Pizza Today - June 2022 - 12

MIKE'S MONTHLY TIP
MIKE BAUSCH
a heightened level of care to invert their
response. When appropriately executed,
the customer will react with a feeling of,
" well, obviously, they value my opinion
about this. Maybe I'm overreacting. "
Long wait time, hair in the food, cold,
soggy, anything, is your chance to rise to
the occasion.
Inversion Dynamic
I
t's imperative to lead by example.
Th e way you act in your restaurant
will determine how the rest of your
crew performs. When you're upbeat,
fast-paced, enthusiastic and positive, it's
natural for everyone else to feel a reason
to do that also. If you're humdrum, down
in the dumps and nonchalant, you'll fi nd
apathy breeds cohorts and others will
follow in suit. If you want people to care
about your restaurant at a high level,
you must care about it even more. An
interesting dynamic occurs, though, that
is diff erent from leading by example. It's
the inversion eff ect. In this situation, the
opposite of how you act is what occurs.
It's a sneaky thing that can hurt you if
you're not aware of it and how to use it.
If you have ever been told to " Chill
out, " what was your reaction? I'm willing
to bet the opposite occurred, i.e., no chill.
Th e other person is insensitive to your
situation and tells you they don't care
when you say to chill, relax or take it easy.
Being easygoing and telling you to be the
same is infuriating. Th ese phrases don't
recognize the person's issue at hand.
Th e inversion comes into play best
with customer interactions. If you want a
customer to react calmly, you need to act
in a very heightened manner. If a pizza
was ruined, maybe even has a foreign
object in it; if you come off easy-breezy
about the situation, it will drive the
customer to go nuclear. Th e inverse has
occurred: the customer is mad when your
goal was to keep things even keel. Th e
easygoing response comes off as fl ippant,
condescending and even disrespectful.
You have to rise to the occasion with
Imagine a super egregious one like a
piece of plastic in the pizza. A proper
response would have appropriate infl ection
and tone that shows you care, like:
" Oh wow, I am so incredibly embarrassed
by this. Th is has never happened in the
past (assuming that to be true), nor can I
ever fathom how this happened. I'll get to
work tracking down if this came from the
dough ball and will toss all those doughs.
I'm going to research this on camera
and interview everyone who was making
dough today. Th ank you for telling us so
I can get to work on this and make this
right to you. "
Th e goal of any issue, no matter how
big or small, is for the customer to
respond assured with, " Oh, okay. I see.
Th at makes sense. You have this under
control, and this isn't the norm. Th ank
you for hearing me out. " While if you
had responded, " Oh, something got into
your food? Well, I'm sorry about that.
Here's a free coupon " ... you would've
gotten a much diff erent response. " Free
coupon? Why would I ever want to come
back here? You obviously don't take this
seriously enough. You guys aren't professional,
and I never want anything to do
with you. " Even if they don't say that out
loud, you can bet they thought it and told
everyone they knew exactly that.
To invert their reaction, you have to
lead with the inverted intent of what you
want. Go big to get reasonable; underdo it
to get disappointment, anger and resentment.
Never be chill if you want chill. Go
above and exceed expectations if you want
reasonable discourse.
MIKE BAUSCH is the owner of Andolini's Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Instagram: @mikeybausch
12 / PIZZATODAY.COM / JUNE 2022

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