Jillian’s is FUN! Community Blog

Greeting your guests for the holidays…

It’s always this time of year when we all get so busy and the month of December seems to fly by. It’s also times like this when our clients come to Jillian’s to have fun and relax. SF makes it a point to personally greet our hosts and thank them for hosting their parties with us… Make it a point to shake as many hands as possible this season - guests remember good hospitality!!

a little thanks goes a long way

sf hosted a party of 5 ppl in our martini lounge to watch john hopkins vs virginia in a game of lacrosse - the party netted $200 - we left a message for the client to thank him for hosting his event with us and to make sure it was a great time. i got a call back this morning thanking us for calling him and saying how he plans a ton of parties a year and his biggest pet pieve is when he doesn’t get a thank you follow up call.  even if the event went well and he doesn’t get that call he doesn’t rebook with them… note to self - call everyone to thank them and keep taking those little parties!

remember the wow stories?

We wowed the guest and I am wowed by my new partner in sales!  This event was in the midst of MacWorld & the big NCAA game~ This was their first of many more events to come….

jennifer 

Thank you so much for all you did for us for our party on Thursday.  We’ve heard nothing but good things from our guests and are really pleased with how everything turned out.

I know I had tons of random questions and requests and I really appreciate how accommodating you were with all of them. The food was great and the staff was helpful. Due to the great response we’ve received, we hope to make the Light The Night Appreciation Party an annual event and would love to keep you guys in mind for next year.

Thank you again for everything!

Haley Parkins
Light the Night Campaign Assistant
1390 Market Street, Suite 1200
San Francisco, Ca 94102
haley.parkins@LLS.org

cookie visits

just as i put my order into the kitchen today for 2 cookie visits tomorrow a woman selling grease trap cleaning products called on our GM - it worked he met with her but her cookies had the price tag still on them!  cookie visits with or without the $6.99 price tag do work!

loyalty-

in my mind we have lots of stars on our server team but 1 person stands out in my mind especially during this crazy busy holiday season and it is erika chavez !  she has been with our team for over 5 years and everyday she works is a delight, not only is she one of our highest sellers, her attitude is amazing and what i like best is that she enjoys what she does and it shows. her answer is always yes  - what’s the question? i know when she is on a party we are guaranteed an upsell of some sort - my repeat clients ask for her by name - what is better than that? seriously!

 jennifer

you think you have an awesome kitchen staff!?!

i need to give team san fran a shout out. i have been with some of these guys since the opening ( almost 10 years  ) and each holiday season seems to get less stressful and more seamless - a well oiled machine pumping out party after party after party after party with add on parties in between ..oh, and slammin convention lunches on top of it. tamayo, our chef actually gave me a hard time that the week of christmas seems slow and why do we only have a few parties - he asked what am i doing to bring more business in? that is where our core values really hit home…he is making his food cost his own… always thinking of ways to save money and hold everyone accountable. i feel lucky to be part of the team.

jennifer

wow everyone

this thank you just wowed our staff… funny how we wowed them and they wowed us… what goes around comes around….

jennifer

Thank you so much for your follow up phone call, everyone had a great time and your staff was MARVELOUS. They were patient, they were everywhere we needed them to be, they checked in with us to make sure everything was going ok, and you allowed us to enjoy ourselves more this year than we have the last 3 years. It’s really just amazing how effortless a good staff can make a party seem, but Molly and I both know that a lot of effort goes into creating that illusion, so thank you again. You made US look good.

just a holiday treat can make a difference

 it is horribly cold & wet in san francisco… the weather is actually making headline news! as i sat in my warm office this morning i felt horrible for all of our vendors coming in wet and freezing so i brewed up a pot of hot coco with a candy cane stirrer and handed out to go cups to the guys after they made their delieveries… one actually comped us some linen!!! as the holiday season winds down we can take time to reflect on those that made it all possible…

jennifer

make a difference…

our neighbors at zeum ( an arts and technology museum for kids and adults ) wanted to plan a party with us for their small staff on the busiest friday in december…. they had the lowest budget ever but we took care of them … and this was in my inbox today… 

Hi Jennifer, 

Thank you so much!! From your help with the reservations down to the dessert at the end, we had a wonderful experience! I admire your patience and the efficiency with the reservation logistics! I also really appreciate your willingness to work with our budget! Your community engagement effort is a great example of how local businesses care I will tell our staff to spread the word to our visitors! 

Both Bryan and Kenneth were exceptional; they took the extra effort to make our first Volunteer Event a success and memorable experience! We had arrived at different times and Kenneth was so patient and industrious with everything! Please give them big hugs and shout outs from Zeum! 

Keep up the good work, 

Joy.     

joy liu I educator�
zeum
221 fourth street
(@ howard)
san francisco, ca  94103
p: 415.820.3333
f:  415.820.3330
http://www.zeum.org/
“what will you create?”

embrace opportunity

and boy did we… we had the opportunity to shine ( or to fail ) but we managed to pull it out.  we have a buyout tonight that was contracted at 7 pm… their numbers dropped so there has been a lot of revisions, additions, subtractions ( a lot of communication is my point ) well, the host neglected in all of our correspondence to tell me the party changed from 7 pm to 6 pm… we found this out at 5:15 pm! the wheels were set in motion with only 1/2 a staff ( the rest were to arrive at 6! ) bartenders lighting candles, bus boys doing decorations on buffets, our gm having to play video man ,  hostesses counting drink tickets, me plating desserts and the kitchen kicking it down!!! we had preshift at 5:58 - doors at 6 and from my windowless office i can hear the fruits of our labor with holiday cheer … team sf pulled it out again!

Just when you weren’t expecting it

my contact from the moma party last night left a few items here and i offered to drop them to her in exchange for letting me sneak into the office building they are in to distribute our last minute holiday party flyer and after papering all 10 floors i ran into a friend i haven’t seen in years, we chatted and i found out she works in the building i have been dying to get into - she signed me as her guest and i hit all 24 floors! moral of the story -  MAKE IT YOUR OWN - ask for it - go for it… i am the captain of my ship that sets SALES!

jennifer

Embrace it Gil!

talk about embracing opportunity… 2nd day into the season …an extra $941 in upselling thanks to our bar manager gil! we were catering a party upstairs in the tilt arcade and at the end when gil presented the check he asked what they were up to next and in hearing they were headed home he smooth talked  all 20 of them into coming downstairs to have a drink with us instead - 1 drink, 2 drinks - hello $941  later - he saw the opportunity for us to make money and grabbed it! woo hoo!

jennifer

sales and schmoozing

out and about is the key… i always thought i was to busy to hit the streets but after a successful day yesterday i need to reconsider. not only do i work better the busy i am i get more done in less time ( maybe it is time to go to a 4 day work week? )

anyway, i did 5 cookie visits in our surrounding area and randomly knew 2 different people at each place which made the visits fun and exciting ( or was it all the sugar from the cookies i sampled ? )  and when i got back my GM and i went to a convention and visitors bureau mixer at the new academy of sciences and i saw so many familiar faces that it made me realize that out and about is not so difficult. my GM and i played a game while schmoozing - who could get more business cards in a 1/2 hour time frame… guess who won? already sent them info about jillians! i am donating my time tomorrow afternoon to help set up for san francisco food bank event that is hosting 700 potential donors and i am so excited - who will i run into there???

embrace opportunity!

cudos to our kitchen!

as i sit in my windowless office trying to book business for these tough summer months i am obliviously to the 350 guests that have come in for lunch from the convention. i walked back into the kitchen to ask tamayo ( our kitchen manager ) a question about a future party and was stopped in my tracks when i looked at the line with 30 + tickets hanging - robbin our all around godess ,  expediting  and servers running me over with full hands in and full hands out- it was poetry in motion. i am so impressed with our team…. and come to find out we only had 10 minute ticket times! way to go!!

jennifer

embracing opportunity in san francisco

last week we had the pacific builders conference in town and were pretty busy from it. i had a client call about space during the height of the chaos and after chatting with her about what she wanted she set up an appoinment to come in to check out the space. i greeted her with a contract so if she liked what she saw she could sign on the spot.  of course she liked it but was still looking around… i called her a few hours later to see what she decided on and told her someone else was interested in the space ( ok not really but i wanted the sale ) she decided to take it but couldn’t get to a fax machine to send in the contract till the next day so i told her to stay where she was and that i would meet her to get the credit card to get the space reserved. i had a lovely walk over to the convention center, made the sale and impressed the client! moral of the story: embrace everything - make it what you want it to be!

jennifer

leadership starts at the top

on tuesday we had a huge buyout ( close to $50k ) with a new client, who absolutely loved the venue, the food and the staff. our gm darren took such pride in the set up of the event by doing is buffet magic that it overflowed onto the staff who stepped up a few notches by adding their own touches - who knew we had so many creative peeps working in san francisco!!  i may sell the dream but they execute the reality - flawlessly i might add - thanks for all the hard work team san fran!

jennifer

a little bit of green in san francisco

earth day has come and gone and we are trying to make a difference - every little bit helps right?? we stopped drinking bottle water ( reports say that tap water is better for you anyway ) , we are turning off computers at the end of the day and not printing as much as we have in the past.  we have 3 colored bins - blue : glass and plastic, green for compostable items ( paper, food and our biodegradable plastic cups ) and  brown  for trash. since we started using all of the bins the trash one doesn’t fill up 1/2 as much!!! do what you can today to make a difference!

more photos from our day at alcatraz

thanks darren for posting the original photos - just wanted to add 2 more to showcase our day out. ( sorry they took so long to post i was busy focusing on sales  )

we arrived at the pier at 8 am for an 8:30 ferry to the island - the views of sf were amazing - we met our garden host and for hours weeded, pruned and trimmed back over grown areas. so many tourists took our photos like we were part of the attraction. next time we will wear jillian’s t - shirts!!  we brought 2 much lunch so we fed the park rangers who were very grateful for the tasty wraps, cookies and chips!

i wanted to personally thank the crew for coming out and giving back to the community!

jennifer

Continue reading more photos from our day at alcatraz…

my little banquet group

for the last 8  years i have been involved in a group called san francisco private dining venues ( look us up on line but wait till april when we are the featured restaurant  www.sfpdv.com ) anyway we are a group of 40 restaurants in san francisco all with private space and over the past few years have made our group incorporated, built a website and continue to meet monthly to smooze, drink and eat . 

last tuesday we celebrated our 10th anniversary with a huge soriee at a hotel downtown, we each invited 50 of our best clients, dmc’s and concierges provided food and drink and had a great turn out. we involved st. vincent de paul and managed to collect 100 coats and $185.

feels good to be involved in the community !