Happy 25th Anniversary Hartford!!

Hartford celebrated its 25^th Anniversary on July 24^th!   It was a fun filled day which included honoring two of its valued employees - Mary Boykin and Mike Jarrett,  who have been with Hardee’s of Hartford since it opened in 1988.  They were presented with gifts and a cake.  The day also included specials for its patrons -- BOGO Texas Toast Breakfast Sandwiches during breakfast hours and $0.49 hamburgers & $0.59 cheeseburgers from 11-1pm.  Coupons and goodies were given away and we raffled off 25 Free Biscuits for a year & 25 Free 1/3 lb. Thickburgers for a year!! 

A special thanks to those who came out to celebrate this special day for Ponder and Hartford!!

 

SuperStar Service Rally

Ponder Enterprises held it’s SuperStar Service Rally for the General Managers on June 26^th. The rally started with an exercise that helped all in attendance deal with the positive & negative  consequences of making changes. Then each district was required to come up with a cheer or “war chant” detailing SuperStar Service. You will see in the videos that each district had a lot of fun and put a lot of thought into their cheer! Next came the skits; again a lot of thought was put into their skits!

 

District 1 Cheer

 

 

District 2 Cheer

 

 

District 3 Cheer

With the fun out of the way. We all looked at what the customer’s feedback for 2013 was telling Ponder Enterprises on how we were doing and where we needed to improve. All were surprised that “Slow Service” was not the customers’ major complaint; it was ‘Rude/Argumentative Service”. The group then took 6 incidences that happened in the restaurants and then by developing a SuperStar Service attitude they figured out how these incidents could and would be handled in the future. There was good news in that in the last six weeks, Ponder Enterprises restaurants have received more compliments through the Sync line so far this year than in all of 2012!!

To drive home that SuperStar Service cannot be a program from the Operations Manual, all General Managers were given the book “The Simple Truths of Service” by Ken Blanchard & Barbara Glanz.  The PowerPoint presentation of Johnny was shown. This presentation drove home the point that true SuperStar service must come from the heart. We all found out that Johnny made a difference because he chose to, not because he had to.

External and internal guests were identified. The discussion then got very active in deciding what three areas  that all Ponder Enterprises restaurants would change and improve with every internal and external guest. The next step is that meetings will be held in each restaurant by the District Manager and General Manager to get the idea and message to every employee; including showing the “Johnny” video. Our employees are the ones who will make this a success. We at Ponder Enterprises are empowering our employees to be Superstars of Service in the customer’s mind! We are holding everyone accountable for great customer experiences. We are excited to see the success that we will come in the weeks and years!!

Mike Rogerson
Director of Training and Special Projects