In an interview published in the Seattle Times Thursday. Steve Emtman was asked what the best thing about his Husky career was. He said, "It's learning what a group can accomplish when they're all on the same page. It's hard to find that philosophy in the business world or the real world."

Well amen to that! You're spot on Steve.

It is hard. And it's much easier to find out what a group can accomplish in the real world than it is in the business world. But TC Global already has a leg up in the process.

The "same page" is well-displayed in every Tully's coffee shop. They should define exactly is meant by each component of the Mission Statement-world's ultimate coffee shop experience, highest-quality products, most inviting stores, friendliest staff, best value. Then make certain every employee in the company, not just the stores, knows the definitions. Then recruit, attract, or develop an entire workforce capable of executing the mission.

Thirty days to everyone knowing the mission.

Ninety days or less to creating the workforce. An entire company of "People people" (like the girls at the Phoenix Cafe) who know the value of word of mouth advertising, Yelp reviews, and having un making new friends.

In sales, service, and sports, the winners have the best team leaders with the best team achievement systems. That's why big-time college sports programs and professional sports organizations use huge salaries to compete for the few truly extraordinary team leaders. (LSU-Alabama tonight. Sabin and Miles)  

In the highly competitive specialty coffee industry, where new competitors are always entering the game (Phoenix Cafe), TC Global would be a serious competitor that has every employee focused on doing their part in helping the company win the Super Bowl of multi-location Specialty coffee sales and service.

Go Dawgs! 

 When TC Global closed their Expediter NW store in downtown Seattle early last spring, the company couldn't find a store that the Store Manager, Shariesse  Hewitt could easily commute to so she quit and, with Jennifer Lentz (Jenny, a former Barista), she leased the store location and opened the Phoenix Cafe.

In a short period of time their Facebook was fun to follow and they had eight yelp reviews that have to be read to be believed. Two "people people" that quickly make friends with their customers. 

The store was the only Tully's I have ever been in where the entire staff was comprised of "people people." Only four baristas, but they were all fun to be around because, as the TC Global company website says, they were "employees who go out of their way to make customers feel special."  

Tully's Expediters NW was definitely living up to the Mission Statement on the wall. When you are in a coffee shop surrounded by "people people" baristas you are enjoying the "worlds ultimate coffee shop experience."

It's all about learning, "people people," having fun, and winning the sales/service game.

Involve your customers, impress your customers, and inspire your customers to remember, return, and recommend. 

...I wouldn't be writing this. 

I know I appear mean-spirited. That is not my intention. But as they say, "it is what it is!"

Through the years I've heard criticism about the changes at the top. To me it is simple, if it isn't working, have the courage to change leadership. Their expertise was not knowing how to create, lead, inspire, and retain sales/service teams.

At the top of the list of a District Managers duties in the job description posted on Craigs List during a recruiting campaign was "Lead team of employees to drive sales through salesmanship. Educate and motivate store managers and their entire staff to create a sales driven atmosphere in each store, during each shift."

It was October 17, 2010 when I first saw the job description. Those thirty words explained everything. I have not been in every store, but I have been 27 stores. I haven't seen what I would call a sales driven atmosphere yet. Even the stores that were led by top notch Store Managers. When they were on duty, the Store Managers were they type sincere, caring, personable people that motivate customers to go out of their way to stop by for a friendly visit. But it was a different customer experience when they wern't there.  

The website job descriptions for Store Mangers, Assistant Store Managers, and Baristas all state that they are responsible for selling coffee and merchandise. In hundreds of visits I have ever had one person attempt to "sell" me coffee or merchandise. They rang it up after I selected it, but my "lying eyes" tell me selling (suggesting) seldom takes place at TC Global dba Tully's Coffee.

It takes a system that is orchestrated from the corporate office daily.

Note: Still on the "For Our Investors" page of the TC Global website:

Our wholesale division sells Tully’s coffees and related products and supplies to domestic customers in the supermarket, food service, restaurant, office coffee service, and institutional channels. The wholesale division is also responsible for our mail order and Internet sales activities.

As I visited Tully's stores it pained me to watch a company that just plain did not get it.

My health problems had taken me out of the sales/service game, but with my walking I was healthier than I had been in years. So I started thinking about how to solve the many problems associated with telling a company they are dysfunctional.

Is there a corporate leader so focused on excellence that they will listen to anyone who says they can improve the company? Listen even if they are causing the problem? Someone like J.C. Penney, Howard Schutz, Wes Herman, Les Schwab, Ivar Hagland, or me, Dave Sovde. It's all about learning!

How do I avoid "thanks for your time and insight, but we've got it handled.

How to get them to understand what they see as a corporate officer visiting a store is not what the market sees when they visit a coffee shop.I decided to write a book instead.

Two days later, February 20, 2005 I'm reading an article by Monica Soto Ouchi in the Seattle Sunday Times that really got me excited. "Tully's Coffee: A brand that belies its size" began with:

Every Christmas Eve, the store managers heard from Santa by voicemail.

He'd give each a bundle of company shares, only to call back later that shift. Mrs. Claus had given him grog, he'd say. Their gift was then doubled.

Tom Tully O'Keefe — the founder, chairman and namesake of Tully's Coffee — was Santa, and the shares he doled were his own.

"I wanted to make sure they felt a sense of ownership," said O'Keefe, whose middle name honors his mother's Greek heritage. "The best way to do this is to make them owners."

It was like I was back at Penney's reading one of James Cash Penney's core beliefs. And dressed as Santa Claus too, wow! If I could get him to do what J.C. Penney did in the early years of the company-watch the performance of store employees while in disguise-I'm in!

I put the article on my wall and started tracking eight Tully's stores so I would be ready the day I contacted Tom.

 ...King 5's Evening Magazine. In the video of Megan Black giving the award Wes Herman the owner of  Woods Coffee in Bellingham says, "We pay attention to all the details. We work hard at it every day. And we never give up." (me too)

Attention to every little detail, working hard at being the very best, and never giving up are at the core of retail excellence and achievement.

Good work Wes! Congratulations to your entire team.

I graduated from college in January, but couldn't start Willamete Law School until September. And since I wasn't totally sold on becoming a Lawyer, I went to work for J.C. Penney as a management trainee because beyond the experience, it was one of the best management training programs in the country. (Sam Walton always said he learned the "people business" at Penney's)

The company was second to Sears and was planning on overtaking them by competing with them in hard goods. Big mistake! But being the best of the best was the goal every day. It was my second "Best of the Best" experience. US Army Basic Training was the first.

The first four days of management training were a group discussion in the morning, lunch, and then an afternoon in a store (every day a different store) to see how what we had learned was being executed.

The first day we talked about the fact that "Retail is detail." As we did the second day. And the third day. The fourth day we talked about the fact that, at J.C. Penney, "Retail is detail down to the last speck of dust."

Nothing bothers me more than the dust, dirt, and grim at many Tully's stores. I'll write more later about this, but how many people stopped going to Tully's Coffee because of an allergy?

The corporate store on Airport Way is one of the worst! Check it out...

of the coffee industry. And they are saying it again.

I moved to downtown Seattle (Bose Quiet Comfort 15 noise cancelling headphones are as good as advertised) so I could walk the streets of the city. I have a vein graft in my left leg that requires a lot of walking to keep it healthy. The 1997 operation that saved my leg resulted in my moving in with a family member for a year while I was recovering. The Federal Way Tully's store gave me daily motivation to walk (limp) to great coffee, sweets, and employees who ALL (unlike today) loved to talk to customers.

After about a month of walking to see the city in general, I started using Tully's stores as destinations. The Pioneer Square (closed long ago) store was especially fun because they would post the daily Dilbert comic with an occassional comment regarding how similar the comic was to Tully's corporate retail.

They were not fans of corporate. "We're digits on a spread sheet" was their opinion of how they were perceived by the company. As I went to other stores it was obvious that many employees below the position of Store manager felt the same way.

Many still do. Last week I saw a Dilbert comic strip with the words, "Are we next?" under it that was just above the reprint of an article in the News Tribune about Woods Coffee moving into a location that was formerly a Tully's.  

This loosely defined case study is dedicated to the thousands of shareholders who never had a chance of making money. To the present and past employees who hear, "Oh," when they mention they work/worked for Tully's. (Starbucks it would be "Oh, really, tell me more.")

When I moved to downtown Seattle in 2007 I was truly surprised to see that their customer experience was, and still is, nothing like it was when I frequented a Tully's in Federal Way in 1997. The employees were all "people people" who were fun to be around. They loved talking about the company. They especially loved talking about Tom O'Keefe. There was an a spirit in the store that appeared to be fueled by the fact they all knew him because he was frequently out in the stores meeting (motivating) his troops.

As I compare the two companies that have inhabited the iconic Rainier Brewery-Tully's Coffee and TC Global dba Tully's Coffee-to Starbucks, Woods Coffee, and the Phoenix Cafe (formerly the Tully's Expediter store),

The magnets that were on the Mission Statement are now on the logo! Mission statement and brand logos deserve more. (The picture frame could use some touch up paint)

. ..promotion should aggravate anyone who has put a dime into the company.

Two weeks into several "Ask me about free coffee" promotions through the years I have asked employees how often they are asked. "Well, as a matter of fact, you're the first" been often been their reply.

Most customers know "Ask me about free coffee" buttons and signs (red strip at the bottom) are step one in listening to a sales pitch. The next time you are in a Tully's ask a barista how many people actually ask them about free coffee. It seldom happens.

The other problem is that Tully's employees don't have to participate in the promotion unless they are asked! An option most choose.

...acquire a "sense" of my experience (please open "About" on the left) and my simple, fun, involve everyone approach to creating entire teams of sales/service achievers who are passionate about improving themselves, their team, and the company.

OneByOne Team Achievement is a sports-modeled, engagement-centered, improvement-driven, achievement-focused approach to creating entire teams of sales/service achievers who are focused on winning the "Sales/Service Game."

November 1, 2011

Tully's Coffee has a Mission Statement hanging in the stores that most employees pay little attention to during their shifts. They do not have the friendliest staffs or the most inviting stores. The customer experience ends as soon as a customer receives their products. I have never seen one barita attempt to sell me or anyone else coffee or merchandise. Look at this blog if you want to know more, but the "pay little attention" in the first sentence should be "Code Blue."

I believe the people who invested in Tully's on Tom O'Keefe's word deserve more. Tom O'Keefe deserves more. I want to lead a simple, fun, involve everyone company-wide team project that will change that. 

I know how. 

No fee.I don't want a permanent job. I want ninety days to earn up-to-date credibility for showing TC Global dba Tully's Coffee how to have the most personable baristas in the specialty coffee industry.