I just released a Shift Break discussing the concept of poaching employees from other shops. The definition of poaching is basically that you, as an owner or manager, enter a business and initiate an offer to a current employee to come work for you.
So basically the sleaziest thing you could do.
The premise was basically – don’t do that! But what if you are the one who has had competitors poach from your business? Take it a step further. What if the person doing it was a wholesale customer of yours? Weird right? Well I received an email from a listener describing this exact same scenario and how she eventually kicked this person out and told them off. Good. The question I am left with is, what could possess, what I assume is a normal person, to do something so obviously over the line?
The answer is entitlement.
In my mind, if this were a competitor, it would not have been as easy for them to brazenly break this unwritten rule. However, when you learn it is a client, it all starts to make sense. I have seen this time and again where wholesale clients view the roaster as if it were their own personal Santa Claus. A bottomless bag of toys, resources, service, and …patience. I think we all know this is more common than we’d like to admit and this individual, by dint of association, probably thought that what was theirs was his, including staff!
What drives this attitude is equal parts desperation and laziness. Desperation to find resolution to a problem they are having with staff, machines, consistency, traffic etc. This drives them to reach out almost immediately to their roaster who, in their most hopeful of minds, will have the answer that will save  them from their problem. Now, there is nothing wrong with reaching out, but there is a fine line between seeking guidance and resource, and having unreasonable expectations.  When the underlying attitude is that the key to their success rests in their wholesale providers hands and they abdicate their responsibility to create solutions for their own business, then it becomes unhealthy. Then we see behavior as described above.
Roasters are partially to blame because in an effort to win clients they want to offer more than their competitor and often stray into the realm of over-promising and inevitably under-delivering which helps create more entitlement.
We can combat this by drawing clear boundaries with our wholesale partners and communicating what kind of reasonable expectations they can have as a result of choosing our coffee. In the ensuing months, it is up to us to reinforce this understanding by, say, not answering calls at 1:30am. Or by reminding them of when their orders need to be submitted by for on-time delivery. If you don’t enforce boundaries you will be unwittingly enabling entitlement.
If you find yourself in the position of being the customer of a wholesale provider, please examine how much faith you put in them to make you successful vs how much ownership you take on yourself. You may be surprised to find yourself slipping into an entitlement mentality.
Let’s take steps to communicate and be clear about reasonable service, and reasonable boundaries. By tending to this, we will cultivate a stronger and longer lasting relationship.
-Chris
If you want the truly level-up your batch brew then you absolutely need to check out the Ground Control Cyclops Brewer ! Please visit our friends over at: www.vogacoffee.com for more information
You can contact me at : Chris@keystotheshop.com
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