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Your Money
- By keeping employees satisfied, restaurants can ensure happy
customers.
By Linda A. Fox, Small Business
Linda A. Fox, The Toronto Sun
I SPY ... Often working undercover,
David Lipton (left) and Craig Henry check out everything
from chipped plated and dirty utensils
to the quality of accounting services.
David Lipton and Craig Henry have a lot of work on their plates.
And sometimes that work amounts to a chip or a crack in the porcelain.
The pair run Sensors Quality Management Inc.(SQM), a small business
that helps the hospitality industry keep its house in order.
Lipton, 32 and Henry, 31, met while both were attending Ryerson's
Hospitality and Tourism Management Program. After graduation, they
gained experience at a variety of jobs both in the hospitality field
and outside. In addition to delivering the Sunday Sun as a kid,
Lipton put in a few years at McDonald's, Delta Hotels and Resorts
and Regal Hotels. Henry spent time with the Sheraton Centre Hotel,
Valhalla Inns and CP Hotels and Resorts in capacities ranging from
front desk to management.
But when the recession loomed, like many others, Lipton and Henry
both found themselves on the laid-off list. From personal experience
the men knew the hospitality industry (restaurants, hotels, air
lines etc.) didn't always measure up. And that most of them didn't
even know where they fell short. Enter SQM. "We were in a situation
where we needed to invent our own jobs," says Lipton, "but
in a field that we both knew well."
With about $2,000 in savings from each partner, SQM was born. From
there followed cold calls to prospective clients. First a couple
of major hotels came on line and now, as Lipton puts it, "our
growth has been a gazillion per cent."
The company goes in a evaluates a hospitality company from the
customer's perspective. Is the front desk running efficiently at
the hotel? Is room service available during hours advertised? Is
a restaurant's dinnerware chipped, cracked or worn? Is "last
call" really "last call" at the bar? "These
are all things a customer takes note of," says Henry. "And
if the wrong impression is created, that customer may take his money
elsewhere next time."
Lipton says SQM tries to make its hospitality industry clients
aware of the shortfalls in their service and how to rectify the
problems. And just what kind of shortfalls have Lipton and Henry
been finding in the year-plus SQM has been on the prowl? "Well
we've found a fresh fly in a 'fresh' salad, chipped wine glasses,
a dangerously frayed cord on a floor lamp in a hotel room, a cracked
in-room coffee pot among other things," says Henry. "All
problems that could all be potentially dangerous."
After its appraisal of the situation, SQM submits a written report
to the client. And it's not just the externals that are judged by
SQM. It could be the ins and outs of the accounting department,
reservations desk, or in whose pocket money from the bar tips winds
up.
And if you work in the industry, you probably won't even know SQM
is on your premises. The two guys ordering a burger at the table
by the window might be from SQM, or the man telephoning to ask about
a room reservation for the weekend might just be the one. Lipton
and Henry do a lot of their work as "undercover customers."
SQM has its sights set much further afield than the hospitality
industry, not that they are up and running. "We feel there
is a niche for our kind of quality investigations in the retail
industry, banking, or automotive," says Lipton. They already
have representatives working for them right across Canada, making
SQM a coast-to-coast company. And in the future, the pair would
like to end up as a management company in the hotel and restaurant
field. Lipton says business in Canada has to follow up on the notion
that it is world class by "proving we can give the level of
service that merits that label."
So often, the management of a hotel, restaurant or retail store
is the last to notice the little things that drive a customer crazy,"
he says. "That's where SQM comes in. We serve as damage control."
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