WILLIAMSBURG– The Moe’s of Williamsburg team was shocked while attending the Moe’s Conference in Las Vegas over Presidents Day weekend, finding out it had won the Best Small Franchise Customer Service Award for the entire company across the United States.
Taylor Tausz, franchisee and store manager, and her dad, Dwight, used to go on father-daughter trips during her youth. On one of those trips landed the two in Williamsburg. In 2010, Dwight retired from IBM. Already an investor in a Moe’s franchise in Durham, North Carolina, he decided to open a location in Williamsburg.
In 2015, they opened a second location in Midlothian.
According to Tausz, training their employees to be customer-minded is a huge part of their onboarding programming.
“I, personally, have been in food service now for fifteen years and have always operated off of ‘Treat people the way you want to be treated.’ This mentality is important when it comes to building a foundation for your team, and when training them on how to interact with customers,” Tausz explained.
“We will have times where we have customers that are treating us in a way that we don’t necessarily enjoy and that’s where our management team steps in to de-escalate the situation,” she continued. “We never want any member of our team to feel devalued, or talked down to, by someone that might not be having the best day. We train our team to own up to their mistakes, because that is a part of life, and to learn from them.”
While training the team in proper customer service protocol is important, Tausz also makes sure that employees are always kind.
“We tell our team to do what they can, knowing that our restaurant is not right for everyone. We will never be able to please everyone, so be kind and do what you can,” Tausz says.
It’s the regulars that keep Tausz and the Williamsburg team going.
“Our regulars are the best! A lot of them have become our family and we love seeing them every week. We love watching their kiddos grow up and hearing about their accomplishments and days. Williamsburg especially is a community store,” Tausz shared.
After bringing the award back from Las Vegas, Tausz and the entire management team of both the Williamsburg and Midlothian locations have been celebrating their employees.
“This award has been an absolutely amazing achievement for both of our teams! We create an environment where people enjoy coming to work and can be proud of what they do. We firmly believe that no matter what you do you should always take pride in it, work hard and treat people with kindness. This award has been great for showing our staff that hard work pays off! We couldn’t do what we do without them and this award is a huge accomplishment,” Tausz said.
Moe’s of Williamsburg is located in the WindsorMeade Shopping Center.