The phone rings. Satomi answers it.
"Mr. Iwasu, the person who kept asking me what time the manager comes to work has called again. What should we do?"
"····roger that."
I exhale and turn off the hold music.
"Is it possible for the store manager to be here? I apologize for calling you so many times! I saw you on the internet and I thought you had a wonderful, attractive store. I thought our company might be able to help you attract more customers to your store. I'm not asking you to install it right away, but I'd like to introduce our customer attraction system, which has been adopted by many stores. Is there a day this week or next week when you have time, even if it's just five minutes?"
Yes, here it comes. Here it comes.
If you run a restaurant, this is probably something you'll understand, but for those who don't, a little explanation may be necessary.
These types of calls come in at least three times a week, and sometimes more than ten times. I'm sure it's tough for the appointment callers who are required to meet quotas, but it's only natural that it's tough, as they're doing it to get paid. It's even tougher for us who answer the calls. We're giving away our time to answer the phone for free. Time is a very valuable management resource . In Japan in 2020, just by "running a store and exposing your phone number" you are given the option to have those management resources taken away. Seriously.
However, if I found this stressful, I couldn't run a restaurant. When I pressed the hold release button and the other person started speaking, I shut down my mind with a bang, took a deep breath, and prepared a sample sentence. Then, as soon as the other person finished speaking, I handed the baton from me, the manager, to the automated voice guidance.
Below is an example of guidance.
Usually it's either ① or ②, but when I have the mental space I choose ③.
This will be delivered in a calm, emotionless narration .
What you need to be careful about at this time is that the person who made the appointment may come to your store as a customer in the future. Don't get emotional and hang up the phone. He must be in a difficult position, being turned down all the time. In the future, when he decides to do a different job, gets a girlfriend, and wants to go out for a glass of wine on a date, your store needs to be one of his first choices.
So when you're on the phone, you should always say "I'm sorry, I'm sorry ." This will be on the test, so please underline it in red.
By the way, I am not very good at "pushy sales" such as sales over the phone.
I don't think I'd be able to become friends with the people who approach me at apartment construction sites with questionnaires (although I imagine it's a tough job that I couldn't do). In clothing stores, I like the type of people who create an easy-to-talk atmosphere but don't come to me on their own; they only take care of me if I approach them first.
"We look forward to welcoming you all to our store."
I don't really like this standard phrase that you often see in restaurants. It's not as pushy as it sounds, but it has a slightly pushy vibe. Because everyone knows they're waiting for customers. It's business after all. It's smart not to say it even if you want to, and that expression doesn't contain any information that would benefit the customer . I can't help but think that there are other words, expressions that are more customer-oriented, or ways to convey the appeal more easily. At least in my own restaurant, I want to avoid pushy expressions that don't benefit the customer.
for example···
"I'll buy today's lunch for myself. It's a great deal."
"New wine in stock. If you like dry whites, you'll love this!"
"100% off draft beer today, sorry, 10% off."
"If you have time, come over, hehe."
...No, I feel like something's off. Something's not right. Maybe my sense has dulled after not working in the restaurant business for a while. This is bad.
Honestly
"We look forward to your visit!"
I'm starting to think this is okay, as long as it doesn't reveal my lame sense of fashion (lol).
But, hey.
I never thought we would live in a world where it would be difficult to even say, "We look forward to your visit."
Starting tomorrow, Thursday (5/21), Bokumo is thinking of resuming dine-in service in parallel with selling bento boxes and wine. However, it's very difficult for me to proactively say things like, "We're resuming dine-in service! Eating out is fun after all! We look forward to seeing you!"
The economy is in trouble. The subsidies and cooperation funds are too small. If we don't resume business, stores will go out of business one after another. But of course there is still a risk of a cluster outbreak. There is also a risk of staff becoming infected.
If I told my wife, "I'm going to go for a drink because Bokumo has resumed," we might get into an argument, with her saying, "What are you talking about? The second wave is coming, so why are you letting your guard down?" I don't want Bokumo to be the cause of our arguments.
So we can't just say, "We're waiting for you to come to our restaurant." Satomi and the chef were talking about this yesterday.
Then the phone rings again. Satomi answers it.
"Mr. Iwasu, I'd love to help your takeout store attract customers and promote sales. I don't want to implement it right away, just talk to you about it."
Phew.
Stay calm.
①, ②, ③, ①, ②, ③...
"Sorry, I'm not available right now, so I can't talk to you. What? When would you be free?
No. It's not a matter of time. It's a matter of not having the mental space.
Please, please understand."
Iwasu now has a new excuse #4.
