Thomas Cheung
Interview Paper: Karla Carranza
HOSP 250
April 1, 2014 Working in the field of hospitality industry there are many professions that you can be. My interest in this industry would definitely lean towards the restaurant aspect of being a station manager or a general manager for a store. To gain more knowledge in the hospitality industry I had asked to speak to the general manager of a fast food/casual dine in restaurant named Pollo Campero. Pollo Campero is a restaurant that serves Latin flavored style chicken from fried to grill chicken. This brand is corporately run through Guatemala having their headquarters for the US in Texas. Pollo Campero has stores throughout the US but still has to gain brand recognition as they have been in the US since 2002; there are only 5 stores in New Jersey. I visited one location a few times so that I could have the opportunity to speak to their General Manager, Karla Carranza. I had asked Karla a few questions starting with what was her role as a general manager of a Pollo Campero. Her response was that they varied from day to day business but for the most part she was made it very clear that she wanted to have customers leave her store happy, manage a team of 20 employees with the help of 2 assistant managers, and doing weekly/monthly inventory count. She also went on to say that she was in charge of other aspects of the restaurant as in making food purchases, scheduling, forecasting, local store marketing, and training for her team but she has passed these roles to her assistant managers. Instead Karla now oversees those roles and concentrates on other aspects of the restaurant. The day-to-day operations that needed to be done, as a manager would be to read/fill out the manager’s logbook that records went on for the day, any problems with employees, customers. The manager’s logbook would be from a month-to-month basis. Along with the manager’s logbook, managers need to check cleanliness of the store especially the bathrooms, rotation of food (FIFO), check used by dates, making sure they have enough inventory on hand for the day or the following day, taste the food every so often to make sure the product is consistent, manage breaks for the employees. It seemed that the list was an endless list but I am sure that for doing it on a consistent basis a manager would have done most of what they needed to do through their walk through of the store at the beginning of their shift. When I entered the store I was able to tell just why Karla loved working in the hospitality industry. She had such an act for customer service with her full of energy and big smile as she greeted each and every customer that had walked through the door. I was to tell that this was her favorite part of her job. So I had to ask what was her favorite part of her job and why? As I figured it was talking and getting familiar with the customers that come into the store and even if they didn’t come in she made it a point to talk to people as they walked by. She loved the interaction of people and making them feel, as they aren’t just coming to another store but as if they were coming to a home away from home feel. She brought a point up to me that interested me the most which was she created a niche in her market. She said that other restaurants in town from McDonalds to those mom and pop restaurants didn’t do one thing that her store did, greet guest as if they were home. She wanted to create a culture within her team that didn’t just want to make money but also wanted make the store their second home. Karla felt as though times has changed where families are always on a run and never have time to see each other, so if they came into the store it would be a second family to the customers. Karla being with company for 3 and half years she has seen changes by corporate that was undertaken in her restaurant. The biggest change she had experience