Chaos Efficiency

I stopped at my favorite natural foods restaurant, The Main Squeeze, to get a cup of soup for lunch the other day. The place was packed. People were lined up at the counter to order food. People were waiting off to the side to get their to-go orders. I wiggled into the only stool available at the counter and watched the process for a while. The staff people behind the counter were juggling tasks and moving orders towards the kitchen like they were tossing bowling pins. They were making juice and smoothies while cutting produce and cleaning their work space. They’d drop what they were doing for a minute to deliver some food to a table, and then it was back to tossing bowling oins. It actually looked smooth.

I could see into the kitchen through the pass-thorugh. The kitchen staff was moving from task to task in a “zone”. They reminded me of basketball players. Odd, since the college finals are going on today. They were working the plates and the pots and the pans, moving the meals towards the pick-up window. An then they’d yell “order up!”, and I knew they made a goal. I like to eat at the Main Squeeze, because the food is delicious and healthy. The chefs there get some great flavors going, and everything on the menu is whole grain or fresh produce. Much of it is organically produced. The only problem is that this kind of good food doesn’t happen fast. If you like to run up to the counter, order and leave in five minutes, forget it, it ain’t happening. If you get there before the lunch rush, the place is half empty and the mood is mellow. But the lunch rush is bumpin’. And the staff keeps up. And the customers patiently wait for their yummy goodies or they visit with people they know or they make a new friend with the person on line with them. This is the customers ways of saying to the staff, “It’s okay, I can wait a few minutes. No problem.” I enjoy watching the staff juggle. It almost looks like they know what they are doing. But I know they don’t. They may have some idea as to how many meals and drinks they might need to make, but every day is different. They also look calm and cool, even though I know they are hustling. So it becomes a matter of team work. can the team handle the chaos while making it look efficient?

This is what we do in the call center. This is what you do at the self storage facility. During the quiet times, it is easy to make it look easy. We take the calls, help the people make a reservation and wait for the next call. You take the people on a tour, help them sign the lease and move on to that next customer with a question with ease. But what happends when the lunch rush comes? or the after work rush? or the last Monday of the month rush? Can you handle the chaos while making it look efficient. Most days, we can do it. Callers would never know that the phones are ringing off the hook and we are juggling calls like butcher knives. I bet you can do it most days, too. When customers are lined up four deep, can they notice that it is busy and going crazy, or do they just go with the flow, because you are remaining calm and cool and you are making it look easy? If you aren’t sure of how well your choas efficiency works, you don’t have much time to get ready. Even yesterday, which should have been a ho-hum Sunday had a few big spikes in call volume.
bye for now, Tron.

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Disclamer: This entry is intended to promote our partner StorageMart and some or all participants received compensation.

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