BlueDelicious

So my team went to Johnny Rockets for our excursion. As the OTL, when I was looking for somewhere that did things differently (obviously).  The mission statement there is, to establish Johnny Rockets as the leading global restaurant chain providing a classic all-American experience. Established in 1986, Johnny Rockets is an attempt to recreate the best parts of every decade in American History. They have jukeboxes and they perform Aretha Franklin’s Respect. The fabulous bodacious BlueDelicious team took our trip to Woodbridge Mall and sat down to meet our wonderful waitress Dana. From the moment we walked in, the manager came over and said that she was happy to have us at the restaurant and that she loved working with students. This was just the start of the excursions wonderful experiences. This manager is how I think we need to make all of our encounters with “customers” of New Student Orientation. We need to be warm and accommodating. Patty, the manager was so friendly and worked with me for 2 weeks so that we could come to the restaurant and get a personalized experience.

 So we all set down to enjoy our wonderful meals, enjoying the nickel jukebox and the wonderful food. But the whole time, Dana came over after every item was placed on the table, she was always accommodating anything we had to ask. Then we asked her to answer some questions, which of course, she had no problem doing.

When we asked her the most fulfilling part of her job, Dana talked about how seeing people smiling and enjoying their meals made her feel fulfilled. This is something that relates directly to orientation, when our “why” is making the students happy and seeing them enjoy orientation and get excited for their time here, we’ll be much more fulfilled at work. When we asked Dana how her work environment differed from a traditional one, she said that her bosses were much more flexible and they treated her like a peer more than a subordinate, and they trusted her.  This is very similar to the way that we’ve discussed hierarchy here at NSO, when someone has more knowledge than you, they become a resource, but it is not a tense environment where you feel afraid to talk to your superiors. Another major difference we saw at Johnny Rockets was the training. Since they always perform there, Dana told us that that was a part of their training. They had to learn the dance and they really have to sell it. It is similar to NSO because we perform every day, we may love the job, but there are other factors, so we always have to keep a smile on and stay positive so that the students are getting the best experience. This is also an interesting idea because it might be fun to do something totally different at training to make it different and exciting. We learned so much from our excursion that will help the blue team, as well as the whole group I believe. <3

I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly.