... just another Thursday.

It's Thursday and we have our weekly karaoke.

Our customers are shyer than usual. It took about an hour before anyone got up to sing. He was a guy in his 30s I'd say. He sung the song "Kiss the Girl" by the lobster from The Little Mermaid.

We haven't really been doing this karaoke event for long but its starting to pick up. Most karaoke places are for adults to have a good time. We make ours family oriented and boy do kids love to sing.

There was a customer today who came up to me and asked if we served alcohol on our facility. We don't and I don't believe we ever will. I told him we didn't and he proceeded to tell me that he'd just take his son to one of our competitors instead because they served alcohol. Oh well.

Oh yeah, we are also having our employee Christmas party today at 9:30 p.m. Every employee is supposed to bring in a gift to play Dirty Santa. No one is supposed to know but I forgot to get a gift. I'll find a way to get one. I always do.

A Short Cut For An Edgy Issue

Today was our Wednesday meeting and several things were covered.

First off, we discussed keeping up the cleanliness of the place. After all, the quality of the place where you work is a reflection of the quality of your workers.

Another issue that is brought up pretty often is our uniform. We seem to have trouble with our employees not wearing their uniforms properly. The uniform here at Hickory Dickory Dock is a blue and white striped shirt with our logo on it and khaki or black pants; absolutely no jeans, underpants must not be too low and shorts can't be too short. We also ask that our employees keep their shirts clean.

Over the weekend, we had a customer complain about the way we handle scissors. He had asked for a pair of scissors to cut our wristband off of his child. Our employee didn't give him the scissors, instead she cut the wristband herself. This customer took offense as he seemed to take it as an attack on his intelligence as an adult. Our employee is a bit newer and did not know this, but there is a way to remove wristbands without scissors. I just told them that next time, just say "Oh, well there is a way to remove wristbands without scissors. Here, let me show you."

How do you guys feel about our customer service? I feel like its something that we constantly have to work on. A number of our employees go through the "get hired, then get fired" phase really fast. We are working on getting older employees in here but as of now, we are dealing with teenagers. You parents out there know what its like.

The Menacing Magicican

Well, he's not really a menace but he does present a small issue.

My boss got this magician to come do magic shows here at Hickory Dickory Dock. The magician wants to do a stage show; it's no problem because we have all the resources. The problem is that he did a show this past Saturday in our conference room and out of all the hundreds of customers, only around twenty went to watch his act. This is a free magic show by the way. It's pretty good.

My question is, as a customer of Hickory Dickory Dock, what would have to happen for you to want to watch a magic show with your kids here at Hickory Dickory Dock?

I, myself, feel that Hickory Dickory Dock offers more of a street magic show environment than a stage show. What if the magician walked around Hickory Dickory Dock doing magic tricks? Would he get a larger audience that way?

How the Gears Turn

Here at Hickory Dickory Dock we have about 24-30 employees. Most of our staff are employed part-time and are usually high school or college students. I feel that our current management team is one of the best we've had in years. On a weekly basis, things run smoothly other than a few hiccups here and there, but you're always going to get those.

Our weeks start on Monday. That's when everything has finally settled from the weekend. Mondays and Tuesdays give us the opportunity to clean a lot of the mess that acquires during the weekend. We have our staff sweep the parking lot and climb the soft play unit to completely spray it down with sanitizer. Its a mess with hundreds of children playing in there throughout the weekend. They also dust off the soft play unit and arcade games.

We have our staff meeting every Wednesday. During the meetings we discuss things that happened during the weekend. We also share ideas to improve the work place and let the staff know about any future events or changes happening around Hickory Dickory Dock. The other managers and I usually try to plan a fun activity for our training sessions. Our staff really enjoy those.

Nothing happens much behind the scene on Thursday, but we do have a karaoke open to anyone that day from 6:00 to 8:00. We also have a person, we call him "The Floor Guy," who comes in every Thursday and Sunday night to mop, buff and wax our floor. Don't get me wrong, we mop every night but this guy just puts the extra touch on it.

Fridays aren't as busy as they used to be but we still get a good number of customers in here. We have our management meeting on this day.

Saturdays and Sundays, only one word can describe. Busy. I haven't worked on Saturday in a long time now; it's my only day off, but I know how things get. From the moment I clock-in to the moment I clock-out, there is always something to do. If you follow my blogs in the next few weeks, you'll see what I mean.

I don't work on Saturday but believe me, I'll have to work Saturday on Sunday.