this that forecasting in general terms is not effective. As a consultant I always suggest and practice using as precise language and data to forecast performance. The impact of poor design is real, as real as the impact of poor operators.
