Archived Supreme Food Service Team Lead: Leading Cafe and SB

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lydian

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Mar 7, 2015
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I was hired as FATL a few months back. At the time, my ETL was worried, as it was an area clearly in crisis. I had to get rid of, replace and retrain 3/5's of the staff but I managed to correct the ship. It actually took a few months, but once everything was righted it became the sweetest job of all time. Sales were much, much higher and compliance and coverage were met.

During that time, the Starbucks workcenter had two TL turnovers and months of no TL at all. Sales for SB were consistently down on a % basis and much lower than the group ranking of the store in general.

My STL has now pulled me to lead both areas. I initially refused; but the offer was bumped up to $23/hour and I decided to take the plunge. I get two FSA's, one in SB and the other in Café. Unfortunately, everyone in the SB workcenter is mediocre at best.

This must have happened before. Has anyone led both areas at the same time? What is your experience doing so?
 
Lots of stores just have one TL for both, but it sounds like you're at a way higher volume. About a year and a half ago, I had earned enough sales to gain a FATL, but they took it straight to the sales floor and I continued to run both. I've also never had an FSA. If I were you, I'd focus a lot on Starbucks and have an FSA basically run Food Ave for the most part.
 
I totally agree with Xanatos, you need to pay a lot of attention to Starbucks because any gap in meeting expectations can put you in non-compliance. You need to focus on training, ordering, and ensuring that you are participating in all promotions (Starbucks is annoying and has promotions back to back). Make sure the schedule is being written accordingly and that you start developing those two FSAs to help guide the team when you're not around.
 
Speaking from a TM's standpoint, my early years in SB we had a weak SBTL but a strong FATL.
It also helped that we were cross-trained & there were a couple strong TMs in both areas.
When several of the strong ones left, I found myself having to make up for the SBTL's weaknesses to the point of burnout & that led to my own exit.
I came back chiefly because they have strong TLs on both sides now & I'm only PT.
Obviously, your leadership is duly impressed with your FA turnaround & wants to see you repeat your success with SB.
You'll need to get up to speed on SB & give them extra attention but it will help you build a solid team since you're in close proximity & you have a good team on one side already.
 
"I totally agree with Xanatos, you need to pay a lot of attention to Starbucks because any gap in meeting expectations can put you in non-compliance."

We are already non-compliant on product availability. That is actually a fix I can implement.

Starbucks par value guide puts us at a VO2 level store, with V01 being the highest volume. I have about 450 hours per week between the two departments.

I have FA down to a flowchart, but I can't barista at SB's yet. Hmm, this is going to take some work...

Good recommendations. My emphasis needs to be on SB and I will likely have to delegate away most of my FA responsibilities.
 
lydian said:
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Starbucks par value guide puts us at a VO2 level store, with V01 being the highest volume. I have about 450 hours per week between the two departments.
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Well, to give you an idea of the challenge you are taking on, I just barely earn enough sales to have two team leaders, but I do both. However, I have 222 total hours between the two workcenters, so your store is going to be way different. I would recommend learning Starbucks and mastering it over the next two months or so, and then start having very very little time behind the bar. You need to know it like the back of your hand, but with that sales volume and doing the work of two team leaders, you really need to spend most of your time leading and not doing busy work.
Tar Ghetto said:
I thought Starbucks required a separate TL for all volumes...
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It has to have a TL, but that TL can overlap with Food Ave.
 
Product availability is an easy fix and the par system is only a guide for you, it shouldn't be used as a "must order". You will know how much you need the more time you spend in Starbucks. Teach your FSAs and any others how to scan the order as well. It'll make your life easier.
 
CoquiAzul said:
Product availability is an easy fix and the par system is only a guide for you, it shouldn't be used as a "must order". You will know how much you need the more time you spend in Starbucks. Teach your FSAs and any others how to scan the order as well. It'll make your life easier.
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I second this. When my best FA TM left me (he was doing almost the exact description of an FSA but without the title or pay), I struggled to take over the entire order at first because I could go months without a shift in FA. Delegation is great, especially to your FSAs. If I were you, I would do the main Starbucks order and SAP, but have your Starbucks FSA do the pastry order (along with the Evolution drinks and smoothie bases, they're 3x per week like the pastries are) and have your FA FSA do the FA order. If you try to do all of it, you'll make some mistakes here and there, especially while you're learning Starbucks.
 
^This.
You don't want to burn yourself out by trying to do it all.
 
CoquiAzul said:
Product availability is an easy fix and the par system is only a guide for you, it shouldn't be used as a "must order".
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I intend to use the par value guide as the initial blue print and organize space around it, only fine-tuning it when as I become more experienced. The par level guide is quite a boon to me, as a starbucks noob, simply because it gives a fairly direct answer to the question of how much of what should I order.

Sbux has a brutal system for ordering: cutoff once per week. The only advantage is a the emergency ordering system, which comes directly from the stores budget.

More and more, I'm starting to realize that if I'm going to pull this off, I can't barista or FA, I just have to manage.
 
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