Reflections of a Club Manager #12

When I interviewed for my next job, the committee indicated that the club had issues with its Food and Beverage and that the new GM would have to resolve these issues as a priority. In fact, during my 2nd interview, I had to do a presentation on how I would resolve improve the service to the members. I must have done okay as they offered me the job!!

My new Chairman invited Sandra and I to Sunday lunch at the club once my appointment was confirmed and around 2 months before I was due to start. That 2 hour lunch highlighted many of the issues the club was facing.

The service was terrible, 2 burgers and a Seabass took 45 minutes to arrive, the quality of the food was poor and the Clubhouse Manager, who had worked at the Club for 25 years, never came near us, or the other occupied table in the dining room during that period. When she did eventually come over, once the table was cleared, she asked how our lunch was. I don't think she expected the invite to sit down, nor the detailed feedback we all gave her!!

Just when Sandra and I were getting ready to leave, the Clubhouse Manager asked to speak to the Chairman privately. 10 minutes later, the Chairman returned to inform me that the Chef had just resigned!! The Chairman and I discussed this and he asked me if I would speak to the Chef, even though I wouldn't be an employee of the club for another 2 months. I agreed.

The Chef and I sat down and I introduced myself. I asked him why he was resigning. He indicated that after 9 years as a Chef, he was fed up with it and had decided to go and work for his brother, in his joinery business. I asked him if there was anything I could do to change his mind and he said no. I also found out he was good friends with the Clubhouse Manager and had only stayed as long as he had, because of that friendship.

Now, there was an upside and a downside to this situation. As the Club recognised that the food was poor, it gave the Club the opportunity to recruit a more engaged and experienced Chef. The downside was that they would need to use agency chefs until a new Chef was secured.

When I officially started, the Club had been using agency chefs for about 6 weeks and each day we seemed to get a different chef with different skills. The food was still variable in quality and the members were not happy. It took a further month before we were able to recruit a Chef on a permanent basis and things began to settle down.

One of the first things I did when I started was to arrange for a mystery shop to take place, so that I could get independent views of the operation.

The mystery shoppers booked their golf and used the clubhouse, before and after their golf. The report identified a host of staff failings that would need resolved through training. 

Example: Female mystery shopper had to go to the bar to ask for menus and while at the bar asked the staff member what types of white wine were available. The staff member goes into the fridge and holds up 2 bottles of white wine and says nothing. She selects one and returns to the table with the menus. She discovers that the wine list has been given to her along with the food menu, and on the list there are 5 white wines available. When the staff member eventually comes over to take their food order, the female mystery shopper asks why only 2 types of wine were shown to her when there were 5 on the wine list? The staff member shrugs their shoulders, doesn't say anything and walks back to the bar, without taking their food order!!!

If I told you that the Food and Beverage part of the mystery shopper review gave the experience a mark of 13%, you will realise that there was a huge amount of work to be done.

I sat down with the Clubhouse Manager to review the results of the report. Lack of communication, lack of knowledge and a poor attitude were highlighted as a major issues and I told her that we needed to work together to resolve these issues quickly.

Over the next few weeks, I arranged for all the bar and waiting staff to receive training, both internally and externally. I was trying to get a quick fix that would be noticeable to the membership and give them comfort that we were working to improve both the food and the service to them.

Just over 3 months later, we had another mystery shopper visit and the F&B review increased substantially to 81%.

One of the issues that I faced was that the existing staff had been at the club longer than I had, and many of them had allies, both on committee and in the membership. More on this later.

At the end of my first year, the Chairman that employed me stepped down and I had a new Chairman and 2 or 3 new committee members.

During my tenure at that Club, we moved on a number of staff members, either through their choice or through ours as previously mentioned in articles 9 and 10. All done correctly and for the right reasons, to improve the service to the members.

Over the next couple of years, we still had some issues within the Food and Beverage function but it was certainly much better than it had been.

We continued to provide training for the staff and the feedback from the members, their guests and visitors to the club was positive.

I continued to work with the Clubhouse Manager to ensure the standards we set were being maintained and thought we were progressing well.

We had just employed an excellent new Chef, who had worked in high class restaurants in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. He had high standards of cleanliness and had a structured, considered approach to his work. He spent 2 days taking the kitchen apart and cleaning all surfaces and equipment

His methods were a challenge for some of the kitchen staff who had no experience of such a professional and didn't like it when he asked them to do things his way. Quickly, these staff started to undermine the Chef and complained to the Clubhouse Manager, that according to the KP's, the Chef couldn't cook, which was rubbish as we had tested his skills prior to hiring him.

The Clubhouse Manager decided that she would discuss this and other "issues" with the House Convener rather than discuss them with me. I was aware that there were other meetings going on, which I was not invited to.

I soon discovered what they were all about when I was asked to attend my annual appraisal with the Chairman and Finance Convener. Instead of an appraisal, an envelope was pushed across the table at me. Inside was an offer to part company!!

It turns out that some of the longer tenured staff didn't like the fact that they were being sent on training, asked to do the job they were being paid for and had gathered support from their allies.

I didn't see this coming and was shocked. The Chairman asked me to remove all my belongings from the office right away and to let him know about the offer. They had already decided the outcome so there was no point in trying to argue my case.

I told them that they need to get someone in right away to cover in the kitchen. I was asked why? I told them that Sandra was working in the kitchen with the Chef as we were short staffed that day, now I knew why!!

Sandra and I went up to the office to clear my desk and I told my assistant/bookkeeper what had happened. She couldn't believe it, said that it was so unfair and started to cry. I told her not to worry, that I would be fine and I would speak to her soon.

I left that day and have never been back. We didn't even look at the offer until we got home. It was a reasonable offer and I called the Chairman right away to accept.

Over the next few days, I took a number of calls from the Chairman on how to access the management software and how to do this and how to do that.

Interestingly, the Chairman decided that he would take on the General Manager role and I believe he did it for 9 months, until they changed the role and job title to Managing Secretary and hire an experienced person.

Footnote: The Professional Chef lasted 3 weeks after I was gone. He contacted me to say that he couldn't work there any longer due to being constantly undermined. I subsequently found out that the Clubhouse Manager rehired the Chef who had left to become a joiner. It makes you wonder if there was a plan in place all along................

My mistake: On reflection, I should have tackled to root cause of all the F&B issues first, the Clubhouse Manager. The CM had been responsible for the recruitment of the staff the club had issues with and the lack of training and service standards. The biggest problem was that the CM didn't have a manager/employee relationship with the staff and treated them as mates/friends. In my experience, that is not the basis of a good working relationship and leads to a lack of discipline and structure.

When the chips were down, the club decided to go with the CM who had been in their employ for 28 years, rather than their GM who had been there, 3 years. Even though, the Club had hired me for my experience and qualifications, they decided that after all, they didn't want change and at the end of the day, that is their choice.

I just wish they had let me know!!

Next time, out of the frying pan and into the fire!!

Jim Callaghan CCM

p.s. If any of these articles resonate with you, let me know. If you are facing any of the issues and want some one to talk to, in confidence, let me know. The club/golf industry has been good to me, despite all the traumas and If I can help anyone, I will. You are not alone!!!!