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The responsibilities of pizza operating franchisees seem to never end. We must know the intricacies of lease negotiations, employment law issues, health code regulations, local marketing strategies, employee motivation, product specifications, customer service objectives, facility standards, construction mandates, vehicle maintenance, contract negotiations and a myriad of other concerns. This list also includes franchise relationship issues because those issues permeate all of the above. Although the work weeks are seven days long, Friday nights are always welcomed. As ESPN 2’s Friday Night Fights broke for the 8:45 sports score update, I broke for the refrigerator. I was about to open a Budweiser when my home office phone rang. People do not usually telephone my home office on a Friday night for purposes of sharing good tidings. Rather, the callers usually provide some message or information which I really did not want to hear. Often these type of telephone calls end with me trading in my beer mug for a brandy snifter. As the caller ID box indicated that the call was originating from one of my restaurants, I got the snifter down before I even picked up the receiver. Sure enough, as I listened to the concerned manager, Moira, start to explain the situation, the news was not good. “Yes, I understand. Was anyone injured?” I replied to the news that one of our delivery drivers, Esperanza, was involved in a traffic accident with another car. After hearing the conversation’s first good news, I wiped a bead of sweat from my brow and continued, “Thank goodness. Now, which delivery vehicle was it and was there any damage to either vehicle?” From her description, it became clear our vehicle was an older delivery pick-up truck and that neither vehicle was really damaged. For the first time since answering the phone, I was able to exhale. Assuaged that there may not be a need to call the insurance carrier on Monday, I inquired “So how did this fender bender occur?” The answer provided more reason for optimism. Moira told me that Esperanza was stopped at a stoplight and was rear ended. In response to my probing regarding the mundane issues of driver information exchanges, Moira seemed intent upon interrupting me to share additional information. Rather than allow her the opportunity to tell me what she considered important, I went about my interrogation about the condition of the vehicles and the exact circumstances leading to the impact. She assured me that the other vehicle had very minor front fender damage and that Esperanza could find no damage to the rear of our 1994 Toyota pick-up truck except for a torn bumper sticker. I could not help but think about that bumper sticker’s message–“Pepperoni Happens.” Again, a determined Moira tried to interrupt my line of questioning. However, because I could not imagine what was more important than my thought process, I did not allow her. “Yes, there was a police report,” she shared in response to continued questioning. She even anticipated my next thought as she asked “Now that the truck is back at the restaurant, do you want me to go out and make sure that there is no additional damage to the rear of the truck.” Knowing that our delivery vehicle was almost ten years old and had experienced the wars of 200,000+ miles of pizza deliveries, I told her there was probably no need. I was about to hang up and go back and watch ESPN’s boxing commentator, Max Kellerman, harangue about a newly crowned junior something or other weight champion and an obscure boxing sanctioning body (I think the “NAPA” – North American Pugilism Association). Before I hung up the phone, however, I asked, “Did you want to tell me something else?” Without attempting to sound convincing, she simply replied, “You probably would not be interested. It was not that big of a deal.” I bit the hook, “Come on just tell me.” After pausing slightly for dramatic effect, Moira shared, “OK. I thought you might be interested to know that there was some damage to the other car. The car’s topper was broken.” I bit even harder as I queried about the topper. Moira deadpanned, “Our truck was hit by a Domino’s delivery vehicle. Without thinking, I blurted out, “Why didn’t you tell me?” I appreciated the manager’s diplomacy which did not include, “IN CASE YOU HAVE NOT BEEN LISTENING TO YOURSELF, YOU HAVE NOT ALLOWED ME A WORD IN EDGE WISE.” Instead, Moira calmly asked if there was anything else that she could do. After a moment of thinking about the additional details, I responded, “Yes, just one thing. I will take you up on your offer to double check our truck’s rear bumper for any previously undetected damage.” I thanked Moira for handling the situation and said good night. After hanging up the phone, I put the brandy snifter back in the cupboard and got down a champagne flute.
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AFA Enews - August 13, 2004 - Volume 2 Number 4 |
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American Franchisee Association |
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(312) 431-0545 |
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