I don't remember her name.
But I remember her story like it was yesterday.
She was a Ray Kroc award-winning restaurant Manager (top 1%) at McDonald’s.
She didn’t know how to talk about her job when asked at her kid’s soccer game or at family events.
She was tired of hearing “oh, you work at McDonald’s?”
She was tired of not being able to answer questions on the food.
She couldn’t have these conversations or answer questions because she “only” knew times, temperatures, procedures and steps.
She didn’t know much about the brand she worked for, where the food came from, or how to talk about it.
We fixed that. Not only for this restaurant manager, but thousands more.
Yes, there was education and training on suppliers, supply chain, nutrition, job opportunities, community support and the like.
But like anyone studying new topics, retention was going to be minimal.
However, stories are remembered.
When combining stories with a couple key facts that are relevant to the storyteller, we now have something that can provide meaning, be shared and is hard to debate.
This restaurant manager talked about her food choices. Another talked about Doug, the customer that lost weight.
Another about learning English and being promoted to manager. Another about how Ronald McDonald House Charities helped her family.
There were many more stories gathered and told.
A little 13 store restaurant pilot ultimately moved to more than 5,000 restaurants.
Why? Stories led to results.
Increase in brand pride. Decrease in turnover. Improvement in operational efficiency scores. Improvement in customer satisfaction.
The lesson:
Enable your people to tell stories. It helps the most important KPI’s and the bottom line.
